My Life’s Work
In this page, you will see the levels I have made in the images and see the project’s functionality in the videos. Some projects are made for college assignments, but others are for personal practice for communication and designing purposes. I mostly design the levels for the project and make static meshes for level aspects.
I hope you enjoy seeing all my work and documentation.
The Mega Project
In Full Sail University, I was in a programming class, and I was introduced to an assignment, called the mega project, and it was about fixing the obstacles of the created project. The whole project featured a teleporter, a floating platform, a pressure plate puzzle, and a celebration center at the end. It was my job to figure out how to fix all the obstacles, make sure they all work well, and turn in my Mega Project.
What Went Right
1. Teleporter: From Point A to Point B
After some figuring out and a little help, I managed to make the teleporter device teleport the robot to the correct location. It required a little common sense and a math equation to work properly. Now with that solved, I managed to use the device to teleport the robot to the other side of the gap.
2. Platform: Back and Forth
The platform had managed to also move the robot to the other side of the second gap. Just like the teleporter, the platform required a few nodes to work and a small math equation to one spot to another. After that, half of the project was complete, and the robot had made it to the final obstacle.
3. Plate: Jump and Press
The half of the final obstacle is about making sure to make the pressure plates stay down. It took some figuring out, but I managed to program 3 of the 9 pressure plates to stay down when the bot jumps and lands on them. After that, I tested out the blueprint, and it worked without any errors.
4. The Puzzle Plates
As for the puzzle blueprint, it's just the same process, but with a more complicated equation and nodes. The puzzle needed to be in a specific pattern that could get the door open and reach the end. After some thinking, I managed to make the puzzle activate in a 3-button pattern and open the door.
5. Finish Line: Easy as Pie
Finally, we come to the final part of the project, the Celebration area. It's the goal at the end of the obstacle course, and programing it was extremely easy. After that, I evaluated it and found it working exactly as it should, and I did an amazing job.
What Went Wrong
1. Teleporter: The backside
The teleporter started to act a little weird, because it's supposed to teleport through its front side. Instead, it teleported me through the backside and that's not how it supposed to go. It took some figuring out, but I managed to fix that problem, and it worked properly.
2. Nodes: Hard to Understand
The nodes they were trying to tell me were a bit confusing, but they were specific on what node they nodes they needed. It was saying what node it needed to activate the whole time, because some nodes in unreal engine have names of specific, like OR, GET, and more. I did manage to figure it out with a little help, of course.
3. The Misplaced Obstacle
The final obstacle may have a minor problem: it's at the beginning of the level where it wasn't supposed to be. It may have something to do with the set location node, or it be a repeatable glitch. Luckily, it wasn't that hard to fix and It's back where it belongs.
4. The Broken Buttons
The plate puzzle wasn't working the way it should, because the pattern wasn't working, even though I put correct nodes in the right order. It took me days to fix the problem, and it really stressed me out. Luckily, I found out that the value of one of the plates was incorrect, so I typed in the correct value.
5. A Constant Need for Help
.In all honesty, I should never have all the credit, because I had to ask a lot of teachers for help. I had to beg for someone to help me with the one puzzle problem that was super hard. Luckily, one teacher had a schedule for helping students, and he helped me with the puzzle in time.
Security Bot Mechanic
On March 11, 2024, I was assigned to make my own mechanical idea for a tile-based sandbox game that they made. I decided to watch one of the videos they recommended for finding an inspiring idea and found a giant spider mechanic in Lara Croft GO! which sparked an idea into my head for a mechanic. I decided to make an enemy type of entity that will move left and right, interact with plates or tiles, and reset the level whenever the player collides with it. In the next section, there are 5 rights and wrongs that went down throughout the development and its conclusion.
What Went Right
1. The bot’s reaction to player movement
The first thing I needed to do was create an entity that can respond to the players movement and move left or right. Due to my little knowledge of Unreal Engine tools and features, I was unable to do this on my own and had to ask for help. Luckily, an instructor had helped me with a bind event solution and my mechanic started moving whenever the player moves.
2. The bot’s direction of movement
The next thing I needed to do was make the bot move in 2 directions: left and right. It needs to change directions whenever it hits a wall or something and move to the opposite side of the map. Unfortunately, I have failed to figure out how to make that happen, because the bot only moves left and will only move right when the player or object is on its left side. It went well, though.
3. The steps and image of the mechanic
I was assigned to make a step-by-step list on ClickUp and tried my best to complete the steps I added for the class on that section. I couldn’t be able to finish the 3rd step within the list because of the due date that was coming up on the 18th. Despite that, I managed to pass without any problems.
4. Discord Communications
I often asked for help within the class’s discussion board on Discord for a view days before I turned in my work. Some instructors helped figure out the first step of my project development. There were no problems or anything, they’re just helping other students with their projects as well.
5. The Navigator Presentation
On March 17, 2024, I made a video presenting myself playing the level to show how my mechanic behaved. Within the video I tried to be as honest as possible to the viewers that I did try my best to make it work like I envisioned, considering my low skills in Unreal Engine. Fortunately, the instructor of my class was kind enough to give a 100 on that assignment, and I can’t help but be grateful for him.
