Mystery of The Sword

About

[DISCLAIMER: All art assets utilized in this level are taken from the Unreal Marketplace, none were made by myself.]

A short, two level experience placing the player in the shoes of an explorer searching for a long lost sword of legend. Solve puzzles, dive through ruins, and explore the abandoned wasteland in order to track down this precious artifact! At least nothing else is trying to get it… right?

Development Info

– Project Type: Level

– Tools Used: Unreal Engine

– Team Size: 1

– Project Length: 2 Weeks

Game Info

– Platform: PC

– Current Status: Completed

Level Design

Section 1 – Iteration 1

Initial sketches of level concept

The initial goal for Mystery of The Sword was to create a short experience where the player would be able to explore some forgotten ruins. This first iteration was a rather linear experience, with the only interactable being a few buttons to open doors.

I had the idea of playing with player’s perception of the space while they were navigating, akin to illusions. But due to the short nature of this project, I couldn’t get too complicated with the level design or features it would involve.

My solution was to have the player continually navigate to and from the same room, saving on the level’s size. Between visits, this room would change, giving the room an alive, and unnatural feel. By altering the room between visits, objects could be very easily toggled on and off, making it easy to put together the evolving space.

By constantly looping in and out of this room, it helped make the level feel less linear, even if there wasn’t a single navigation decision for the player to make.

A comparison of the graybox (left) and final version (right) of the vanishing bridges found in section 1

Section 1 Iteration 2

Each of the iterations made to the sword balcony area over time.

One location featuring a match three puzzle for the player to solve.

A comparison between the initial version, and the overhauled version of one room found in section 1, featuring an extra side room and the addition of a match three puzzle.

When iterating on the first version, I focused on making the space feel fuller, as the previous version felt rather empty. I did this by adding some puzzles for the player, and some sparse story elements.

At each location where I had buttons before, I replaced with a pattern matching puzzle. To keep it interesting, the keys for the puzzles would slowly become more difficult to find. First being on symbols in an obvious place, then scattering the symbols around the room, to slowly merging these clues into the nearby environment itself while teaching the player to look there for the solution.

Because the puzzles by the end of the main room hadn’t completely evolved as far as I wanted to take them, a cave system was added to the end of the level, giving the players a slightly tougher puzzle along with slightly more navigational freedom.

For story content, I decided on a rather simple concept of treasure hunting, in hopes it would be easier for players to immerse themselves in the short journey.

The large sword is their objective, and is shown constantly to the player during their exploration. But when they finally make it to the sword, it vanishes, with all that’s left is a trail of destruction and a mysterious glowing liquid.

The graybox layout of the cave system before (left) and after (right) its rework

Section 2

The second level or area in this project was intended to be a stark opposite to the previously explored area. Taking place in a snowy wasteland with simple traces of life.

This area contrasts the first both artistically, but also in its design, as it is very open and free for the player to tackle as they wish.

Due to the cave system being incredibly enclosed, following open spaces would feel freeing to the player, so combining that feeling with an area designed to be navigated in many ways, doubles down on this feeling.

I knew some players may not realize the change in area deisgn, or simply opt to go straight anyways. So for the final puzzle, I made the answers appear by solving other puzzles I hid in various extremes of the area. By doing this, I hoped that even players who avoided initially wandering off, would be encouraged to go explore the area as they please.