Nigel Sidney Karten - Level Designer
Alien Removal Division - A.R.D
Project Summary
Alien Removal Division is a fast-paced first-person shooter where the player has to use their special movement set to traverse Area 51 and fight waves of aliens.
About this game
ESCAPE
Use your parkour skillset to wall-run, double jump and dash and make your way through the infested tunnels, missile silos, storage rooms, research labs and secret caves that make up the military base.
ALIENS
You’ll encounter an array of enemies that vary from smaller insect-like crawlers to larger creatures, each with their unique behaviour and fighting tactics.
COMBAT
Engage in gory combat and discover the different options to destroy your enemies. Use your movement skills to stay agile against the aliens, fighting back using an arsenal of high-powered weapons that reward their unique purpose.
Project Responsibilities
- Designed and created the first combat encounter for the grunt enemy
- Designed and created the first combat encounter for the tank enemy
- Iterated the grapple level
- Setdressed different levels
- Playtested the different levels with online playtesters
- Used outsourcing tools to create slime for the levels
ACHIEVEMENTS
- 70.000+ downloads
- Popular new releases on Steam
- Winner best programming & design @IGAD Y3 2022 awards
WORKFLOW
Prototyping Level Design Ingredients
Created different prototypes for level design ingredients using Blueprint scripting in UE4.
These prototypes were used to test gameplay ideas .
Workflow
Designing and Creating levels
LEVEL DESIGN CONCEPT
In the brief that I received for the levels, it stated that I had to create a combat encounter with a specific theme.
I choose the sewer theme because I liked the look of the environment and because it could fit into the bunker theme nicely.
I performed online research and collected visual references for sewer-like area's which I used to pitch the level idea.
Blockout
This blockout was created to showcase the general level layout and level idea.
When blockout out I also kept the visual theme in mind and started exploring this by adding a prototype environment.
ITERATIONS
These before and after pictures show the progress from creating a blockout to adding set-dressing into a level.
FINAL PRODUCT
During the duration of the project, I designed and iterated the first combat encounter for the grunt enemy.
For creating this level I had certain restrictions
- The player should be introduced to the grunt enemy.
- Combat should not be too overwhelming and this encounter should introduce how combat works.
- The player can use their movement set while fighting the enemies.
This level needed different iterations for it to be in the state it is now. The level had difficulties with the layout of the level which was obstructing the movement of the enemy and made it hard for them to traverse.
By playtesting I was able to iron out any problem and create a layout that works better with the flow of the enemy.
Workflow
Set-dressing
After the level blockouts were created we did set dressing for all of the levels.
The set-dressing was done in collaboration with environment artists who produced assets and level designers set dressed the levels.
I did the set-dressing for the following levels:
First Combat Encounter
Grapple Movement Level
Onboarding
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