“Late Bloomer” (Level Design)
Tutorial Level for Spark the Dragon
Level Design Document and Gameplay Excerpt for “Spark”, built in UE4.25.
Gameplay/Technical Design by Scott Morin.
Level Design by Alex Dault.
Character Voices by Chloe Payne.
Level Pitch
Slide Deck for the “Late Bloomer” Level Pitch.
Concept
Spark struggles to hatch from his egg and keep up with his siblings in the Valley of Dragons.“Late Bloomer” teaches the Player their primary actions (Move, Jump, Fly, Swim, Breath Attack) while telling the story of Spark's hatching in five beatsand introducing us to his siblings: Ion, Volta and Blaze.
A) The Nest
1.Break Your Egg
•Collide with 5 Unique Objects (Rocks, other Eggs)
•Other Eggs will avoid you as they roll around!
•Rocks recede into the Nest as they are hit so cannot be struck twice.
•Fly out of the nest and follow Ion.
B) Skyborne
2. Follow Ion.
•The Player must jump from cloud to cloud, sometimes the tops of pillars, and reach the end of the area to advance.
•Ion will shout encouragement to you.
•If Player dies they respawn at the start of an area (See Layout)
•The Player then must navigate on their own. They encounter owl enemies who can be killed with Fire Breath.
•Ion will offer tips on beating the enemies.
3. Race Blaze.
•Blaze challenges Spark to a race and takes off.
•This initiates a timer countdownof 2:00 minutes.
•Blaze will attempt to get ahead of Spark and taunt him from a distance.
•Blaze will lose no matter what, as long as Spark reaches the destination within two minutes.
C) Descent to the Canyon
4. Glide Down.
•This is an easy section where the Player experiences a short cutscene and drifts down into the Canyon below.
D) Exploring the Canyon
5.Volta’s Challenge
•Volta declares a challenge: whoever can find the most gems, wins.
6. Canyon Zone A
•The player must explore the canyon area and scavenge to find the most gems.
•These are hidden all over Canyon Zone A. Some are easy to find and positioned to draw the player into new areas of the map.
•Some Gems are up on rock formations and out of reach and require some platform jumping.
•The player discovers entrances to two new areas of the map, a cave and the entrance to a forest (Canyon Zone B and Canyon Zone C) which they can complete in any order but must complete both areas in order for the gate to the final area (Tree of Sorrows) to open.
•This area contains a gate leading to the Tree of Sorrows. Ion tells Spark she doesn’t think he has enough gems to proceed.
7. Canyon Zone B
•Upon entering the area, an event is triggered. Blaze is fighting off Scorpionsand the Player must fight them off.
•The Player cannot leave the area until they completethis “Beef Gate”, respawning at entry if they die.
•There are a number of carefully hidden gems in this area which reward the Player’s careful exploration.
•12 Gems Total in this Area
8. Canyon Zone C
•Upon entering this area, Ion tells Spark to pay close attention to the way logs roll, framing a puzzle for the player to solve.
•There are no enemies in this area to fight.
•The player must solve a small logic puzzle in this area to cause trees to fall and create a path to platforms with gems.
E) Volta Defeated
9. The Tree of Sorrows
•When the player has collected 30 gems and completes the encounters in Zone B and Zone C, the gate to the Tree of Sorrows area will open.
•Entry to the Tree of Sorrows area completes the level.
