Beta Arcade

Beta Arcade was a 10 person group project, with teams consisting of artists, designers and developers.
For this project, I was the lead mission/level designer.
We decided to make an early 2000s style horror game, with a similar feel to Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
As part of my role, I worked closely and coordinated with the narrative designers, puzzle designers and art teams.

I started by researching Resident evil and other similar games, finding out how the levels flow to give the player a mix of downtime, balancing puzzle solving with action and intense situations.
We settled on creating an abandoned underground lab. With this, I started on a first draft of a floor plan.
I decided on three distinct areas, allowing us to showcase different experiences; from an open lobby area that gives the player more room to kite danger, to a more tight and enclosed basement.
I put the large lobby in the centre of the level, for a navigation point that could be routed through from other areas, to keep the player with an idea of where they are in the level.
A flow/intensity chart was made to communicate the pace of the game to the team.

Playtesting and iteration

I've improved my ability to guide the player using layout, sight lines, lighting and environmental cues to make navigation and objectives clear.
I developed a stronger iterative blockout workflow, learning how to rapidly prototype, test, and refine a levels layout based on design goals.
I've got better at collecting feedback from play testers, off of both their responses and player behaviour while watching them play and at iterating off of that feedback.

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