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Title

Asurya's Embers

Level Designer | Combat Systems Designer

Overview

Tool

Unreal Engine 5 (5.3)

Development Time

23 Weeks

Team Size

23 (7 Level Designers)

Platform

PC

Genre

  • Single player FPS

  • Bow and Arrow

  • Environmental Puzzles

  • Run and Gun

Contribution

ABOUT

Asurya's Embers is a 3D First-Person, Bow-and-Arrow shooter game created in Unreal Engine 5 for the PC platform. In the game, players assume the role of a female archer guarding a village, setting off to defeat mutated monsters and evil gods. Using bows as their main weapon, players face various monsters, unlock new arrows, and solve environmental puzzles to advance. They ultimately face a dragon and fight it to protect their people. The game focuses on teaching and testing skills like cover shooting, resource management, shifts among vantage points, map utilization & exploration, enemy prioritization, and managing weapons against targeting enemies, while also featuring environmental storytelling.

Hooks

  • Theme: The Himalayan Mountain Areas, Wilderness

  • Various arrows and themed & unique monsters

  • Light and shadow mechanic (player gets schorched if staying in the sunlight)

  • Clearly navigated and balanced combat with different combinations of enemies

  • Theme-related environmental puzzles

Responsibilities

Arrows & Puzzles Design

  • In the early ideation stage I was assigned to the mechanics and gameplay design team, tasked with designing arrow types based on the foundational mechanics of Bow-and-Arrow and light and shadow established by the Game Designer. Additionally, I developed puzzles based on arrow types, terrain, and light and shadow, aiming to highlight the versatility of arrows in both combat and puzzle-solving.

Arrow types initial design (bibliography not shown)

  • Given the game includes actions like vaulting and mounting, I incorporated movement-related factors and light and shadow elements into the arrow design.

  • Initially, I designed several common and basic arrow types and shooting mechanics:

    • Precise aiming

    • Charge shot

    • Scatter arrow

    • Elemental AOE arrows (explosive, flaming, frost, poisonous, thunderbolt).

  • Then, I let my imagination run wild, designing various special-effect arrows from the perspectives of player movement, light and shadow, forced displacement, enemy control, and player attributes, which results in 10 arrow types as shown in the image.​

Other Bow-and-Arrow related mechanics (bibliography not shown)

  • I then designed other shooting-related mechanics, including the aforementioned precise aiming and charge shot:

    • Revenge Time - Leap back and shoot back if successfully dodges.

    • Bullet Time - After several hits, can to slow down game time.

    • Arrow Retrieval - Recall shot arrows and damage enemies.

    • Weather System - Different weather conditions bring various buffs and debuffs. 

    • Weakness Exposure - aiming at an enemy for a duration exposes their weak point.

    • Navigating Shoot - players control the direction of the shot arrow.

Final pass on arrows initial design

These designs were then reviewed by the Leads, and ultimately, we had our final pass on arrow types and shooting mechanics, based on the project's scope.

Final decisions made on Arrows

Designed by Layne Zhang,

implemented by the Combat team (after I switched to the Level Design team)

Precise Aiming

Explosive Arrow

Charge Shot with Crit Bar

(indicated by the light on the bow)

Split Arrow

Black Hole Arrow

Puzzle initial design (my part)

  • Following the designed arrows and shooting mechanics, I was paired with another level designer to create puzzles. My focus was on designing puzzles based on arrow types, light & shadow, player movement and interaction, and environment and interactions.

Final decisions made on Puzzles (Level 2)

Designed & prototyped by Layne Zhang, implemented by Sean Ervin

Pulley system 1 - Counter weight

Pulley system 3 - Draw bridge

Pulley system 2 - Counter weight

Pulley system 4 - Counter weight

Enemy Design

  • Afterwards, I was assigned to the combat and enemy team, starting to work on enemy design with another Level Designer. We divided the tasks based on difficulty and the roles enemies would play.

  • My colleague primarily handled the design of early-difficulty enemies: fodder (melee & ranged), charger, and tank (first four rows); whereas I was responsible for designing advanced difficulty enemies - stealth and ambush predator, team shooter, self-destructing charger, and heavy artillery shooter (last four rows).

  • Notably, in line with the game's story background, we designed the monsters with appearances fitting Chinese ancient mythology, and I gave them localized names that matched the setting (in both English and Chinese).

Puzzle initial design (my part)

  • Based on the skills I wanted to test and the strengths and weaknesses of different arrow types, I designed four types of enemies, each with their own weaknesses and corresponding to a type of arrow:

    • Draconis - Stealth & ambush predator. Stays invisible in its normal state, becomes visible and pounces on the player when approached.

      • Weakness: AOE and scatter arrows, becomes visible when hit, low health.

      • Tests: Trap detection and quick reaction skills.

    • Rowlet - Team shooter. Appears in groups, follows the player and shoots at short range.

      • Weakness: AOE, becomes weaker as more are killed.

      • Tests: Weakening groups of enemies.

    • Abyssal - Self-destructing charger. Approaches the player from a distance and self-destructs to cause AOE damage.

      • Weakness: Long approach distance, controls like black hole arrows.

      • Tests: Weapon's mastery and prioritizing enemies.

    • Celestial - Heavy artillery shooter. Charges up and shoots from a distance.

      • Weakness: Slow speed, long charge time. 

      • Tests: Environment use (cover), dodge & counter-attack.

