DIOGO GUERREIRO
GAME DESIGNER
SAVING BETSY
Platform: PC
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Team Size: 1
Role: Level Designer
Overview
Saving Betsy was designed during the CGMA Level Design for Games course, where each week I would create a playable blockout in a different genre or theme that would have to adhere to certain broad guidelines. For the week where this level was created, the goal was to create a level that played around with scale, making a small character inhabit a larger world.
Narrative Context
Play as a toy in a toy shop. Your girlfriend, Betsy, also a toy, got picked up by a lady and is about to leave the store forever! You can't let that happen! Follow the lady and save Betsy!
Guiding the Player and Maximizing Space
The player is mainly guided through the level by following an NPC, which gives the player a sense of general direction as well as a sense of urgency, as losing sight of that NPC leads to a failure state. On top of that, I used geometry to guide the player throughout the level, so the NPC gives the player a general sense of direction while the geometry guides the player moment to moment while they move in that general direction.
Using space, shapes and NPC to guide the Player
Using space, shapes and NPC to guide the Player
Using space, shapes and NPC to guide the Player
Using space, shapes and NPC to guide the Player
When it comes to maximizing space, I had the NPC move through the level in a circular or spiral way, making it so the player goes all around the shop and even comes back to where the level started allowing for the player to see and experience the same place in two very different ways. For instance, the boxes that at the start serve mostly to frame the initial direction to the player are later used as platforms.
The boxes at the start guide the Player's vision towards the initial path
Later in the Level, those same boxes are used as platforms
Top-Down view of the level + Golden Path