Personal Projects
FPS Game
Rafael Pineiro
Color Wars
Level Designer
Concept
The one-man army is a top-down shooter New player has to navigate his way through many enemies and Game Mechanics. One man army has five levels each level having different types of enemies and game mechanics such as slowing down time zone moving platforms and exploding enemies
Gameplay Overview
Falling Platforms
Falling platforms were introduced early on to the player in the level. These platforms were on a timer on the player steps on them at a certain point they will fall. This encourages the player not to stay on a certain platform for too long and to watch his surroundings
Crates
These crates encourage the player to explore his surroundings. The player can move these crates in any direction but he must be weary of enemies since it takes a certain amount of time to push the crates
Slow Down Zones
Falling platforms were introduced early on to the player in the level. These platforms were on a timer on the player steps on them at a certain point they will fall. This encourages the player not to stay on a certain platform for too long and to watch his surroundings
Teleporter
This teleporter allows me to move around the player in the level. Instead of creating one big hole level, I can create smaller chunks of a total level, and then I'm able to teleport the player around all these smaller pieces, therefore, making it easier to design.
Moving Platforms
Moving platforms allow the player to get across certain areas. These platforms move very fast and must be timed correctly or else a player will fall off to his death
Guns
The player has four guns to choose from a pistol shotgun sniper rifle and assault rifle. Each of them with its a different ammo type
Patrolling AI
All of the enemies I am patrolling at the level have different routes.
Enemy Drop
When an enemy dies he will drop either ammo , a gun or a health pack
Health Packs
There are Health packs in the level that will give players health when the player touches them
Coins
By collecting coins the player can increase his high score.
Exploding Enemies,
There are also the exploding enemies, this enemy archetype causes a player to retreat, and combined with the enemy shooting at him this creates a deadly combination of enemies
Design Techniques
Exploring
When a player wants to explore other parts of an area that aren't the golden path I reward them with either owl guns or more coins or even health packs
Leading Lines
I have added some leading lines in the form of a carpet. On the first level, there is a red carpet that leads the player to the end of the level. This helps the player to where he has to go
Leading Lines
I have added some leading lines in the form of a carpet. On the first level, there is a red carpet that leads the player to the end of the level. This helps the player to where he has to go
Camera
By having the camera show a little of what's coming in the next area this prepares the player for what to encounter
Post Mortem
What went well?;
-The overall design process I was able to build this project using a level kit I found in the Unity asset store. This made the overall design process very simple and easy
-The level mechanics were a process that was done well. Some of the mechanics were already made in the level kit While others were made from scratch. Many of them were simple yet designed well which could be challenging for the player
-The overall time spent on each deadline went well I was able to complete things in a timely matter this is the only project of mine that has five levels made. This is due to the ability to not miss any deadlines and spend much of the time on the level design process thanks to having a level kit that required me to spend less time designing the code for the project
What went poorly?;
-The enemy AI wasn't really bad but it was okay. I tried to give the enemies more variety such as different weapons but I have limited knowledge in terms of coding. Well, I was able to make one new enemy type one that explodes on contact. The only other enemy has the same weapon.
-The variables of certain weapons. I wanted the player to be able to use every weapon for each level and to have different opportunities to use them. But certain guns were more powerful than the rest and the player wouldn't need to use them. The way I counter this problem was to give the player only certain guns in each level. This way the levels would be more challenging and the player would have to figure out how to beat the level with weapons he's given
-The overall difficulty of each level. Each level has a different type of difficulty, Spike. And since this is the only project that has five levels this was more challenging than my previous other Projects have only three levels that only have three. I wish to spend more time looking at at fixing the overall difficulty of each level
What did I learn?;
-This was my first top-down shooter game and a lot many different lessonsThe first thing that I learned was the different challenges of building levels Because of the view that you were given in a top-down shooter the player can see more than in a first-person or third-person game.
-I learned about the importance of special effects The game kit that I got from the unity accessor had many great effects that just added to the overall game such as when you kill an enemy a small explosion happens or when you pick up a health or you get a small burst of particle effects. This pushes me to add more effects to my other personal projects
-I learned more different design techniques than in previous projects. A top-down shooter has a different camera in terms of other projects this allowed me to use many different level design techniques in a different way than I normally would.