SUGAR BLAST
Sugar blast is a third-person shooter set in an overrun candy factory! Take up your boots and soda-pack as the monkey-mechanic and shoot your way through the waves of robots!
Level Designer
Unreal Engine
University Project
ABOUT SUGAR BLAST
Sugar blast is a third-person shooter set in an overrun candy factory! Take up your boots and soda-pack as the monkey-mechanic and shoot your way through the waves of robots!
DELICIOUS WEAPONS
Experiment blowing up the Waffle Irons and Baker Bots with an armoury full of explosively sweet weapons ranging from bazookas to assault rifles. Find a weapon that suits your situation best and blast yourself to glory!
MONKEY MECHANC
Being the ingenious Monkey Mechanic you have access to your self-constructed Soda-Jetpack, allowing you to lift off to get out of tight situations and manoeuvre your way around the arenas.
SWEET DANGER
As you make your way from one part of the candy factory to the other be ready to fight your way through waves of malfunctioning factory robots.
PROJECT ROLES
LEVEL DESIGNER
- Created the initial design of the hub level focussing on onboarding the player on movement, weapons and enemies.
- Created one out of two arena levels, making a blockout, placing A.I., balancing gameplay, while maintaining cross-discipline communication.
- Created a level design ingredient that was used in all levels and created the base for the modular asset kit that was art passed by environment art.
SCRUM MASTER
- Making sure stand-ups, sprint retrospectives, and sprint planning happen in good order while keeping close contact with the Product Owner and stakeholders.
ONBOARDING
Hub Level Research
- Researching hub levels in reference games (looking into how they are used for onboarding the player and for level selection).
- Analyzing the information that is displayed in hub levels and the type of challenges they offer to the player.
- Drawing conclusions and writing proposals for our own game.
Hub Level Research
Hub Level Design
Hub Level Sketch
First Iteration of the Shooting Range in the Hub Level
Sketched and concepted the hub level.
Created the first iteration of the hub level based on conducted research (including a shooting range for the player to try out the different weapons and practice with the movement).
Helped guide a new team member with creating the final iteration of the hub level.
ARENA LEVEL
Combat Arena Research
- Researching reference games with combat arenas.
- Analyzing spatial layouts, looking into pick-ups, enemy spawns and landmarks to see how they are used to help the player navigate and how they can be used to affect the difficulty curve.
- Drawing conclusions from this research to keep in mind during the next phase (level planning).
Level Proposal
- Creating and pitching a level proposal that adhered to the guidelines set with the LD team.
- Showcasing a top down map emphasizing verticality.
- Showcasing several gameplay scenes with isometric sketches.
Final Iteration
PLAYTESTING
- Playtesting was conducted during quarantine (due to COVID-19) meaning that playtesting was done remotely.
- A total of 15 playtest sessions were conducted with over 30 unique testers.
- Each playtest was prepared by stating questions and hypotheses.
- Data was collected during playtests (by asking prepared questions and by noting down observations) which was then used to generate action points from.
Example of Playtest Notes
ITERATION
Early version of level.
Final version of level.
- Iterations were made based on direct player feedback and based on action points generated from playtesting and QA testing sessions.
- Each major iteration was documented and playtested (to generate new action points and continue the iteration cycle).
- During the art pass I made sure to maintain the intended gameplay functionality of the level.
MODULAR ASSET KIT
Modular Asset Kit Pipeline Research
- Conducting pipeline research into modular asset kits to see if they fit our project needs and what the best practices are.
- After the 3Cs were set, I converted the metrics were into a modular building kit using Blender.
- The modular kit was used by all level designers and was documented in our level design document to ensure consistency.
- Environment art used the modular kit as a starting point for creating art assets.
LEVEL DESIGN INGREDIENT
- Concepting, prototyping and testing a level design ingredient.
- Implementing the level design ingredient through visual scripting (blueprinting).
- QA testing and bugfixing the level design ingredient.
MARKETING
- Setting up the Itch page and making sure it was updated with information and screenshots whenever necessary.
- Creating a Press Kit with screenshots, logos, trailers and important information.
- Preparing images teammates that could easily be shared on social media (making sure image dimensions fit popular platforms like Instagram and Twitter).
UNIVERSITY EVALUATION
Marloes showed excellent progress in academic practice and personal development. Good work overall and lots of interaction with your team. She did great, extensive, and detailed research into the toolsets available, and good research into the level design setting. Not only have you been able to work iteratively on levels while some core gameplay systems were not online, but you have also been able to build a level ingredient on the side. The documentation is top-notch, with attractive visuals and compact information.
Marloes has worked on one of the main levels, while also running as scrummaster and working on marketing materials. There is a lot of evidence where she pushes the scope and quality of the game forward.
On top of this, her critical reflections show that she is ready to find her own path and that she trusts her own design practice.
Year 2 Assessment Board, Breda University of Applied Sciences
9.8 / 10
IGAD Year 2 Awards
Best Game Design