Life Steal (48 Hour Jam Project)
Production Time | 2 Days Team Size | 4 Play Time | 10 minutes
Trailer
Full Gameplay Walkthrough
Life Steal is a 1st person fantasy magic combat platformer experience. You are a cursed being forced to drain the life of all before you as you constantly lose HP.
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I was responsible for the level design, establishing spatial metrics, developing game spaces, and creating tools to implement gameplay.
The game is on Itch.io
Spatial Metrics
During the early part of development, once the player movement was being finalized, I tested it out to get various spatial measurements before blocking out the level. While obtaining measurements, I decided to reduce the player's speed slightly for ease of player control.
Blockout and Early Iterations
First Iterations
In the early parts of development, I started to white box spaces in order to get a feel for the potential flow of the map.
Conditioning Section
After the early iterations and obtaining spatial metrics, I quickly adjusted play spaces. The first corner leading to the enclosed area with the statue was too sharp, so I gave that area additional space. I also added more landmarks and fixated on framing the level in ways that were interesting but also communicated the player where they were in it. Lastly, I continued to develop the conditioning/tutorial space that focused on introducing the jumping and dashing mechanics.
Platforming and Combat Sections
Once I finished the first pass on the conditioning section, I began on developing the platforming space and started to loop the level back around to the final section. I quickly scripted floating platforms to add additional difficulty and complexity to the area. Later on, I would test out the encounter space with placeholder AI and develop another more difficult platforming section before the final boss area.
Level Flow and Techniques
Level Flow
There are 5 major sections within the map:
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Tutorial Island - The first section of the game that conditions the player to the core mechanics
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Broken Bridge - The first platforming section that increases difficulty by introducing falling, respawning, and greater verticality going downwards then back up again.
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Decrepit Island -An arena encounter where the player is gated from progressing until they defeat all the enemies.
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Cliffside - A more vertical and difficult platforming section that requires precise timing and anxiety inducing falls.
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The Castle - The final boss encounter of the game experience that turns the combat into an almost 'bullet hell' experience.
Techniques - Landmarks, Framing, Vistas, and Breadcrumbing
In order to guide the player and to visually communicate where they are, I use a variety of level design techniques. I primarily use landmarks and framing to communicate to the player where they are going, while the vistas indicate upcoming areas and the player's objective. Lastly, there are various stones and lamps that are crumbed throughout the map to highlight the intended path.
Level Design Related Scripting​​
Barrier
In order to keep the player within the intended game space I created barriers that would appear only once the player got too close to them.
Combat Boundaries
To keep the player from progressing, I developed boundaries that would only disappear after all enemies were defeated.
Z Respawn Volume
For the game to respawn the player after falling, I scripted a Z respawn volume that when the player collided with would change their location based on the last saved location from the master trigger actor, disable their input for .5 seconds, and play a VFX and SFX for a touch of game feel.
Master Trigger
One of the most important tools I scripted was the master trigger, which allowed me to call various functions and events. One of the most important functions of the master trigger is to save the players location for them to respawn back to after falling or dying.