Environment + Level Design for Iztali Point
Screenshots from XING: The Land Beyond
My role was to create levels from paper to editor. I loved creating vistas, but mostly stuck to smaller cozy spaces due to optimization necessities. My job was to create the landscape and sculpt it, then place all the meshes on top, from architecture to plants to gameplay elements, in ways that were both beautiful and also guiding for player from one zone to the next. My level design includes purposeful occlusions (aka big rocks) of other level areas, as well as thought-out foliage placement for the most bang for our buck at every detail level. I also created puzzle zones, and helped come up with and implement puzzle designs, which were fully integrated into the environments. My ultimate goal was to have each level be satisfying (and never boring), with something always available for the player to do. I worked with 2 other teammates to come up with ideas on what we thought would be fun and look cool.
Near the beginning of this level, it was important to teach the player that they could walk through shallow water. I made this small spit of land that the player had to walk through water to get to, in order to activate the glowing red Muse.
This is the very intro of this level. The player is encouraged to walk down the narrow sandy beach by the glowing objects that attract attention. The stone circle helps to act as an initial guide, as well as a point of interest.
This game is also made for VR, so we could never control the camera directly. Interactable placement was therefore highly emphasized. For buttons like this, I put them in places that could oversee the puzzle elements they activated.
This is an example of how I like to frame things. I made sure the moon was in view when the player looked toward the night door in this first magical moment when they were granted the power to change day to night.
All of the poetry messages left by the spirits in the game talk about things that happened in the past. When possible, I tried to set up scenes like this , which were directly related to the content of the message (a boat wreck in this case).
Bridges to us just look like fun, so we added lots of bridges all over the game. In this area I wanted to evoke a sense of playfulness and adventure, so: bridges.
This "lighting the bonfire" moment was conceived of early on in development, and having giant faces for the fire to light up made it just that much more impactful.
I built this beach cave in levels of varying heights, to emphasize the stairs which are created by the "rising heads" mechanic. It was fun trying to get that "sheltered yet open" feeling, playing with where the light came in.
Poetry pedestals are designed to catch the eye of the player, so I placed them in areas that would best lead the player in open areas like this. I also liked setting up little scenes for them to be framed nicely.
I didn't design this puzzle, but my job was to make it blend in with the environment as best I could. I sculpted the landscape and placed rocks, structures, islands and plants around, to give the scene a cohesive feeling of island beauty.
The final ascent to the last puzzle area was something I wanted to make mysterious yet inviting. The torches that light the path (either at night or day) guide the player up the hill, and the enclosing walls slowly open into a telling vista.
Too many mechanics in one area can easily start to look messy, so in this area I went for creating several height levels with our "beach ruins" architecture set.
In this final scene, the player gets to see a statue depiction of the character (Lua), who they've been listening to. We wanted her to stand out, so I opted for a simple ocean background, and put her in front of the sunset to give a nice silhouette.
Initial color palette. This shifted during development, and we ended up making things more vibrant after figuring out our art style.
Iztali Point map V1
Iztali Point map V4 (this was still back when we were using UDK, and the layout changed a lot after this)
This is the final map I made for our Kickstarter backers, with the actual level layout. The dots mark the beginning and end.
After about 2 years of working on the project, we changed the layout of the base map quite a bit, and I redid YET ANOTHER FOLIAGE PASS. I like to start with big meshes like occlusion rocks and important architecture, then add the rest in layers.
These are shots from similar areas in the "Lagoon" area in the level, to show how it evolved over the years. When it's appropriate, I enjoy doing blockouts with art meshes to get a better sense of how the finished scene will look even at that early stage.