AMSTERDAM
Unannounced AAA VR Action Adventure Project
Role
Team Size
Engine
Platforms
Genre
Level Designer
50
Unreal Engine 5
PC VR
Playstation VR
VR, Action-Adventure, First Person Shooter, Puzzle
Meta Quest 3
Responsibilities
● Design ownership of several chapters. Each chapter equals roughly one hour of playtime.
● Creating and presenting the levels from Paper Design through iterative blockouts and gameplay implementation.
● Designing, prototyping and implementing gameplay beats, puzzles and challenges.
● Closely collaborating with other departments to deliver a fun, balanced and performant experience, spacing and combining narrative elements, exploration, platforming, puzzles and combat encounters.
Below are screenshots from some of the levels I worked on. The early stage blockouts use simple shapes and consistent color coding across all chapters. They're low in detail and flexible, so they can be quickly iterated upon. The first versions focus on communicating the intended player experience, using placeholder assets and text cards or documentation for narrative and gameplay beats. Once everyone is happy with the overall layout, scale and spacing of these beats, we go into a more detailed blockout and implement a first gameplay pass. At this point we also have more internal playtests to gather feedback and make further changes to the levels. These are the development stages I mainly worked on during my time at Vertigo Games.
OASIS
A level set in a more lush and green sanctuary hiding temples deep within the desert. This level is themed largely around water, in the story, art and gameplay, using swimming sections and water currents in traversal and puzzle solving.
Caves
Level set in a large underground cave system housing ancient temples, built and carved out of the natural environment. A mix of dark and claustrophobic interior spaces and large open chasms, all running underground.
Gameplay videos
This is the first playable version of some sections in the Oasis chapter. Some context might be missing as I've stripped the VO, other weapon types, and certain narrative heavy scenes to protect the identity of the IP that's still under NDA. Not all mechanics and enemies were fully functional and finished at this stage.
In this recording I show the gameplay of the first sections in the level. At this point in the game players are already familiar with a number of mechanics and a visual language we're using for climbable ledges and surfaces, as well as interactable elements (for both the hands and the bow and arrow). We're also introducing many new elements, mechanics and enemies. Pacing-wise the earlier sections are light on combat and lean more towards platforming, exploration, and light puzzling. Later sections are very combat focused with the introduction of a new enemy type and one of the game's larger boss battles at the end of the level.
A demo of the boss fight that takes place at the end of the chapter. The arena also doubled as the stage for a large narrative scene and scripted moment, so it was a key area with a lot of disciplines coordinating and coming together in one space. Massive credits to the Tech, Feature and Animation team for bringing this first 'MVP' version of the boss fight to life.
A different version of the first area leading up to the Oasis. As development went on, things shifted in the script and scope of the project. The start of the level decreased in size and playtime, so we didn't use this version as a whole, but moved most elements over into different sections.
This level starts out more linearly before the level ultimately becomes larger and more open ended. The player doesn't have a clear objective at the start. They've escaped a trap and enemy presence at the end of the previous chapter and are now trying to find a way back onto the path they were following. For this section I tried to make the player discover each next step they can take, rather than giving a full overview of the space and end goal from the start.
An example of gameplay block testing. Quickly set up gameplay prototypes to find new ideas and interesting ways to use our mechanics. For these I especially tried to use more dynamic climbable elements, as these can be combined with puzzle elements, used to form new paths, and they can create more interesting timing based platforming challenges.