Game Designer
Level Design
On this page, I’ve compiled some of the best examples of my use of level design.
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My work on Potions: A Curious Tale, and my games Functional, Life is Ruff, and The Last Dragon are examples of my solo level design work. You can read more about my process on their respective pages.
Below you will find examples of levels I have designed with different IPs in mind:
Bioshock (Linear Enclosed Map)
Design Notes
For this map, I wanted to create a story for the player to walk through and a new mechanic for them to use. I created a new plasmid called the “Wind Plasmid.” With it, the player can knock flying enemies out of the air as well as damage them with sharp winds. As for the story of the area: In a better Rapture, this area held an experimental wind plasmid. The scientists had to contain it by controlling the air flow of all the rooms. When Rapture started going doing hill, the air control became corrupted and went on emergency air saving. Every room has a camera in it that detects whether humans are in it. If they are, the camera will then turn on the air supply for that room until they leave. However, this means that enemies will be summoned after the air comes back on since that’s the purpose for the cameras in the game. The point of the level is to get the wind plasmid and use it to fight off flying splicers and to get through rooms without air using a special helmet.
Map Analysis
The player starts out by exiting a bathysphere in a perfectly normal, air-filled room. When they enter the next room (1), Jack will start choking until the oxygen for that room is turned on. A speaker will start saying something like “Emergency air for room 1 back online.” The camera will spawn enemies for the player to fight. When those are defeated, the player will notice the wind plasmid in a window at the end of the room, and the objective will come up, telling them to go get it (and Atlas will most likely tell Jack to “kindly get it”).
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In the next room (2), the player will once again be greeted by no oxygen, a camera that turns it back on, and enemies, but this time there are also three splicers with air helmets on to hint at the players that they’ll need a helmet. After they fight those, Atlas will say something like, “So that’s how the splicers have been getting around without air; you need to get one of those helmets,” and the next objective will come up, telling the player to get one.
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If the player opens the vault door to the right (3), they will come to an employee area filled with air. There are lockers on the walls (the second locker on the left and the third on the right) filled with candy bars, but on the table at the end holds an audio log (and health and an EVE Hypo). The log will tell the story of a guy who’s trapped once the air has been cut off. He’s trying to make his way to the office of the scientist (the boss) who was in charge of the wind plasmid project because he thinks he would have an air helmet.
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Leaving this room and going into (4), the player comes across a camera and five splicers with helmets. This is where the health, food, and EVE come in handy. Once these are out of the way, the player will notice that there are three vaulted doors to go to. The one on the left warns of no oxygen (the players can go through it, but they will choke from lack of oxygen and be taken back to room (4)), while the one on the right says that entry without the wind plasmid is forbidden (they are unable to open it at all without the plasmid), so the only way to go is forward.
Here (5), the player will find another audio log. The man from the previous log has gotten to the scientist’s office, only to find that he has taken too much of the wind plasmid and turned into a super splicer, and the past test subjects have been let out of their cages. The log ends with the man breathing his last after the scientist kills him. The player then ventures into the next room to find the air helmet.
The player then goes back into (4) and goes to the room leading to the wind plasmid. The player can now travel freely through the air-ridden chambers and rooms with their helmet. In room (6), the player finds an audio log from the scientist talking about the plasmid and how it must be kept in an air chamber, and also how the research is going downhill just like everything else in Rapture. There are a lot of EVE Hypos in this room, so players can go back and play with their new plasmid after they get it in room (7).
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In room (7), the plasmid is floating in an air chamber, so the player must press a button in a console right before it to turn off the air and get the plasmid. Once they have it, four flying enemies (the test subjects in the audio log) will come out of the walls. This will give the player an immediate opportunity to test their new plasmid. Afterwards, they will make their way past (4) and into (8), where they will find the scientist and fight him. He can fly, but he is no match for the player once they have the wind plasmid. Jack knocks him out of the air with it, collects more EVE, and makes his way into the next bathysphere to the next area.
Mario Kart (Linear Wrapping Map)
Design Notes
All tracks in Mario Kart have a theme, so I created one with the theme of New York City. To enforce this theme throughout the track, I shaped the track to look like “A Big Apple” and designed the outside of the track so that the racers drive through various parts of New York City.
Map Analysis
The race starts in Central Park, where there are trees and bushes on the side of the track. There are arrows telling players to mind the curve as well as a boost space. Going to (1), the players have a choice to fly past the cliff or to continue driving around the track. If they choose to fly, it’s faster, but they have to steer past the Empire State Building, or else they’ll fall and lose time. If they choose to keep going on the track, it’s longer, but there are question mark blocks on this route, so they can get items.
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Once they get past this, the players come to (2), where they must dodge stationary cars in the road. Past this is Times Square. Here (3), the racers have to dodge taxis going back and forth on the track. Past this are more question mark blocks so the flying players won’t be at too much of a disadvantage. Players then drive under the Brooklyn Bridge, where they can boost past the Statue of Liberty to their next lap.
Team Fortress 2 (Freeform Branching)
Design Notes
For this map, I wanted to create a map for capturing intelligence missions that has terrain areas acceptable for most classes. To theme the area, I thought of a place that could hold classified information, and I came up with an airport. Thus, this map is themed like a 1960’s plane hangar. The blue and red players start on the left and right sides of the map respectively, and have two doorways to go through: one that leads to the main fighting area and one that leads to their respective intelligence. The main fighting area holds a 1960’s military aircraft that the players could use for cover but can also fight upon.
Map Analysis
The intelligence is surrounded by a hallway that has three doorways to the intelligence and two that lead to the plane area. The hallways have ammo and health as well. The intelligence room is large, with the intelligence in the centre of it. This way, engineers can build weapons to guard the intelligence and put them in their space.
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The main fighting area has a plane in the centre of it. The players can use the wings for cover, but they can also climb up stairs on the wings to fight atop the plane. The whole room is very large to give players enough room to fight, and it’s filled with crates that they can use for cover. The plane hangar has two doors that lead to an upstairs hallway. This hallway has a window that points at the plane hangar, so snipers have an area to shoot from.
