Level Designer
Spider-Man
Learning Objectives: To create a level in an open space environment and to also create a level that would work well with Spiderman mechanics.
Game Engine: Unreal
Plugins: Blocking starter pack, Spawn system, Polygon Prototype and town and
heist and city and Spiderman Traversal Project.
Level Designer: Luke Nuttall
Link to the Spider-man template by Lewis Fiford
https://youtu.be/3SFu3uoFQIM
I wanted to create a kingpin construction site base that the player faces in the early game of Spiderman, so the aim for the level is to clear waves and survive till the last wave.
Before I started working on this project I did some research on different construction sites in video games and real life.
Design Document
Research Images
While I was doing my research I was mainly looking at the construction site levels in spiderman for inspiration. But I found when I started to design my level on paper I was taking too much inspiration from these levels and wasn’t really making anything of my own, so I went back and did some more research but this time I looked more at real-life construction sites and it gave me more of an idea for myself.
Once I was happy with the research I had done I then started to design my level with pen and paper. I designed a few different options for myself and went with my last design which I felt was the best one.
Once I was happy with my plans I went into an unreal engine and started being up the outline of my level following my plan. I wanted to try to stick as close to the metric in my design as I could.
After getting an outline of my level and adding in the AI, I realised I needed to make the level bigger and to raise some of the high areas a few CM more so there were three different height areas in the level.
Floor = Black
Wall = Grey
Enemies = Red
Interactable = Green
Collectible = Purple
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When I created the level in Unreal it was quite small and didn’t have many enemies or entryways for the waves of enemies to come from. So when I was developing it I made it a bit longer and wider, and created the building point to make it look a little bit more interesting until of a box shape. I also added one more entry point for waves of enemies to enter and made the raised section at the back a bit higher to create three levels of height in the level, also adding in a crane to create some evidently traps and give the player a vantage point over the level, lastly I added more enemy AI at the start of the level to create more patrols and to create more of a challenge for the player at the beginning of the level.
For the environmental art side, I wanted to mix this with mechanics for the player, so a lot of the environmental art I created can be used to take down enemies and they are in the colour Green on the level. So I created barrels, scoffing and boxes that the player can use to take down enemies. There are also just different props around the area like generators, boxes and bricks and lots of other things to make it feel like it is a contraction site.
The green objects can be used for different takedowns, and the player can throw these at the enemies.
The red doors that can be seen are where our enemies will come from when the waves come, there are three doors that the waves will come from.
In the later stages of the build I made a building off to the side to create a sniper post for the enemies to spot the player but after a lot of thinking I realised this doesn’t really match with the early game of spiderman with these bases, so until of deleting it I added a backpack to create a collectable in the level.
Here is the bag pack collectable, the player will need to turn off the electricity to get to the backpack.