Nigel Sidney Karten - Level Designer
Broken Bonds
Project Summary
Broken Bonds is a puzzle-platformer where the player has to use their movement skills to traverse the mythic land, solve puzzles and find the long-lost sister.
About this game
Traverse
Use your movement skills to traverse this this mythical land and overcome obstacles.
Solve Puzzles
Solve puzzles to progress further in the game and come closer to finding your long-lost sister.
Interact with Story Elements
Explore this mythical landscape and find out what secrets hide within the environment.
Project Responsibilities
- Designed and created the cave level
- Designed brazier puzzles
- Designed and created the floating rock puzzle
- Designed the game's core concept
- Bug fixing and QA Testing
- Created the Broken Bonds Presskit
Workflow
Designing and Creating levels
First Combat Encounter
Level DESIGN CONCEPT
After creating prototypes we came up with a story and a environmental setting. Based on this we started sketching.
I got assigned to create a level with two types of puzzles and a level ending sequence.
For this I first created sketches of how the level would look like and where the most important instances of gameplay would happen.
Blockout Level
Cave - first blockout
Cave - Second blockout and first art pass
After creating the level design concept for the cave level I started with creating a blockout using the landscape tool in unreal engine.
In this version of the blockout I also created a test parkour scene and a test scene for the brazier puzzle.
After showing this to the team and making iterations based on playtesting data the level was changed and the first art pass was added.
In this version, I worked on different iterations for the parkour sequence and I worked on finishing the brazier puzzle.
From blockout to art pass
These before and after pictures show the level design that I created and how it has been changed by the artists by adding the final art pass.
Brazier puzzle iterations
For the cave level that I was designing the brazier puzzle played a big role because it would be the puzzle element in the level and it would be the way to progress within the level.
Firstly I created a concept puzzle idea shown in the video above where the player swings around the brazier to light up the fire pots and this would open up the doors.
I created a second version of the brazier puzzle where the player now has to move on presure plates to move up the braziers and light them.
With this I was able to create a better time skilled chalenge for the player and I would be able to create different puzzles with this system.
Final Product
During the duration of the project, I designed the level layout for the cave level and I created different parkour and brazier puzzles.
Because this was the last level in the game I also created an end sequence in which the player had to solve a certain puzzle and jump parkour to be able to finish the game.
To help the player traverse I also created a path for a flying orb which would show the player where to go next.
Workflow
Creating the brazier puzzles
I created two different brazier puzzles.
The first one was for
introducing the brazier puzzle and explaining how this work.
The second one was a
bigger puzzle that the player had to complete in order to continue.
Creating the platforming challenges
The player is able to use their movement set to traverse the parkour challenges.
In this parkour challenge, the player has to use their sprint and jump ability to proceed to the next area.
Prototyping Level Design Ingredients
First I created a prototype for using cinematic flythroughs in Unreal Engine. I received feedback upon making this prototype and created a new flythrough with better movement and a better FOV. This can be seen in the second video.
Presskit
Other Projects
