Garden of Life

Level design and Narrative

Unreal - 2022

Requirements
Create an environment that tells a story on its own while respecting level design and narrative constraints.

List of constraints

- Indoor and outdoor
- Use only free assets
- First person
- Less than 50 units of line of sight
- Maximum of 3 words
- Minimum of 2 story layers
- Comprehending of a past event
- Provoke 2 different emotions

Hours of work : 75h

Walkthrough

Feedback and improvment

After receiving my teachers and collegues feedback, I use them to improve my project.
I have learn an essentiel element of Level design :

What is clear for the level designer might not be for the players.

- Have a better framing
- Add elements that are reminiscent of the narrative

Good framing
- Straight line
- Objective in front
- Symmetrical narrative elements

Bad framing
- Broken line
- Objective to the left
- Asymmetric narrative elements

Narrative elements not shown enough
- Only at the beginning and the end

La maison

1/16

Idea and intention

My idea was to use nature as a metaphor to show a young lady's journey.
It all starts with her leaving her parents home, following by a lost and finishing with her growth.
My intention was to convey events and emotions that a lot of people went through.
Showing that sometimes life can be beautiful et collapse in an instant, but at the end, yes, we can get better.

Creation process and iterations

Methaphor brainstorm

I started by doing a brainstorm on the theme : nature.
Then, I sorted and listed all the major points that will be in my project.
I assigned to each an element of nature for the metaphor.

Humans = Flowers
Progress in life = Path
Welfare = Earth
Joy = Sun
Sadness = Rain
Tragedy = Thunder
Fulfillment = Birds singing

Timeline creation

I though of wich element to show and in what order

1. The home
2. Leaving home
3. Finding her soulmate
4. Becoming parents
5. The tragedy
6. Drifting apart
7. Isolating
8. Reaching hand
9. Moving forward together
10. Hapiness is not lost

Timeline visualization

For each of the timeline's elements, I draw and comment its idea.

Conclusion

I have learned and will apply, from now on, that a good guidance helps, but if the comprehension is hard confusion can appear.
In the case of a video game, it can affects the motivation and the interest of the players.

Garden of Life

Level design and Narrative

Unreal - 2022

Requirements Create an environment that tells a story on its own while respecting level design and narrative constraints.

List of constraints - Indoor and outdoor - Use only free assets - First person - Less than 50 units of line of sight - Maximum of 3 words - Minimum of 2 story layers - Comprehending of a past event - Provoke 2 different emotions Hours of work : 75h

Walkthrough

Feedback and improvment

After receiving my teachers and collegues feedback, I use them to improve my project. I have learn an essentiel element of Level design : What is clear for the level designer might not be for the players.

- Have a better framing - Add elements that are reminiscent of the narrative

Good framing - Straight line - Objective in front - Symmetrical narrative elements

Bad framing - Broken line - Objective to the left - Asymmetric narrative elements

Narrative elements not shown enough - Only at the beginning and the end

Idea and intention

Creation process and iterations

Methaphor brainstorm

Timeline creation

I though of wich element to show and in what order 1. The home 2. Leaving home 3. Finding her soulmate 4. Becoming parents 5. The tragedy 6. Drifting apart 7. Isolating 8. Reaching hand 9. Moving forward together 10. Hapiness is not lost

Timeline visualization For each of the timeline's elements, I draw and comment its idea.

Conclusion

I have learned and will apply, from now on, that a good guidance helps, but if the comprehension is hard confusion can appear. In the case of a video game, it can affects the motivation and the interest of the players.

Requirements
Create an environment that tells a story on its own while respecting level design and narrative constraints.

List of constraints

- Indoor and outdoor
- Use only free assets
- First person
- Less than 50 units of line of sight
- Maximum of 3 words
- Minimum of 2 story layers
- Comprehending of a past event
- Provoke 2 different emotions

Hours of work : 75h

After receiving my teachers and collegues feedback, I use them to improve my project.
I have learn an essentiel element of Level design :

What is clear for the level designer might not be for the players.

- Have a better framing
- Add elements that are reminiscent of the narrative

Good framing
- Straight line
- Objective in front
- Symmetrical narrative elements

Bad framing
- Broken line
- Objective to the left
- Asymmetric narrative elements

Narrative elements not shown enough
- Only at the beginning and the end

I though of wich element to show and in what order

1. The home
2. Leaving home
3. Finding her soulmate
4. Becoming parents
5. The tragedy
6. Drifting apart
7. Isolating
8. Reaching hand
9. Moving forward together
10. Hapiness is not lost

Timeline visualization

For each of the timeline's elements, I draw and comment its idea.

I have learned and will apply, from now on, that a good guidance helps, but if the comprehension is hard confusion can appear.
In the case of a video game, it can affects the motivation and the interest of the players.