Position: Level Designer
- Greyboxing
- Outlining
- Level Design and Player Flow Control
- Greyboxing
- Outlining
- Level Design and Player Flow Control
Timeframe: November 2024 - December 2024
Team Size: 6
Description: Cryptid Click is a fast-paced time attack game. You play as Perm Clickinson on a quest to become rich and famous. You accomplish that by creating a fake version of the Loch Ness monster, taking a picture of it, and selling it to newspapers. You will run around the camp, planning your route and trying to build your fake Loch Ness monster as fast as you can.
Biggest Inspiration: Teardown
Engine: Unreal Engine
Objectives
- Build a level that is going to be played multiple times and optimized for speedrunning
- Creating shortcuts that reward skilled players
- Working with a team of 3d modelers and communicating with them what I need
Level Version History
Version 1: Initial In-Engine Graybox
Version 2: Landscaped Shape and Model Imports
Version 3: Created a fence spline to enforce pathing
Version 4: Played with the scaling of the fence and other imported assets
Version 5: Started adding outside landscaping to obscure player view from the void
Version 6: Added tree variation and overall more trees to enforce that the player is in the woods
Map Overview
The player both starts and ends at the pond where they are building the fake loch ness monster. I made this decision because it felt important to show the player the main objective of the entire game from the start. As you can see from there are multiple instances of some items in order to create the idea of planning a route and creating different routes for different players. For example: A player could have a route that is based around the log on the right side of the map while another player could have one based on the log on the left side of the map
Level Design Ideas
Bushes
Bushes have collision and were intentionally put into the game as shortcuts to hop the fence. The fences are actually a pathing tool that coincides with the yellow path rather than any kind of hard wall to keep players out. Bushes are intentionally placed so that they allow for quick little skips to and from the certain areas of the game. It also is just inherently fun for a player to "jump the fence" it makes them feel like they are taking a shortcut when in reality they are taking a pathing route that we intended for them to take.
Bushes have collision and were intentionally put into the game as shortcuts to hop the fence. The fences are actually a pathing tool that coincides with the yellow path rather than any kind of hard wall to keep players out. Bushes are intentionally placed so that they allow for quick little skips to and from the certain areas of the game. It also is just inherently fun for a player to "jump the fence" it makes them feel like they are taking a shortcut when in reality they are taking a pathing route that we intended for them to take.
Holes in the Fence
If the player does not discover the fact that they can use the bushes to "jump the fence", I have also included these very hard to miss holes in the fence that the player can use to still get that "shortcut" feeling. I put these holes on the highest part of the map so that the player can be of use when the player has the umbrella and when they do not.
Verticality
Verticality is a really important part of the game. Players can throw items up to higher locations as a makeshift timesaver. Skilled players will have massive piles of items they have thrown upwards to save time and get faster times.
Link to Itch Page