Oasis

Game Plot

The player is tasked with Taming and stealing wild plants from Plant-people and return back to where he started.

1 3 weeks

Explore, Stealth

My Role

LEVEL DESIGNER

Generalist

Initial Plan

Final top-down view of level

🌿 Meet Dionaea Sanguineae 🦇 - the rare Venus flytrap with a vampiric edge, emerging from Siberian swamps, born out of the remnants of the Ice Age melt_ Handle with care 🧛_♂️ Sporting vampire-like teeth, D.jpg

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Moodboard

Narrative

An oasis with ruins of abandoned human structures and overgrown plants, currently occupied by plant people.
Plant people take care of Wild Plants which can be Tamed by magical Feathers.
There are some buildings and a cave with carvings,under the water, showing that this location was not covered by water in the past.

Mechanics

Climb
- allow player to traverse space in different elevations. the level uses this feature a lot.
Swimming
- two types of water.shallow water-> walk
- deep water-> swim, breathing between the rest spots
Taming Plants:
- the wild plants can be tames by getting tickled by the feathers of the magical birds.

Overview

Characteristics

porous design
2 main paths for player
- ground and under water
Same start and finish point
Path behind the waterfall
Use elevation to avoid guards
Lots of places to explore

under water

underwater exploration

Cave: history of magical plants and birds

water is safe but you must breath.

space for breathing has been considered.

there are a few treasures that can be found here.

there is a path leading to the caves

glowing plants to provide light.

Hidden Path to treasure

Treasures can be found by exploring

Hidden paths behind the water fall, under the cave and under the oasis water pool

Vista, Landmark

Waterfall.

The broken Bridge

remains of human homes.

Stealth

the plant people, tend to the plants and if player is seen by them will be thrown out.. meaning start from the last checkpoint.
The Stealth Part is used to introduce the Wild Plants and show players that they can fall into the water.

pickups

There are the same number of feathers and wild plants.
Most plants are easy to find while feathers need more exploration.
- showing the need for a solution before providing it.
Treasure boxes in places that are harder to find and need more through explorations. two of them can easily be seen but not easy to reach. resulting in engaging the players to try to reach them.
A low number of treasures to make them feel meaningful and memorable.

Playtest Insights

If player takes the water path, they get the feathers without needing them first.
Finding treasure chests feel fulfilling
It is interesting to search the area
The houses on the mountain are prominent. Players would like to go there.

Further Steps

Vertical slice of the game.

Swimming -> swivel

Level Design

Player Choice

Some players enjoyed standing on a high area to see where they needed to go to achieve a goal.

in some areas players would feel like they could not plan for it.

This is something I had not planed for from the beginning and I had make adjustments afterwards.

Plan for emotional engagement

I was mostly focused on player having fun and be interested in areas.

I think the level would benefit from more planning on emotional experience of the player.

Key Takeaways

Making levels with modular assets make the process faster and easy to scale.
Show the problem before the solution.
If collecting Pickups is not an important factor of the game make them few and memorable.
the vista and more detailed blockout parts attracted lots of interest and positive emotional feedback.
Having treasures that players can see but don't know how to reach helps with engaging them and encouraging exploration.

Mistakes Made and Lessons Learned

Thanks for Reading