Isshin

Isshin is a third-person action combat game that is heavily inspired by Soulsborne games. Explore the city and defeat the rogue samurais that stand in your way.

This is the first project where I had the opportunity to participate with all of the disciplines of design, tech and art. I was the Level Designer for the project.

Brainstorming the environment and layout of the game with fellow designers and artists

Creation of basic whiteboxes in both Maya and Unreal Engine

Adjustments to whiteboxes based on feedback from design teammates and professors

Adding basic art assets into the level with communication with art team about their vision

Worked with Design Team on other aspects of the game such as the narrative and how it would be tied into the level

Contributions

Communication - Team members who are even remotely connected to your work must be updated on the status of the work done. It is better to over-communicate with others rather than under-communicate.

Scaling - During the drafting of the first and second versions of the level, both times the scale of the world and the work that needed to be done was larger than needed. Over the course of the project, I understood the importance of checking periodically that the world created is the size that is needed.

Pacing - Making use of already established space to manage pacing and difficulty of the challenges was a group effort between the level design team and the system design team. Changing the placement of enemies and certain shortcut gates were necessary with the changing combat system that was later formatted for progression.

Lessons Learned

Winding, Connecting Pathways

One of the ambitious goals of the level design team was to create various shortcuts for the player that can be opened once they pass a certain point in the level. These shortcuts were blocked with gates that could only be opened on one side. These were inspired by the various shortcuts from Soulsborne games, mainly Bloodborne from From Software. Since the core combat system revolved around the player trying to overcome challenges and death, this felt like an appropriate reward for the game's scope and scale.

The first shortcut route. A simple layout is used to show players the mechanics. Later shortcuts can be found through exploration.

Playing with Height

Battle under the bridge.

Shortcut path that goes over the bridge.

Another challenge for the level design team was adding varying heights to the map to add variety with exploration and combat and show the difference in status and power narratively. However, this proved to be a greater challenge than anticipated. The initial white box of the level tried to subtly change the elevation as the player progresses through the level. After initial playtesting, the team realized that the subtle changes were not conveying the sense of change that we wanted, and the art team could not create the assets needed for the visual change to the props and buildings.

The level was redesigned, first with a larger discrepancy between two distinct "floors," but this was proven to be out of scope. Only the first floor of the level remained and to still add a sense of changing areas and verticality, the bridge was used not only as a shortcut but also to show the difference in status between some areas of the level.

Level and System Designer