Runner
Delivery
-
Project Status: Completed
-
Project Type: Personal
-
Project Duration: 1 week
-
Software Used: Unreal Engine
-
Languages Used: C++, Blueprints
-
Primary Role(s): Designer / Scripter
About Runner Delivery
Runner Delivery is a first-person parkour game that was made for a game development class I took in university called Game Level Design. The idea for the class was to create not only game levels that were fun to play but also consider at what stage of the level a challenge would appear and how to make a level with the mechanics already established in a game. The class required us to make a level mockup of the maps we wanted to make before creating them in Unreal. I decided to use SketchUp to do so as it better help deliver my point across. The following will be going through the thought process and reasonings behind decision made when designing the level
Starting area
This is where the player would spawn and start the game. When they do, a cutscene would play that would give them exposition regarding the job that the player character was hired to do alongside giving the player character the equipment needed for said job:
.png)
This is meant to be a small rooftop safe house that the company the player character was hired by had set up and where they stored some of their goods. This area served as a place for the player to not only get ready and prep up by picking up the items they need for the level, but also to show them and give a little insight as to the player character's life and what he does for a living.
Once the cutscene is done and the player character has picked up the gear, the player is expected to pick up the package at the door. Once that is done, the timer for the mission would start and the player would need to get to their destination before the timer runs out. To prevent the player from running out of the room without the package, the door to the safe house would be locked and would only open once the package has been picked up.
This whole level was designed as a tutorial level for the game and had design choices made and done to help teach player the mechanics of the game and how they are supposed to play. It also was meant to serve as a nice introduction to the city or area the player would be playing in for the rest of the game and see what life is like in this city as they run around.
As mentioned, these are important mechanics that the players need to learn if they want to play the game. These then needed to be considered when making the level as to when to teach them and how. I had debated for quite some time when I was designing it as to how can the players be taught these mechanics without pausing the game or making them stop as I didn't want to ruin the sense of speed and movement that I also wanted for a parkour game. I wanted the player to just keep moving.
My first idea was to include an NPC that would act like a supervisor to the player character on his first job that would do the moves that the player needed to learn and the player could do it after him. But that was difficult to do as I was the only programmer for this game and I had no clue how to do so, so I had to come up with an alternative. I eventually landed on the choice to include voice message that would play each time the player reach a new obstacle and teach them the mechanic audibly. The game timer was then lengthen to account for this.
I even added visual and environmental differences to places that players can and are supposed to interact with. For example, the metal beams and streetlights the player are meant to jump on are made wider and have footprints on them to show that people can and had run on top of them. Wall climbing and wall running areas had special brick like patterns to them as well as footprint decals to indicate the same thing as the metal beams and streetlights.
First run in with mechanics
The game has a total of 3 different times where the player would be introduced to 3 mechanics that would be important for them to know throughout the game. These would be jumping on objects to traverse a gap, wall climbing and wall running:
Adding challenge into the level
These were added into the level as a way to test the player's skill and make the gameplay more interesting. These challenges are made with the idea of giving the players the feel that they are a parkour master mixed with some suspension of disbelief:
After the player cleared the 3 areas where they had to learn the game's mechanic, the level then gives them obstacles that immediately put it to the test. Players are now having to jump across tall buildings, scale walls hundreds of feet above in the air and jump mid air to land on a moving object suspended in mid air. All of these challenge progressively gets harder as the player reaches the end of the level.
The reason for such a thing in the level is I wanted to challenge the players and see if they really understood and learned all the mechanics that was taught. I also wanted to give the player the sense of what it's like to actually do parkour in real life. I've done parkour back when I was younger and it takes a lot of quick thinking and decision making skills to overcome an unexpected obstacle in front of you as well. But doing so, gives you that rush of adrenaline and wanting for more as you basically soar through the rooftops. I wanted to capture that feeling in the game and had more and more challenging obstacles that felt like they came out of nowhere, but still used the mechanics that was taught and nothing new to the player, in order to do so.
Another reason was also because that the game takes place in a metropolitan city that is packed and has all the hustle and bustle you'd come to expect from it. I included these obstacles to reflect the busy nature of the city where something is constantly happening and as someone who did parkour in past, this things come up often where a run became more difficult because of construction or crowd events. You just have to roll with and figure out on the fly how you want to overcome it during your run.