Role: Level Designer, Team Management, Narrative Lead
Location: University of South Wales (Online)
Team Size: 5
Itch.io Page : https://the-only-bunny.itch.io/code-blackbeak
About
Code BlackBeak is a heavy narrative game which revolves around the life of a Military Working Dog who accompanies his handler on various recon missions. The game is set in a fictional world in the 1800s of a re-invented Russia. Throughout the game, you play as BlackBeak, a German Shepherd dog and experience a world from an animal's point of view.
This project was a big turning point in my game design career as it helped me get a clear perspective of scope and how to break it down and effectively manage a project and a team. Since the scope was huge, I learned many things about lighting and how to balance it for later projects, which will be showcased in my other projects, Campscapade and Lost Paradise. This project helped me develop my design skills and be more aware of my design choices in the future with scoping levels, whiteboxing, and playtesting as much as I could.
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I also learned how to optimize, which was a key skill in any project. I am a sucker for a high quality and smooth running FPS and so in order to not give up my quality of the level I looked into and fixed issues with lighting and shadows as much as I could in this project
Responsibilities
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Researching the architecture, environment of, World Wars and Renaissance.
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Working on the level design and lighting, post- processing.
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Working on Rough concept of the game
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Creating missions, narrative structure etc.
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Playtesing
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Team Management
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Visual Scripting some of the features such as the Quick Time event.
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Working with Motion Capture and assissting with the storyboarding
Rough Concept of The Level
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When my team and I started discussing ideas, I developed this rough concept of an MWD (Military Working Dog), and I wanted to try having a Quick Time Event where time slowed down, and we could see the dog crossing obstacles in a slow motion.
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So the following video shows the basic structure of a QTE, which was created to mainly show that a fight could be won passively, which will later be shown as the developed version of my teammate.
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Collaboration on this mechanic was created to make the compassion system that will be incorporated into the game we are creating, named Code BlackBeak.
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I also worked on the Navigation system that allows players to view the path they need to take to reach their objective or even look for their handler's tracks if they ever get lost and need to find their way back.
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The following video shows the Navigation/ Waypoint system.
Scripted Events in the Level ​
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We wanted to have some scripted events in the Town Takeover Level to showcase the many brutalities of war and keep it as PG as possible due to it being a University Project.
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I created scripted events, such as soldiers being harassed and women being forced to dance.
Animations and Mocap
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I created a montage for the dog as I wanted him to do some animations when the players didn't do anything for a while, which I also repurposed in the Main Menu rotating background scene.
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I wanted to try my hand at mocap, so some of the raw data had to go through Blender and Maya, which I had to clean up. Unfortunately, it didn't go into the project, but it was a good learning experience as it could help me later with any other projects.
Paper Prototyping - Level Design
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Extensive research on what the level needs to consist of. Architecture, roads, houses, etc.
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once research was completed I started experimenting with whiteboxing.
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I then placed the enemies in the level and did a run through of how difficult or easy it feels.
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Once I got feedbacks, did the iterations needed, I proceeded with asset input.
Level 1 Design- Training Level
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The training level gives a clear idea of what the player can do in the game. I made sure the mechanics were displayed in the order of basic movements to advanced mechanics so that players could quickly pickup the rules and start playing. Since this was a training level I made sure we didn't punish the players so much and simply made them repeat the bit of gameplay in case they failed any of the mechanics.
Level 2 Design- Saltwreath Village (aka cinematic level)
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This level was designed for the cinematic, whereby the handlers find BlackBeak under a wreck for the first time.
Level 3- HomeBase
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This level was designed to provide a home base for BlackBeak and his Handler to rest and recuperate after completing a mission and a platform for accepting future missions.
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The following videos show the white boxing and me doing a run-through to look at the general idea for a small encampment.
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There were several areas within the map, such as a briefing area, medic tents, a higher office building with a table downstairs where soldiers could have food, a watchtower where soldiers could keep guard, some soldier tents and a bonfire.
Level 4- Town Takeover Level
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This was the last level, whereby the player's objective was to pacify the enemy soldiers and free the captives who were guarded in cells around the level. The following videos are of me Developing the level and the final level that this level transformed into.
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The presented video demonstrates a brief run-through of the level, wherein a thorough examination is conducted to ascertain the dog's ability to climb certain hills. The level design involved strategically placing the main base atop a hill to ensure players clearly understand their end goal.
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The game design was revised to require players to rescue prisoners and subdue enemies across the map.
Cinematics​
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Learning Cinematics has taught me about the perspectives and compositions of a scene.
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Learning tips and tricks helped me manage my time with cinematics as I progressed everyday. This was the first cinematic I created using UE4.
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My compositions and perspectives changed as I made progress and learned from my mistakes.
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Since I picked up cinematics and learned the basics quickly enough I was able to create some decent cinematics for my team to work with in Code BlackBeak.
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I am quite happy with the outcomes of some of the cinematics as I was able to deliver the message and the theme of the game to the players.
This is the training level that I designed.
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I was responsible for designing its level, cinematics, and how to play the game. A simple and effective way to show the players the rules and tell a story.
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This was the final rendition of the first cinematic where the players first find BlackBeak. ​
The Homebase
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Responsible for designing levels and cinematics.
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This level was designed for players to return from their missions and relax or access the training levels as well as other missions from the base.
Town Takeover Level ​
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Designed the overview cinematic, the mission structure, scripted events as well as the end cinematic for the game.
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The objective of the level is to go around and save the people of the town from being harassed by enemy soldiers and kill the enemy General.