Lua Zoe Ying
Game Designer | Level Designer
ENA
Level Designer | Environment Artist
ENA Game Trailer
Overcome obstacles through platforming and puzzle solving!
Use ENA's abilities to solve puzzles!
Explore the Virtual World and delete the virus!
Description
ENA is a Third Person 3D Puzzle Platformer where Ena, a tech prodigy, explores her computer's Virtual System to bring down Viruses. Ena made a mistake of downloading illegal games, which causes her computer to be infected by Viruses. Sadly, her anti-virus is unable to detect the them. Fortunately, technology in the Year 2099 is advanced enough for her to load herself into the system to locate the viruses herself!
Join Ena as she overcomes obstacles and puzzles to bring down the virus!
Roles
Duration
Aug 2017 - April 2018
(Joined January 2018)
Team Size
7
Engine
Unity3D
Level Design
After joining the team, I was tasked to design a segment of a new level. This segment's concept is to take everything that the player had learned to challenge them. As it is one of the final levels of the game, our team wanted to challenge our players.
Roles
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Come up with a new gimmick to further apply what the player has learned in the previous levels.
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Plan out level design on paper
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Iterate and further improve on the level once feedback is gathered.
Planning the Level
With the overall aim of the level in mind, which is to create a level for the player to apply whatever they have learned in the game so far, I started planning how to segment the level. I separated it to different parts with micro objectives, then moved on to doing individual rooms.
The level was split into 4 different segments, each with their own micro objectives which I would like to achieve
The segment is then separated to rooms for more in-depth objectives. (e.g. specific puzzles, obstacles, using of abilities I would want to achieve)
As this is a 3D game, my paper planning includes 2 different views of the level. This is to ensure that height is also shown in the layout, so that my team can understand the level through the layout. This also allows the level to be more easily built as there is a better understanding of how I plan to place objects.
The room's top down view and side view is drawn.
The room is then built in Unity
The room's top down view and side view is drawn.
New Gimmick for the level
The challenge the team faced for the game was how to make Ena's abilities (scaling and freezing objects) more challenging. As the previous levels have established that the abilities are used for traversing, I decided that my new gimmick should focus on the player applying her abilities to solve puzzles, and also to add another layer of difficulty for traversing.
I have decided to go with the "Data Link" gimmick, where an object must break or restore the link in order to turn on/off another gimmick. This has to be done with using an object such as a box, or Ena could stand at where the link is channeling to break it as well.
When the link of restored/broken, another gimmick it is linked to will be switched on/off
The Data Link is used to stop the Moving Saw, so that the folder and saw will no longer move together.
The Data Link is used for puzzle-solving. Ena's freeze ability is needed to break the link and off the Fan, allowing the key to fall and be retrieved.
With this, I was able to add another layer of difficulty on already existing gimmicks. The player has to apply what they already know about the existing gimmicks with this new Data Link gimmick to overcome traversal obstacles.
Also, Ena's abilities have been used primarily to traverse through obstacles. With the new Data Link gimmick, it also prompts the player to use Ena's abilities for puzzle solving, while applying their knowledge of already existing gimmicks.
Environment Artist
Upon joining the team, I was presented with the problem that the game world did not look like a virtual world, and that the dark-looking elements in the environment had to be changed, as the story-line had been changed to a more lighthearted one.
As such, I had to redesign the entire environment to make it look more like a "virtual world", and also find ways to populate the area.
Roles
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Finding reference pictures and games for the game environment
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Modelling and texturing environment pieces in the game
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Creating modular buildings for quick and easy populating of the game world
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Ensuring that all environment elements can be linked to the "virtual world" so as to create a world that is more alive and interesting.
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Placing all art assets in the game engine.
Creating the Virtual World
Through some research and referencing other games, we decided that use more bright colours, and more squarish shapes and lines on buildings should be used to create a virtual look.
Props such as folders moving in the sky, as well as circuits, are used to portray the "computer world" Ena is in. To add more story to the environment, some clues have also been placed in the form of text and error messages on the environment, so that the player can explore and get to know the Virtual World better.
The first level has a Blue colour theme to it.
Folders moving in the sky add more life to the world.
Many error messages are shown throughout the world to hint at where Ena is going, and what is going on.
The first level has a Blue colour theme to it.
I have also considered the level design and how to create props that not only belong in the virtual world, but also serve some sort of purpose. Bright lines are also incorporated into the props in order to direct the player's eyes towards certain objects, or the path that the player should take.
The computer chip's lines is used to highlight the item Ena can pick up in front of her.
The bright lines on the computer chip props are used to direct the player's eyes to a certain direction
Each element is colour coded by how they interact with the player (red is bad, yellow is neutral, etc.) so that the player can quickly associate the colours and identify elements in the game quickly. Elements such as open circuits and lasers are threats to the player. They are colour coded as red. On the other hand, other elements that are neutral such as fans, boxes, moving folders, spinning cogs, are of the white to yellow colour scheme.
Moving folders and spinning cogs are colour coded yellow as neutral. The open circuit is red.
The virus that appears in Level 3 is also red, that signifies danger.