Ben Fellows
Level Design Projects
This page consists of the projects I made while in a graduate level design course while also working as a teaching assistant for the undergraduate level design class. I've included details about each project below with a video including voiceover as I playthrough each level and explain my thought process.
Roles: Designer
Engine: Unreal
Team Size: 1
Production Dates: January 2024 - May 2024
Project 1: Location Study
The location study involved going to a real-world space and creating 3 molecule maps of the area. From those molecule maps, I made 3 top-down maps for potential levels. We then exchanged these maps with others in our class and created basic block outs in Unreal. We were limited to no more than 5 basic, flat materials with the only mechanics being walking and jumping.
Project 2: Side-Scroller
We were tasked with designing a 2D level inspired by the game of our choice (Shovel Knight). The level had to include a ramping of difficulty via Mario 3D World's 4-step level design that The Game Maker Toolkit outlines as introduce a mechanic, develop it, twist it, master it. I made my mechanic the shovel drop where hitting down in the air allows you to destroy blocks below you when you land and my twist was a block that bounced you high up when you landed on it.
Levels had to include moving elements, a pick-up, hazards, sounds/music, and all assets had to be made by us (with the exception of the player character where I did use someone else's sprites.) I also included a checkpoint system and an additional dig forward mechanic that I made.
Project 3: Shovel Knight Odyssey
Our final project was essentially to apply the 2D project requirements into a 3D space. The game I chose this time was Super Mario Odyssey with a focus on the cap throw and possession mechanic. I designed an area that started with a basic tutorial of the cap throw which let you destroy blocks and bounce on it for extra height.
This led to an area where you could choose between continuing your development with the cap throw or an area where you would learn about possession. I pulled from my 2D project here and made the capturable creature Shovel Knight. This required you to solve platforming challenges using the shovel drop in a 3D space.
The final area was a combination of both. It required you to swap between using a Shovel Knight and using your own cap throws to progress to the end.
As part of this project, I wrote a design document before getting in engine and created a 2D map of the space defining objectives, boundaries, pickup placements, and game metrics (jump heights, cap throw distance etc.) I also created a gym to experiment and define these.
