Forbidden Temple is a 3rd person cover-shooter where the player is a mercenary trying to retrieve an ancient artifact in a lost temple. The player must fight is way through or avoid detection of the other group of mercenaries in order to reach the temple before them. Only one can reach the temple, will you be able to open it’s doors first…

Design and build a level in a solo project under a 3 months period. The project should display my design choices to make the level fun and challenging.

Planning, designing and coding one level with some memorable game moments. Some challenges of the project was to keep a balance between exploration-combat-puzzle and to let the player choose between combat or stealth at the encounters.

Disclaimer
The goal of the project was to showcase my ability to design a level. For this project I used packages on the Unity Store for the 3rd person character, the enemy AIs and most of the 3D assets.

I was responsible for Designing:

Greyboxing the level.
Create and model the terrain of the level.
Place the NPCs in the level and their patrol pathways.
Pacing the enemies encounters.
Balance the health and damage values of the different enemies NPCs.
Place the art assets in the level.
Create the lighting.

I was responsible for Coding:

A checkpoint system.
Health bar display on top of the NPCs.
Lantern puzzle (pick-up and placing assets system and more).
Text dialogue system of the NPCs.
Weapon UI of the player.
Character player health vignette.
Ammo display UI.
Health system of the player.
Respawn system of the player.
Stealth mechanic and vignette when the player is in tall grass.

I wanted to design a level inspired by one of my favorite game franchise, the Uncharted series.

I added some stealth mechanic to the cover-shooter mechanic in order to let the player choose between engage in combat or avoid it. The areas of the enemies encounters, are designed to let the player find cover with ease without making too easy for the player to hide in one place during combat. I also made a stealth pathway in all encounters to let an opportunity for the player to avoid combat. Those pathways are partially hidden to let the player explore the area while planning to avoid the enemies.
In contrast, I made the combat flexible enough to allow the player to fight more aggressively with the shotgun or more precise while using the pistol and hiding behind covers.

Overall, I wanted to design a level that gives the player the opportunity to engage in combat more aggressively or stealthy. In between fights, I wanted the player to enjoy exploring the areas and solving a puzzle to make a well balance pace for the level.

The map layout never truly changed in the development process. The level was design to be a linear experience and having the objective area (the temple) to almost always be visible to the player. It was important that this landmark to be seen by the player to help him know where he was in the level and to show the progress he made. That is why the 2 highest points are at the beginning of the level (giving a vintage point right at the start) and at the very end where the temple is located.

The playtests were very informative and the level got a lot of positive feedback. The players enjoyed a variety of different game moments (the lantern puzzle and the beach area were often mentioned) and they would often vary their playstyle in combat.

During the early playtests, some issues were found were it was possible to one shot kill most enemies by shooting their head with the pistol, making the encounter far too easy for the player, or a few confused instances in the puzzle section that got solved by adding text dialogue for the player.

The stealth mechanic can be use by the player to avoid combat or to loose the enemy pursuit. The player can hide in the tall grass to avoid being seen by the enemy AI and strategies an ambush or an escape.

When the player crouch in tall grass, the screen becomes a bit darker and blurry to signify to the player that he is hidden. Also, this effect limits the vision of the player pushing him to change position more frequently to see better his environment.

The combat mechanic needed to be flexible to allow the player to play more cautiously with the cover system or more aggressive and fast pace. The 2 weapons available to the player are a shotgun (for the close combat and aggressiveness) and a small pistol ( for longer range combat and precise shots). Both weapon have unlimited ammo to help the player avoid instances of searching bullets in the middle of combat. In combat, the player should feel confident and sometime take risks to have fun with that explosive gameplay.

The player health is displayed on the screen as blood stains when he is taking damage to help the player keep his focus in the middle of the screen and on the active combat.

The enemy health bar at the top of their heads helps the player make quick decisions between who to attack first.

The puzzle section is design to be very intuitive and to be solved quickly.
The player needs to make the large lantern rotate itself in order to make the light point at the exit of the area.

The player solves the puzzle by picking-up 3 different gears hidden in the area and placing them on the correct spot near the lantern in order to make it turn. After placing a gear, the lantern will rotate and point to the next location of the missing gear.

During the puzzle, the character will often “talk out loud” to the player giving directives and clues. It serves as an immersion tool and to help the player to know what to do next.

Issue
Early in the playtests, players found that the pistol gave them the ability to “snipe” enemies across the map, ending the combat easily.

Intended
I wanted the player to be able to take down enemies in close or mid range in order to use the cover mechanic and avoid a “sniping” issue.

Solution
I found that giving the player a shotgun still gave them the opportunity to sometimes kill in one shot but at the cost of attacking in close combat and the high possibility of getting damage. I also lowered the range and damage input of the pistol in order to use it more as a mid range weapon and precise shooting.