Lost Champions
Lost Champions was a Third-person Puzzle game framework created by an instructor at VFS for Unreal Engine 4.
Here, players alternate between 3 characters: A Druid, a Knight and a Wizard. Each of them can only do specific actions. The Druid can only jump, the Knight can attack and hit switches, and lastly, the Wizard can block projectiles and carry the others around. The goal was for students to create a puzzle adventure level with various puzzle ingredients and at least 3 complete puzzles using the provided assets along with custom-created assets.
Platform/Engine:
PC/UE 4
Genre:
Third-person Adventure
My Roles:
Level Designer
Responsibilities
Create the layout plan for the level
Script any custom ingredients that may be needed, as well as the puzzles, platforms, doors and AI Spawns
Whitebox, set dress, do a lighting pass and fully develop the level and playtest it to gather feedback
Level Features
Design philosophy focused on Discovery and Exploration in a Hub-and-spoke level
Five fully designed puzzles that make use of custom ingredients
Cinematic cameras that enhance the sense of progression
Design Challenges
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The level was conceived with a specific sense of progression in mind. First, the player would have access to only one character and must free the other two. As such, the first puzzle requires an understanding of the Knight's abilities, the second one requires the Wizard, the third and fourth requires both the Knight and the Wizard, and the last one requires all three characters but focuses on the Druid. Furthermore, the puzzles are self-contained but affect the bigger-picture puzzle of creating a bridge to the level's goal.
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I wanted the level to be full of "Ah-ha" moments as a reward for careful observation of the player's surroundings. While players explore and go further into the level, not only do some puzzle solutions require the player to carefully analyze the elements in each room, but also, some shortcuts can be discovered and give the player the sense that they are slowly conquering the space. In addition to that, the major sections of the level are color-coded to help players orientate themselves.
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To provide the player with as many high-quality puzzles as possible in the restricted space allowed, I always gave them all the tools they needed to solve the puzzles in the room where they take place or in the nearby area. To avoid undermining the challenge of each one through this approach, I have each puzzle demanding that the player understands each character well enough and discovers the ingredients by examining their surroundings.
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Because the level focuses on puzzle-solving and not on any specific narrative, the cinematic sequences present serve the sole purpose of showing the player that they are advancing towards their goal. It waessentialnt to get the camera angles and length right to avoid situations where players would struggle to locate wherever the cinematic was showing.
