Souls of the Wind
This game was developed entirely remotely, due to COVID-19!
This was my thesis game project, developed over 8 months for my Master's program. It survived three rounds of cuts and prototypes to become one of five games produced by our cohort (graduating 2021). I was one of two vision holders for this game.
Roles:
- Environment Artist
- Level designer
- Writer/Narrative Designer
Some of my Contributions
Environment Art
As this was a student project for my master's program at the University of Utah, we had the distinct limitation of not having enough people for every job that needed to get done. Most of the environment artists in my cohort were assigned to different games, so those of us on Souls of the Wind had to improvise.
This meant that we had to turn to the Unreal Marketplace in order to populate the majority of our game, and so I took on the task of finding asset packs that would mesh well together. I also assisted to create hero assets that were too specific to our game to be able to find on the marketplace. From there, I was responsible for putting together modular guidelines for the level designers to use.
This job blended nicely with my responsibilities as the narrative designer, in order to keep environment assets in line with the intended presentation of the game, narratively.
Level Design
My main responsibility as a Level Designer in Souls of the Wind was to craft our "hometown" level, otherwise known as the hub space. From here, the player can go to the different levels where the majority of the gameplay takes place.
One of my particular challenges for this level was to keep it open, like a sandbox, so that the player could explore and speak with NPCs to their leisure, while still keeping the space populated enough so that there weren't too many open, boring spaces.
It was a learning process for me, and now that the game is released, there are so many things I would change; that is, if I had time. The biggest thing I learned, however, was probably that there are some inevitabilities in the game development process, and all you can do is the best you can do with the time and resources you have at your disposal!
I was responsible for almost all aspects of this level, from start to finish. My process began with our prototype level, which was a proof-of-concept. In this iteration, I took inspiration from simple, blocky architecture found in the middle east and in southwestern indigenous american settlements.
Once our project was greenlit, I went back to the drawing board so that I could design with our new production needs in mind; that being, four different cultures all coming together as one, with a hub-and-spoke sort of model when it comes to getting to the other levels where the majority of gameplay takes place. This level went through many small iterations until it began to feel right.
I was responsible not only for placing major assets and adjusting/painting terrain, but also for populating the level with both NPCs and props. This included creating vignettes for story opportunities and ways to introduce optional but flavorful information to the player.
Before
After
Writer/Narrative Designer
My job as the writer/narrative designer on this project was to make sure I was staying in contact with every piece of the project that I could, from mechanics designers to level designers to artists and everyone in between. My biggest job, however, was probably to keep in contact with our vision holder to make sure that everything in the game was in line with the creative vision.
I wrote and implemented all dialogue you see in the game, using in-house systems designed for me by our engineers. I also placed all NPCs and directed the systems required to ensure the game was immersive and had that "lived-in" feel.
