Level 1 Unreal Engine

Day 1 (Ideation)

For the first day I had to come up with what engine I was going to use and what I wanted to make. The engine I decided was Unreal as this is the most recent one I have used and it's the one I have been enjoying. Next the project, over the past couple of weeks I have been working on a project called last awakening. I did think to myself this might be cheating but I had an idea of what I wanted to create and this is the project I wanted to create it in.

What I wanted to make was a short intro sequence 1-2 mins long inspired by the Uncharted games and Breath of the wild, one of the things I think they do really well is showing stuff in the distance which the player can get to eventually, I feel like because of how far they are at the start it makes it feel like you have traveled a long way. Also I like how it makes the area feel grand and creates this feeling of being a small part of the world you are exploring. Below is a mood board I put together to give me inspiration.

I got into Unreal engine and began laying out the white box into the scene, because this project has already been worked on. I had a player model and a character controller which meant I could fully focus on the actual level for this project.

Day 2 (Landscape & White box progress)

To start today I began messing with the terrain a bit more as this is the focus of the scene for me. I want the player to see this massive open space and truly feel small in this world. Yesterday I created some rough hills, this was just to make the area feel a bit closed off and as I work more on it I will add more detail. Another thing I added was an exponential height fog to the scene which already makes the landscape look more interesting as it works like a disguise, it also instantly makes the rough mountains in the distant look better.

For this project I’m also trying to use more tools of the engine, Unreal allows you to model assets, which is quite handy for the blockouts when you can quickly mash together stuff like this. I also started a block out of a little tunnel start area, having a tight closed off and dark place for the player to start will give a greater contrast for when they exit the cave and come out to this massive open space.

Day 3 (Boxes, boxes and boxes)

To start this day I wanted to roughly add some trees and some more interesting landscape, I did this roughly so that when I’m making the players route I can see what part of the landscape I can direct them to look at. Once the white boxing is done I can layer the background more with some more points of interest and try to make the horizon a bit more natural. From the first image you can see the place where I want the player to end up, this is kind of like a race. I have a starting position for the white box and then an estimation of where I want the player to get to.

With the landscape done for now I began plotting out the route for the player, this simple obstacle course below is enough to get the player comfortable with the player controller for movement speed and jumps. I have scoped really small for this first level project as I want to create something really simple and efficient with the week I have given myself and fill out these blog entries.

Day 4 (Landscape work and playtesting)

With day four I wanted to turn my attention more to the landscaping of the project and try to build this world around the player. I thought it might be cool to build this fort on this rocky wall in the distance, this gets the player thinking. I wonder what that wall is guarding, this rocky path seems to be heading towards it and this gets the player happy to go through the platforming segment. Unreal has a pattern tool where you can pick a 3D object and then create a pattern out of it, this tool has many options but one of the best ones is the jitter mode, this adds differences to some of the objects making it look less uniform and more realistic.

After I had finished these I got a couple friends to run through the project, it's always a good idea to get someone to play through your game or level as this shows you how different people react when they don’t know where to go. Because this level was designed to be really simple, all the playtests knew where to go and found it very straightforward with little challenge.

Day 5 (Final touches and examination)

I have added some more little details to the area, these probably wouldn't even be noticed by the player but I think the best paintings are a large canvas filled with loads of little details, kind of like Where's Wally ? where there are loads of little things going on and it creates this mini world in a piece of art.

I have drawn lines over the pictures to show the design of this simple level. The orange represents the contrast I created on the wall which helps build these sight lines on the floor, the white circle represents the landmark, this is the place in the distance that you want to direct the player to. Looking back on the project I wanted to create a simple 1-2 minute experience with a focus on a big landscape around the player, I feel like I have created that, this isn't something amazing it's just a simple project with the goal of helping me to more efficiently create grand landscapes.

Day 6 & 7 (Weekend & Grammar check for the blog)

These two days are designated as a break to avoid burnout with a 10 week level challenge that's the biggest risk to the overall challenge. Saying that I still want to be productive so I am focusing on re reading through these entries.

What I Learned – Week 1

This first week taught me a lot about using contrast, scale, and sightlines to guide the player. I’ve always loved the feeling of being a small part of a huge world, and building that in Unreal with terrain tools and fog really helped create that atmosphere. I also messed around with the modeling tool in Unreal, which I hadn’t really used much before. It was super handy for quickly blocking out shapes and adding detail without needing to jump into another program—definitely something I’ll be using more. On top of that, the pattern tool (especially the jitter mode) made it way easier to scatter objects naturally, which helped the scene feel less artificial. Playtesting reminded me how even a basic layout can work if it's readable, and scoping things down made it possible to actually finish something within the week. Overall, a solid start and I’m looking forward to seeing how far I can push myself in the next ones.