Subsequently, in line with the difficulty curve and progression (evaluating enemy challenges, strengths, weaknesses, and the advantages/disadvantages of arrows), my team and I allocated enemies and unlocked arrow types for each level. Simultaneously, based on the skills taught in each level and the abilities of monsters, we began brainstorming the boss abilities for each stage with the aim of comprehensively testing the skills players had already learned.

Placement of arrow unlockers & enemies to maintain the progression 1

Placement of arrow unlockers & enemies to maintain the progression 2

Final decisions made on enemies

Designed by Canny Yuan, Layne Zhang, implemented by AI team

Enemies metrics made by Enemy Team (Pangolinn - charger & tank, ranged Toad, melee Toad, Abyssal - self-destructing charger)

Arrows & Puzzles Design
Responsibilities
Enemy Design

Level Design & Build

Level Design & Build

  • After I was urgently transferred to the Level Design (World) team, I was tasked with taking over the responsibility of the design and build of level 2. As other World team members had already begun constructing the whitebox, and I needed to start from scratch, I quickly proceeded with the design and created a 3D sketch of the level in Tinkercad, followed by producing a simplified Level Design Document (LDD) and filling out the Art Asset Request Sheet based on my design.

3D level sketch I created in Tinkercad 1

Simplified LDD & some art references

3D level sketch I created in Tinkercad 2

Art Asset Request Sheet

  • Then I started building my level in Unreal Engine (5.3), with the boss arena built by Enemy team and pulley puzzles implemented by another level designer (Sean Ervin) according to my design and prototype, and after iterations through milestones I finally successfully hit Launch milestone. To specify and hignlight my level design goals:

Clear short-term goal and long-term goal

Framing to highlight the goal

  • Conveyance is a constant focus in my level design. In each area, I ensured angles and elevations were positioned optimally to highlight the goal. Additionally, I employed various techniques through layout and prop settings to create clear conveyance, such as framing, breadcrumbing (with pickups and enemy waves), color (including contrast in lighting), texture, affordance (ladders, doors, scaffolding, etc.), and shape language (placing more irregular polygons in unintended areas to imply "danger" and "error").

Terraced fields - residential area

Cave

Terraced fields - rocky area

Waterfall mountain

  • Designing distinctive, easily distinguishable, believable, memorable, and rich in environmental storytelling areas has always been a goal I adhere to in level design too. Based on the themes of caves and terraced fields, the areas I designed transition from terraced fields (residential area) to terraced fields (rocky area) to inside the cave, waterfall mountain, and finally to the cave's boss area. Each area features unique characteristics and memorable points, providing players with a clear sense of direction and encouraging a sense of novelty in exploration.

Multiple paths with different risks/weaknesses & rewards/strengths

Multiple paths & featured verticalities & preview hole

  • In combat, besides having clearly guided enemy waves, following progression in enemy combinations and balancing, I also designed multiple routes towards the same objective. These routes often come with varying advantages and disadvantages (for example, longer but offering more shadow and cover thus safer, or shorter with more sunlight and less cover, hence more dangerous). Furthermore, I incorporated various verticalities into the battlefield to encourage different playstyles and the shifting of advantageous positions. Lastly, the arrangement of covers at different heights encourages players to circle around under various circumstances.

Level Iterations

Whitebox interim (the mid-stage in the transition from cubes (static meshes) and shapes to landscape plus some art assets, where some props have not yet been replaced)

Launch

Postmortem

What Went Well

Pre-production Design

  • In pre-production, we efficiently completed early designs for arrow types, puzzles, enemies, and began boss and enemy AI design. Prototypes were made, setting the foundation for development.

Versatility

  • Our efficient design allowed us to finish most early work, enabling quick support for other teams as needed. Our broad skill set across combat, systems, and level design ensured we could deliver quality work in any area.

Efficient Collaboration

  • We maintained effective communication with all team members, ensuring timely information flow and transparent management. Despite starting level design later, I prioritized completing as much as possible early and prepared for art optimization, ensuring no time was wasted and delivering a satisfactory product.

What Went Wrong

Intertwined Interdependent Workflows

  • Due to collaborative development in Unreal Engine 5's sublevels, my work on level 2, involving many sublevels handled by others, could affect their work; for instance, my layout changes might misalign my teammate's pulley placement, and their added objects could affect my designed conveyance and sightlines.

Delayed Inter-Team Communication

  • Though we often worked closely, delayed updates within and across teams sometimes left us unaware of new features or completed tasks by others, leading to abrupt additions to levels without thorough consideration or alignment with the progression.

Unclear Responsibility

  • Similar to the communication issue, sometimes it was unclear who was responsible for specific tasks, leading to miscommunication and wasted development time.

Even Better If...

Regular Work Updates

  • Maintaining regular updates about the work content can ensure all team members are informed about who is responsible for each part. This not only keeps everyone on the same page but also allows unrelated personnel to understand the current decisions being followed, the features being focused on, etc.

Advance Team Assignment Planning

  • Understanding and taking into account each team member's preferences, then forming teams that better align with their individual strengths and interests, could help mitigate the challenge of uncompleted tasks. This approach not only minimizes the likelihood of needing emergency changes in team composition but also helps to prevent unexpected surges in workload and potential delays.

Scope Management

  • Assessing the team and individual work capacities in advance can aid in controlling the project's scope during development, allowing more time for refinement and optimization.

Postmortem

Gallery (Level 2)

Gallery
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