What Went Wrong
1. The bot’s inability to turn right
Due to little coding experience, I have not been able to make the bot turn right when it hits a wall. Even with help from a fellow classmate, I have failed to make it turn right back to the other side. So, I decided to keep it that way and move on to the next step before the due date.
2. Inability to interact with color tiles
The second weekly assignment was about implementing another student’s mechanic into our projects and making them collide with our own. I chose the color changing tile, made by Tessa Riley, because it was closest thing to a pressure plate opening a gate. Unfortunately, I couldn’t be able to make the tiles change color, nor open the gate whenever the bot interacts with them.
3. Unable to kill the player entity
Since this mechanic was inspired by the giant spiders in Lara Croft GO, I tried to add a program to my mechanic to reset the level if it interacts with the player. I have asked for help on Discord, but only a little image of nodes was sent to me. I decided to leave it that way and give my presentation.
4. Causing Errors
Sometimes, the nodes I add to the mechanics can cause a message log to appear in the editor and say I have an error. I read which node is causing the error, go to that node and remove it to fix the issue. I have managed to make sure that no error will appear in my project again.
5. My navigator’s guidance
On March 18, 2024, I chose to implement Tessa Riley’s mechanic into my project and make it interact with my own. I watched her presentation of her mechanic for implementation, but it did not work and the tiles I made remained colorless. I used Discord to ask her for guidance very often, but she barely answered my questions and showed me nodes for the mechanic.
Conclusion
At the end of the month, I had finished both projects of my mechanic, the Security Bot, and sent 2 presentations for the assignments. What I have learned throughout this month is that mechanics are made with diligence, courage and problem solving by the designers themselves, with or without help. Next, implementing another person’s mechanic and combing that with your own will improve a game’s flow and longevity. Lastly, helping and collaborating with people is an important part of game design, because it can bring people together and lets them share their mechanics, so they would add them to a project and transform that into a real game.
O.M.E.N Facility
I have been working on a level that involves going through a sci-fi facility and fighting through bad guys to get to a tunnel. There are three paths that lead to the tunnel: the armory, the lobby, and the vehicle bay. Here is a presentation of me showing my level block mesh of the facility level and discuss everything about it.
Level Name: O.M.E.N Facility
I made a level that is about a highly skilled mercenary assigned to infiltrate a facility of an evil organization known as Ominous Malevolent Empowered Nation, or OMEN for short. It involves first-person game play with optional goals and going through three paths that will lead you to the tunnel entrance.
Link to Gameplay: Dougla's Level Design Gameplay
What Went Right
1. Level Blockmesh – I managed to make the level like how I designed to be in my Level design document. It has big enough areas for the player to roam around and look for stuff and it’s perfectly based on art I have viewed to set the level’s mood.
2. Tank Explosion – At first, I didn’t succeed at making the tank explode into pieces after the interaction. It was hard for me to make the platter into pieces and make it look realistic as possible for the player and the level. Luckily, I found another way to make the tank explode with the particles and make it disappear.
3. Golden Statues – I made actors for the golden statues before I added actual mechanics into my level, but I had no idea how to for them. Fortunately, I managed to find a tutorial that helped me make it disappear whenever anyone interacts with them.
4. Computers – I didn’t have the knowledge of making hackable computers for the level I needed, and it was a little frustrating for me to do so. Luckily, a tutorial allowed me to make that computer interactive. In fact, the tutorial has helped me make similar blue blueprints for the other two mechanics, except for the exploding.
5. Locked Doors – Making a locked door and a key mechanic wasn’t in my list of planned mechanics to make, but it the least I could do for the door frames of the level. Fortunately, a tutorial has shown me how easy it is to make one and I managed to add 3 of them near the end of the level.
What Went Wrong
1. Player Ledge Grab and Climb – The ability to add the ledge and climb mechanic for the player was too difficult for me to add, especially in this school made project. I was getting increasingly frustrated with the missing parts I needed to make the animations and tools to make a third person shooter game. So, I gave up and decided to make the project into a first-person shooter instead.
2. Widget – I could not be able to figure out how to make the widget count the way I intended to make it count each collectable the player gets.
3. Objective System – I couldn’t figure out how to make the objective system and widget change, even when the player completes them. I just went with what I had and left it at that point, and just added the optional ones to a board block mesh to show the player.
4. Player Weapon System – I wanted to make a third-person shooter game for this level design project, however, the project the teachers gave me didn’t have the important tools for me to add new kinds of animations. I either needed to make them myself or had to get it from somewhere, but I fear it would mess up the project in perforce. So, I had to go with the first person setting instead and make what I can for it.
5. Enemy Bots – Although I managed to make the robots chase the player whenever the robots see them, it didn’t have any damage system or anything to it because I couldn’t find one that will mix with the project. So, I just make the enemies only chase the player instead.
Conclusion
What this class has taught is that level design isn’t simply just about thinking an idea for a level, but also having to figure out how make those ideas come true and deal with the issues that come with it. A person needs to be an expert in coding to be able to fix issues, while figuring out how to make the level as realistic as possible for the player or make a new and unique level mechanic for a new game. It requires diligence, creativity, study, and knowledge of coding to make great and beautiful levels for players to enjoy.