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Virtual Insanity and Donuts
Project Overview
Project Type: Finished game, published on Steam
Project Development: 9/2024 – 12/2024
Team: 5 Senior Computer Science majors
Role: Sole Level Designer
Genre: Virtual Reality Horror Game
Engine: Unity Engine
Tools: Unity's built-in 3D scene editor, Lighting, and Textures
Platform: Windows and Mac
Project Responsibilities
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Responsible for building and texturing structures, placing props, lighting, and creating ideal atmosphere for all levels.
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Collaborated with gameplay designers, programmers, and artists to ensure levels fit the needs of core gameplay and artistic design.
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Made frequent and well documented updates to GitHub branches to ensure software stability. Fixed bugs resulting in texture glitches and made changes in response to player feedback before project deadline.
Level Design Process Breakdown
1. Define Problem and Constraints
This part of my design process involves defining the most significant problem to solve to ensure the project's success. As well as identifying the constraints to consider when creating a plan to solve the problem.
Early greybox of the level design structure required for the gameplay
Problem
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Design and develop multiple unique and unsettling levels while limited to a single room with 4 exits.
Constraints
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Limited to using Unity's built-in 3D objects and what our 3D artist is able to produce.
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Three-month deadline.
2. Create a Plan
This part of my design process involves creating a plan to solve the most significant problem while considering the constraints.
Plan
Find creative ways to make levels unique and unsettling, even with minimal 3D objects and limited time.
This plan served me personally with the work I was doing. Although there was a development process for my team and goals expected of me individually. What allowed me to complete these goals well was my own design process.
Strategies
The strategies I came up with to follow through on this plan were, first and foremost, environmental storytelling, which is using the environment to communicate information and emotion to the player. Second to that, atmosphere, which can be reinforced using textures and lighting. Lastly, maintaining realism through attention to detail.
The crooked sign shows a picture of a monster with a flashlight pointed at it
The exit sign fell on the floor
Atmosphere
Atmosphere refers to the emotions an environment makes the player feel. Picking the right lighting and textures for the mood of the game can make a significant difference in the atmosphere.
Mismatched lighting or textures can be incredibly distracting to the player. While textures and lighting that create the desired mood of the game can immerse the player in the environment.
In this project, dark textures and minimal lighting aided the horror atmosphere needed to elevate gameplay experience. By being precise with lighting and textures, I could create the desired unsettling feeling even with the project's constraints.
Environmental Storytelling
Environmental storytelling in level design is the technique of using a game's physical space, assets, lighting, and layout to convey narrative without explicit dialogue or text.
While the story is very limited in this project, the technique still proved quite useful. The goal of using this strategy would be to get the most out of the 3D objects I had at my disposal. Rather than placing them arbitrarily, they could be used to make the level unique.
This could be done by placing the objects in a way that can communicate something to the player. Allowing the opportunity to create an unsettling environment.
Low ambient light and dark yellow carpet
Flashlight on stone wall and dark red carpet
This table is a quarter of the height of the player when standing upright
Realism
Similar to the atmosphere of a game, the goal of realism is to immerse the player in the game. However, the means is not through emotion but in how realistic the environment feels.
Maintaining attention to detail is necessary to ensure the environment appears realistic and keeps the player immersed in the experience. Through realism, the limitations of the project can be offset by keeping the player immersed.
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In this project, one way to realism was maintainted was through the accurate size and behavior of 3D objects in the environment.
3. Execute and Iterate
This part of my design process involves executing the plan created in the previous step. As well as iterating the whole process if needed to account for unforeseen problems that arise during execution.
Execution
In executing my plan for this project, I did not run into any issues that required iterating through the problem and planning phases. Execution of the strategies I chose in the planning phase proved successful. The results of executing the plan excellently accounted for the problem addressed in phase one.
Shown below are examples of the plan in action and strategies being used.
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Table and mug knocked over
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Open Expanse
(Atmosphere)
​Rather than hide the open expanse of carpet behind the walls containing the player. I used this underdeveloped platform to create the unsettling atmosphere we wanted for this horror game.
The idea involved removing one of the walls of the level so that the expanse of yellow carpet was completely visible to the player. As well as placing a table far out into the expanse to draw the attention of the player.
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The table furthers the unsettling feeling by begging the question, who put a table in this endless expanse of carpet?
Examples of Plan Execution​​
Table and Mug
(Environmental Storytelling)
The table and mug were knocked over. Although simple, this subtle design choice makes excellent use of 3D objects by communicating that something or someone knocked the table over.
The player noticing this detail can create an unsettling feeling, confirming to them that they are in danger. This choice simultaneously serves to make the level stand out.​​
Carpet
(Atmosphere)
The choice to make a variety of carpet textures was very deliberate. The goal of which was to create a liminal space. An environment that mixes familiar and unfamiliar spaces.
This type of environment creates an unsettling feeling because it violates our expectations of familiar spaces, something the human brain looks for naturally without thinking.
Carpet is often associated with environments people are familiar with. Whereas a mostly barren expanse is unfamiliar and creates feelings of isolation. The result of this strange combination is an environment that is both unsettling and isolating simultaneously.
The player must grapple with these emotions while forced to navigate to the exit. Surrounded by monsters hiding in the shadows that can only be heard.
Open expanse fully visible through open wall
Examples of liminal spaces
Noteworthy Project Details
Agile Scrum Methodology
This project had more involved planning than my previous projects, as we utilized an adapted version of the Agile Scrum Methodology in the project's development. This means we operated within work cycles called sprints, which provide deliverables by each sprint deadline.
Advantages
Two strong advantages of this approach are quick results and feedback-based development.
This allows for confirmation that the target audience is interested and prevents the overdevelopment of ideas that are only good on paper.
After each two-week sprint, we discussed each other's work and provided direction on further development. We then selected new goals for the next sprint. This provided us freedom to adapt quickly and avoid wasted efforts.
Our adapted Agile Scrum development cycle
Goal Matrix
In addition to the Scrum Methodology, we used a Goal Matrix.
This kept our expectations in check, as we were responsible for creating the limits of our own project.
This is incredibly important when having creative freedom on a project. Prioritizing core functionality features over more exciting ones can prevent scrambling to create necessary features before a deadline. While also preserving great ideas, which can be implemented if time allows.
A portion of our goal matrix with three types of goals, our goals, and the names of members who claimed those goals
Implementing Feedback
During our testing with students on one of the latest versions of the project. It came to our attention that many students were not able to see anything in the environment because the ambient light was too low.
Our team failed to realize this because, in our testing, we used the flashlight at all times. However, our playtesters did not know how to turn on the flashlight immediately, which made the lack of ambient light evident.
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After making the change, it provided a huge improvement to the visibility with and without the flashlight while maintaining the horror environment we aimed to create.
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