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CAESURA
Level Designer | Oct 2023 - Present
Published: August 2024
Role: Level Designer
Genre: 3rd Person Action Adventure
Programs: Unreal Engine 5
Overview:
Caesura was developed by a team of incredible team of 22 developers. I had the pleasure of working as one of the level designers. I was responsible for the Mountain level which takes place towards the end of the game. I also worked on an earlier iteration of the introductory level set in a cave system. While building the Mountain Level I designed an interconnected puzzle system that dynamically changed the weather, shifting the environment from an icy wasteland to a warm and vibrant
Mountain Level
Icy Weather
Spring Weather
Icy Weather
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This level takes place on an incy mountainside path. I wanted to make sure there was a sense of scale and verticality to this level so it felt as though you were ascending the mountain. A unique challenge presented itself however as we found that with only so many planned sections of the level it was difficult to increase the height from area to area without getting too steep or making the path unecessarily long. To solve this issue we utilized a strict set of metrics for vertical height increases, implemented narrative sections in between areas, and added an elevator system within the cave to reach higher points with less travel.
Puzzle Designs
This level has a unique system that allows players to reshape the environment, changing it from an icy wasteland to a vibrant forest. To accomplish this I developed a progressive puzzle system and a weather script that changes materials, object scale, post processing volumes, and vfx systems. All of this comes together to dynamically change the environment as the players progress through the level.
Players utilize crystals found throughout the level to activate this weather change. By redirecting the light through various crystals they can melt ice, activate doors, and access the temple. I made this to be versatile and so each instance of the crystal is customizable with unique angels to rotate to and different objects they can activate such as other crystals, doors, elevators, and ice blocks.
Weather Change
The environment changes progressively throughout the level. Once a puzzle is completed, only the surrounding area melts and changes from icy to spring weather. To make this easier to implement and avoid tediously plugging each object into an array I set up a system that checks for tagged items that are organized in my outliner and automatically adds them to the array for that instance of the Season Change blueprint. Once activated, this system will swap materials, reveal foliage, adjust values within post processing volumes to affect lighting, scale meshes to melt snow, and deactivate snow vfx systems. For the finishing touches, one of our programmers was able to hook up an existing aura vfx and set it to change the materials for any object within the aura as it expanded.
White Box
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Two major challenges I faced throughout the development of this level were properly capturing verticality of a mountain path and crafting an environment that was fit with both the icy and spring versions of the level. I started with this vista in my head of the player over looking a canyon and a massive temple off in the distance. I really wanted the player to feel like they were progressing a great distance through the mountains. I went through many different iterations in the early phases and eventually introduced a cave system that allowed for some rapid height increases.
DOCUMENTATION
Throughout the project I was responsible for developing and maintaining a detail design document for the mountain level.
Cave section
This is another level I developed for an earlier iteration of the game. I concepted and blocked out a tutorial level set in a cave. Unfortunately, after some necessary redesigns to the gameplay system this level was cut and redesigned later on in the project.
Set Dressing
