Klemens Reckfort
Level Design - Game Programming - Game Design
Project Purge (2016)
Reclaim The Lost Territory:
"After Years in Obscurity, They have Decided to Reclaim the Lost Territory. As a Drone, You have been Sent to Clear the Area of the Remaining Harvester Drones with your EMP. Explore your Surroundings and Destroy the Fleeing Drones in order to Achieve Your Goal.“
About The Game Project:
Game:
First Person Exploration Game
Team Size:
Three
Date:
October 2015 - March 2016
Game Engine:
Unreal Engine 4
Achievements:
• Level Design focussing on Architectual Design and Atmosphere
• Designing efficient Workflows for the Team
• Successfully designed and implemented Game Design Critical Descisions
My Tasks:
• Level Design
• Game Programming
• Taking Care of the Content the Artists built to provide best Usability and Performance
• Developing efficient Workflows
• Optimizing Time Critical Processes
Production:
We wanted to design a Visual Appealing Exploration Game, so we had to Focus on the Player Movement, the NPCs that will let the Players make want to Hunt and the Level Design. I took care of the Production and Design of these Three Aspects.
Game Programming – Player Movement:
After testing Different Camera Angles and Player Movement Patterns, we decided that it would be best to let the Players explore the Game in a flying First Person View.
But to provide Control on how the Players will see the world as we want, we Restricted the Flying Height to a Certain Level above Ground.
After that I tested the Possibility for the Players to “Wallride”, which means they can Fly Above Architecture in a sense of Climbing Walls by Floating Above Them.
The Idea was to give the Players New View Angles while Discovering their Surroundings. To Achieve this, I built a Testing Ground to get the Right Rotation and View Angles for the Player and Camera.
In the end I had to take the Feature of Wallriding out of the Game because the Camera View Rotations Riding a Wall disoriented the Players more than it Helped to achieve New and Interesting Point of Views and Camera Angles.
Game Programming – NPC Movement:
NPCs will not only add some Background Story to the Game, they will also Provide a Game Goal and the Possibility to let the Players hunt and therefore Explore the Gameworld.
I decided to use a System of Paths and Crossings that I can easily add into the Gameworld. This way I had Full Control about how the NPCs will Fly and Behave.
The NPCs in general just have the Simple Task to Spread Homogeneously and Try to Flee on sighting the Players.
Level Design:
The First Level Designs sectioned the Map into Three Different Areas, each providing One Conceptional Focus: Forest, Architecture and a Mix of Both.
I had to think about a New Level Design because as you might have Noticed through the Video, it is very hard for the players to Recognize the Architecture to Orient Themselves.
Also the Level Design does not help our Goal to let the Player want to explore the Whole Gameworld. Some Players might feel Confident inside the Architectual Area and so they wont Leave it.
I started working on a New Concept, spreading Architecture around the Map, creating Small Individual Areas, each with its own Architectual Style and Atmosphere, using Terrain and Forest as Areas in Between.
This time I used the Light from the only Light Source I had, the Sun, to build up the Level Design and Architecture.
At some points I let the Sunlight Shine through some Holes just to catch it with a Wall at Another Place to then use it as Guidance in Darker Areas, also lightening them up through Indirect Lighting and Light Baking.
