Remnants in the sand
Navigators:
About
Remnants in the sand is a third-person traversal game with some platforming elements. You play as Arlo, a brave kid who has stumbled into enemy territory whilst exploring ruins of a bygone civilization.
For this project, we have made the switch to the new Unreal Engine 5, as it had just been fully released, and with the Nanite and Lumen features that it contained, it was very appealing for us to use it, as it would mean that our Artists would be able to create highly detailed meshes that would be both perform well and look realistic.
Details
Primary Role:
Level designer
Secondary Role: Game designer
Engine:
Unreal Engine 5
Team Size:
26
Duration:
8 weeks
Platform:
PC
Software’s used:
- UE 5
- Jira
- Perforce
- Miro
Main Responsibilities
- Concept and develop levels for both cinematic and gameplay purposes. Servicing the needs of the cinematic and narrative direction
- Full level breakdown and quality assurance through various professional LD documents
- Set dress and create benchmark scenes for cinematic and environmental purposes
- Full ownership of the onboarding level and all playable surfing sections including the ones used for the cinematic demo trailer
- Maintain a Miro board valuable for large team game productions and visual communication as well as industry showcase presentable
1. Research & Concepting
1. For level design I researched potential LD ingredients for surfing and surfing as a mechanic and its behavior.
Surfing behavior:
Research Behavior.pptx
Surfing challenges:
SandSurfing Challenges.pptx
2. During concepting I also worked on an intensity graph in order to visualize the player’s experience throughout the level which was made in collaboration with other disciplines like the cinematic and narrative strike teams.
Miro GDM: Miro board
2. Blockout and Production
1. At some point management decided we cannot handle the scope, so I decided to propose solution to cut out my surfing section by ~60% and use the surfing section for a cinematic introduction of the game. That meant that I had to work with the cinematic team for each shot of the composition while maintaining the narrative’s direction of the game.
2. With this in mind the team also entrusted me with set dressing and lighting the surfing section I made for the cinematic. Communication between narrative and cinematic designers was key.
3. I also did some examples of why I chose to use the landscape tool for the surfing mechanic instead of using modular meshes that would take forever to polish and adjust to the needs of the mechanic.
3. QA and Documentation
1. For quality assurance I followed a COS document of the latest iterations while fixing and identifying a lot of bugs along the way.
Remnants_COS.xlsx
2. Made a level design document (LDD) of the game including the level’s overview with user story per each section.
LDD – RemnantsInTheSand.pptx
4. Other Work
1. Full ownership of the team’s Miro landing page and overall organization and maintenance of the board.
Personal Post-Mortem
For a covid project this was a pretty good result of what a newly formed team managed to achieve in 7 weeks. Overall, it was the first time I felt like I worked in a professional environment surrounded by talented people. A lot of learnings from this one but the most prominent one is scope consideration and awareness. I think considering scope before any project begins is key for a healthier and better game development process, like how often does the stakeholder or product owner change their mind and how new are the developers to their tools are just some of the important factors to consider.
As for what brought me difficulties, I would definitely bring out the covid situation. It was not pleasant to not be able to see, talk and work with people in person. Sitting in an open call during work days definitely helped though.
Another key learning outcome is getting my work cut and adapting to the new process or direction or whatever the needs of the projects are. Getting used to that was an important lesson!
Peer Reviews
I want to praise you for following production and level design pipelines, overall, very organized, constantly trying to improve Miro and looking for feedback to work with. Amazing paint overs as well!
It's really nice to see you are always in the voice channels in discord that way I know you are reliable, and I can trust that you are there. Your contribution to Miro is phenomenal and I give you the title of Miro Guru. When we worked on the surfing these past few days it was really nice to see how fast you made a gym level that incorporates what I have made, and it was cool to look at and test from different angles and that got me excited.
I never met you, but I really love you, Michael. Your communication is very good and really appreciated. You also reached out just to compliment on my work and check on my progress and that feels really great cause not many people do that so thank you very much for this effort in communication.
Amazing job on the surfing parts. I was really surprised and wanted to point out and compliment the way you took feedback especially with the outside sand surfing part. Me, Mate and Ties were worried and skeptical about the outside surfing space but the way you calmly explained your ideas and vision made things a lot clearer for us and that convinced us, of your work, so props on that.
Amazing job on the surfing parts. I was really surprised and wanted to point out and compliment the way you took feedback especially with the outside sand surfing part. Me, Mate and Ties were worried and skeptical about the outside surfing space but the way you calmly explained your ideas and vision made things a lot clearer for us and that convinced us, of your work, so props on that.
You explain things very well and you share your thoughts, and you make them very clear which helps us understand your vision and also the fact that you are always available and always online, and I wish I had more opportunities to talk with you.