Antoni Ciscar | CV - Katto: Rising Tides

KATTO: RISING TIDES

This project is a 3D platformer that was created as a final year project at ESAT, in which I have worked professionally as a video game designer, simulating a real video game studio, alongside great professionals from the video game industry as producers.

In this way, I was in charge of the game's conception, from the game pitch, through the definition of all the elements proposed in a game design document, to the process of adjusting the main character's movement, which I spent a lot of time on to make it feel right, the creation process of the first 2 levels, their iteration together with the level elements, such as all the platforms and enemies in the game, and the user experience of the entire project in general. In addition, this project has served to better develop effective communication with a large team from various disciplines, knowing how to transmit my ideas to each programmer, artist or producer.

After producing all the game elements, which you can see below, we carried out a player testing process to collect feedback from a multitude of people to improve all the game elements possible. Below you can see the entire creation process that I carried out from pre-production to post-production.

Team size: 16 | Role: Game, level and combat designer | Software: Unreal Engine 5 | Genre: 3D platformer | Development time: 10 months

Layouts, flowcharts and beatcharts

1. fIRST LEVEL: MARKET

From this, the creation of the basic architecture of the market area began, specifically proposing 4 rooms with heights of 4 meters, as a base for the character's jump. For this reason, measurements of 4x4 meters were established for floors, walls and ceilings, as well as for the rest of architectural elements, which had to be multiples of this number.

2. SECOND LEVEL: GARDEN

Regarding the garden, it was conceived from the layout as a larger area than the market, providing greater freedom of movement to the player to apply all the mechanics learned, as well as perfecting the use of these. Following the same line as before, the metrics were established at 4 meters in height for the garden structure, a standard applied to all areas.

BLOCKOUT AND ITERATION

1. fIRST LEVEL: MARKET

In this area, I sought to create a more compact space that would serve as a tutorial, providing the player with the opportunity to easily practice all of the core mechanics, which are spread throughout this section. However, after building the area based on the layout, issues arose with the length of the section, as it was too short due to the agile movement of the character. For this reason, three additional rooms were added, which helped to expand the tutorial area, allowing the player to explore the various mechanics more extensively. Additionally, these mechanics are presented in different rooms, allowing them to be introduced gradually.

PARTS NEEDED TO BUILD THE LEVEL

EXAMPLE OF THE BLOCKOUT EVOLUTION

ADVANCED BLOCKOUT BEFORE ART DRESSING

LIGHTING TEST BY COLOR CODE

FIRST INTEGRATION OF ART DRESSING

2. SECOND LEVEL: GARDEN

Initially, the layout was planned as floors, with a constant display of the lower floors, but this idea was discarded during the blocking process due to various issues. In particular, displaying all floors generated a constant load of the floors, which could affect the performance of the game. In addition, the inability to block access to the lower floors posed the risk of the player skipping several rooms, since no assets, such as glass windows, were considered to address this problem. For this reason, the layout of the garden was modified to be flat, preserving the essence of the original layout.

PARTS NEEDED TO BUILD THE LEVEL

EXAMPLE OF THE BLOCKOUT EVOLUTION

ADVANCED BLOCKOUT BEFORE ART DRESSING

LIGHTING TEST BY COLOR CODE

FIRST INTEGRATION OF ART DRESSING

CORE/GAME LOOP AND MECHANICS

IN-GAME LOOPS TO ACHIEVE THE DESIRED EXPERIENCE

SKETCHES OF PLAYER MECHANICS AND WORLD BEHAVIOR

PATROL OF THE ENEMIES

PLAYGROUND TESTING FOR MECHANICS ADJUSTMENT

This playground was used to test the character's movement mechanics, such as jumping, dashing, wall-jumping and grabbing, so several scenarios were created that addressed the use of these mechanics both individually and together, in order to observe their behavior. These scenarios have been essential when it comes to adjusting the different movement parameters, so that agile behavior could be felt, respecting the established metrics. For this reason, various tests were carried out in the data table corresponding to DT_PlayerValues, where a variety of values were tested to adjust this aspect of the character.

For this playground, the different power-ups that the character has were evaluated, such as the double jump, the glide and the earthquake. In the case of the double jump and the glide, the distances traveled with these mechanics were measured to adjust the movement in the maps, but the decision was made to remove them, since the double jump was repetitive, given that the player was already constantly jumping, while the glide, combined with the jump and the dash, allowed the player to travel great distances on the stage, which affected progress through the levels. In regards to the earthquake, the way the stun affected enemies was examined, either individually or in combination. Similarly, in the DT_PlayerValues data table, the values related to these elements were adjusted.

As for this playground, the behavior of the enemies and their patrol, such as the standard minion, the spiked minion, the tank, the flying one and the boss, has been examined, adjusting their collision capsule to make it easier to defeat the enemies.

The first three enemies behave in a similar way, but the others have some particular requirements, that is, the flying enemy, when jumping on it or dashing it, acts as a springboard, while the boss must hit some columns to be defeated, so the playground has been adapted to each of them. All of them have been adjusted from the variables of each enemy, to achieve the desired experience.

FINAL BEHAVIOR OF THE MECHANICS

FINAL VERSION of the game

1. fIRST LEVEL: MARKET

2. SECOND LEVEL: GARDEN

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