LEVEL DESIGN

Rogue - High Octane

Far Cry 5 Arcade Custom Map - August 2018

My second map made in the Far Cry 5 Arcade editor is set in a snowy alpine region. The player is tasked with infiltrating a mountain base, eliminating the target, and escaping via the airport runway at the back.

I researched AI mechanics for this map and learned how to have two NPC Friends ride with you on quad bikes into the fray. I also wanted to set two distinct paths into the map to allow for a stealthy entry or to go in guns blazing.

As it is another map in the story of my fictional character Rogue, it is yet again an explosive fast paced ride.

It currently has a rating of 4 stars (296 ratings) and 500+ plays on Far Cry 5 Arcade.

Best enjoyed with the James Bond soundtrack blaring.

~ 25 Hours work.

Far Cry 5 Arcade, Dunia Engine, PC

anc_rogueOctane

Rogue - Chaos Break

Far Cry 5 Arcade Custom Map - July 2018

I was set on making levels for a modern game, and the amount of hurdles I had to overcome to get this map created and released was truly a gauntlet.

Ultimately though I'm really pleased with the outcome of Rogue - Chaos Break. It was a lot of fun to take a game with a huge variety of mechanics and sharpen the level design to channel high-paced explosive gameplay.

I planned a loose story where Rogue (the Player Character) has been captured and held in a fort on the coast. The fort itself has a long history of being overrun by various powers, and now is owned by a wealthy cartel with their own private army.

Rogue's two friends have just broken in and unlocked the prison cell - and now it's time for an explosive escape!

It currently has 4.5 Stars (1200+ Ratings) 60+ Favourites and 2000+ plays on Far Cry 5 Arcade.

~35 Work Hours

Far Cry 5 Arcade, Dunia Engine, PC

anc_rogueChaos

DM-NorthTower

UT 4 Custom Map - 2017 (Unreleased)

"North Tower is the final bastion of defense for an advanced and prosperous mountain dwelling people. The Liandri Corporation have managed to secure one-night's access to the tower for their tournament."

This level is being developed by me as a community map submission for Epic Game's Unreal Tournament 4. I am using art assets and textures supplied by Epic, so my role has focused 100% on level layout and decoration.

Before even starting a level plan, I spent time familiarising myself with the game's mechanics and important information like move speed/ jump height/ wall run distance etc, then built these elements into the map to allow players multiple methods of navigation and an overall sense of agency.

A key part of the map-building process has been the experimentation of light and colour, so players can know immediately on spawning where they are in the level. This is important due to the fast past nature of Unreal Tournament 4 where players need to be able to make split-second decisions to stay alive. So I employ a constant theme of green and purple, but modify it depending what area they are in (purple for lower floors, green for upper, and different shades within).

Unreal Tournament Editor, Unreal Engine, PC

anc_northtower

DE_PointBlank

CS:GO Custom Map - 2017 (Unreleased)

I wanted to make a CSGO Bomb Defusal map just so I could experience working within a well-defined rule set that would dictate the level design, and also to get further experience with the Source engine.

In de_Pointblank, the 'terrorist' team are infiltrating a weapons development facility hidden in the jungle and must destroy either their weapons cache or their radio satellite dish. The level is a lot of close quarter areas, hence the name pointblank.

I've been solo developing it using textures and meshes from the base game. So far my work time has been an estimated 100 hours over 6 weeks. I plan to polish it and put it on Steam Workshop

CSGO, Source, PC

anc_pointblank

Lucid Road

Unity - In Development

A first person exploration game set in dreams. It tells a story through environment design with no narrative text or dialogue. The player can move and fly through environments based on real world locations, collecting memories and solving puzzles to piece together the events.

I'm covering all aspects of development except art, where I am contracting artists to create custom assets. To aid the level design process I am using Pro Builder Full Version. The game is currently in a state of completing the 2nd greybox pass on all levels.

Unity Engine, PC + Mac

anc_lucidroad

Bort The Bat

(Global Game Jam)

Unreal 4 - 2017

A small game made for Global Game Jam 2017, where you guide Bort the Bat through a dangerous cave. However the cave is pitch black so you must use his sonic scream to light the way.

This was my first time using the Unreal Engine so I focused on arranging the art assets and BSP geometry to shape the level and provide an enjoyable yet challening difficulty curve.

1 Programmer/Designer, 1 Artist, 1 Level Designer

Unreal Engine 4, PC + Mac

anc_bort

Time Machine Environment

Unity - 2016

At AIE we had a six week module on Environmental Storytelling. I used Unity and Maya to create a time machine room. The player was expected to activate a time machine and escape a facility in red-alert mode.

It was a fun process of greyboxing, iterative design to enhance narrative points, 3D art and texturing to give life to the space and some scripting to complete the experience.

Unity Engine, PC

anc_timemachine

Jedi Academy Custom Map

id Tech 3, GTK Radiant 1.4/1.5 - 2009

Here are a some images of a level built in GTK Radiant 1.4 and 1.5 as custom content for Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. All art assets and textures came from the base game.

In this level, players began the map at the base of an underground cave-in. They had to traverse traps and puzzles to navigate a subterranean temple and escape to the surface.

There was some light scripting involved to make the maze walls move and also to trigger events like ceilings that would descend on the player, floor pads that had to be activated in the correct sequence, elevators, travelling mine carts, exploding ceilings, and so on.

Id Tech 3 Engine, PC

anc_jka

Desert City Alley (Test)

Unity - 2016

I was inspired by Uncharted 3 to try my hand at making up a quick environment that had the look and feel of some sort of Middle Eastern city. I started by drawing diagrams, pretending the player was about to move through this space - asking myself 'Where would they go? What visual elements would be available to them from the first moment to direct their attention?'

The next stage was a quick blockout pass, using just basic cubes to give the environment an aesthetically pleasing shape that draws the eye into the picture.

I then wrote a quick asset list of what would be needed and made seven prefab pieces in Unity using Pro Builder. Textures were obtained from TextureLib and SketchUpTextureClub. Once I had finished the textured pieces, I was able to fill out the scene and iterate quickly.

The environment was put together in about 4.5 hours, plus another hour of lightbaking passes.

Unity Engine, PC

anc_deserttest