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God of War(2018) Inspired Level

Unreal Engine 5

Details:

  • ​​10 - 15 minutes of gameplay

  • Used the Game Animation Sample plugin

  • Shared project on Github with two friends

  • Designed and scripted various level mechanics using Blueprints

  • PureRef for reference board

Downloadable Build:

https://ahowells96.itch.io/god-of-war-inspired-level-first-iteration

Level Narrative

This level is designed to be on the main path. You are made aware of something strange going on at the old ruins. The player goes to investigate to discover human corpses being reanimated by an evil Witch. Progressing through the level you learn more about this sorceress and then ultimately defeat her and put a stop to her necromancy. 
 

PureRef.png

Reference Board

Below is my reference board for this project. As you can see I have taken a lot of reference from God of War and The Lord of the Rings. Additionally I took inspiration from Scottish castles and ruins and even some forest locations near to where I grew up.

Blog

For this project I wrote a weekly blog explaining how and more importantly why I did some of the things that I did. These pages go into more detail and I talk about building each specific area. The blog can be found here:
https://www.andrew-howells.com/blog

Design Decisions

Integrating God of Wars three key pillars

Rob Davis talks in the GDC talk about God of War Level Design about how they built their levels around three key pillars: Combat, Narrative and Exploration. This was something I wanted to achieve with my own level.
The key wasn't just having all three pillars throughout the level, but creating variety within each one. For combat, I started with a simple one enemy encounter before gradually increasing the size, enemy types and complexity of each encounter, eventually leading to the boss fight.
Another important aspect was having these pillars overlap. I think the cube puzzle area is where I achieved this best, combining combat encounters, exploration opportunites with loot, and environmental storytelling within the same space.

Credit: Rob Davis GDC God of War Level Design
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSB29qx6sWw&t=420s

Level Flow and teaching players a new mechanic

Another key point from the GDC talk was how God of War introduces new mechanics. Towards the end of a level, the player would learn a new mechanic, be taught how to use it (normally three times), and then be released into the world to experiment with it. 
I used a similar approach after the boss fight, giving the player the ability to break through Witch Barriers. The player first learns this on a nearby barrier, before encountering a hidden, throwable barrier. Finally I repurposed an old chest area at the beginning of the level into a Witches barrier. This gives the player a Eureka moment when they realise they can access a previously out of reach loot chest.

Implementing God of Wars metrics

God of War is a metrics based game and in the GDC talk you can see the combat arena metrics are 16m, 24m and 32m in diameter. I decided to incorporate this into my game, changing the variety of different combat space sizes. This is to allow the player enough room to manoeuvre around the space without there being any snags. Another metric I wanted to follow was having 3m vaults, these are great because they provide elevation to areas with out it feeling too large a jump. Additionally, they are good at starting cutscenes or narrative beats as you know where the player and the players camera will end up after using a 3m vault.  

Different Level Design techniques

For this level I wanted to showcase several different level design techniques. The first is the Bait and Switch: showing the player a route, blocking it then revealing a hidden path when they turn around. This rewards player curiosity and breaks up the flow of the critical path.
The next technique is using narrow vaults to trigger cutscenes. This is used so that we as the developers can guarantee where the players camera will be looking in order to frame cutscenes or other narrative beats.  
Landmarking is always a great tool to highlight to the player where the final goal is and where they need to reach. It can also be used to provide some nice vistas.
In addition to this, re orientating the player with the said landmark is a great way to let the player know how where they are in relation to their goal. 

Finally, I used the environment to create a sense of unease. Narrowing the space and lowering the ceiling height creates a more claustrophobic feeling.

Mechanics Created

Here are some of the mechanics I created for the level. These are super simple, the focus was to create something that's representative and communicates what I wanted without it being too intricate. I didn't want to get distracted by making mechanics I wanted to focus on creating a level. This also allowed me to continue to develop my blueprinting skills.

Critical Analysis

Overall I am incredibly happy how this level turned out. My goal was to create a level that could fit into the God of War game and I believe I have achieved that. Once dressed I think this wouldn't look or feel out of place in God of War. I think the pacing and flow of the level are smooth and I think I have done a good job at incorporating the three God of War Pillars into this level, all with variety and different intensity. I would of loved to had more interactable objects, working AI and various enemy types but for the tools I had at my disposal I think this is a solid level. 
For improvements, firstly I think my process could of greatly been improved. I was so eager to build a level in engine that I neglected planning and designing the entire level as a whole, instead I designed it section by section. As I progressed with the development I realised that I should of taken some time to plan out, pace and analyse the entire level before stepping foot in engine. For levels to fit within God of War they need to be large and have a lot going on so for my next project I want to take the time to plan out the entire level, things will obviously change but means I can have a more concise idea when going into engine.
Additionally, because I was designing areas piece by piece I feel as though a lot of them are quite "squarey", I can sometimes fall into this trap because using the grid is easier and quicker but then it does end up with a lot of areas being shaped like a cube. This would be an easy fix in my next pass, create different shapes within these cubed areas or add off shoots to change the layout would greatly reduce this feeling.
Finally I think there are areas that are not at the same level as quality as other parts of the map, these being the initial area, the side area and then the narrative area before the boss. These were areas that I didn't feel as creative with or had a bit of a blocker when designing, that is natural but it just means that some spaces are better than others. To tackle this these are the areas I want to specifically get feedback on when I ask people to test the level, then I can work through the feedback and chat to other Level Designers about how to improve these areas and bring up the quality in them

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