Wizard's Tower Progress Journal

This was a solo project in which I designed and created a wizard's tower level and various props in Maya before and then added them to the level in Unreal Engine.  I also created a concept idea for the inventory and clue systems within photoshop.
​Tools Used: Maya, Unreal Engine, Photoshop

Background Info

The Wizard Tower is a level I created in maya and imported into Unreal Engine.  The idea behind the project was to the create first level for a fantasy version of a first person detective-type game in which the player wakes up in a bed with no memory for the past 48 hours.  The goal of the game is to find out what has happened to the player's memory and why their memory is gone; the player does this by finding clues and information which is then pieced together to solve puzzles.  I greyboxed the first level which takes place in a wizard's tower; this area is part bedroom and part office.

References and Research

I had been playing some pen and paper rpgs recently and knew right away I wanted to do a fantasy take on a detective-like game.  I began by finding some reference pictures and figuring out what the environment around the level would be like.  From this I decided that the wizard's tower would be located within a walled fantasy-like castle city with a predominately human population.  The fantasy setting would be similar to that of the Forgotten Realms and D&D.

Greybox

From the very beginning I was pretty clear on what I wanted to do and after finding some good reference pictures of circular stairs that is immediately what I began on.  I roughly greyboxed the architectural pieces of the tower.  I wanted everything to be very circular and revolved around a central point.  Afterwards I imported the entire tower into Unreal Engine.  Once in Unreal Engine I modified the first person controller but kept the shooting part as I felt that could be useful later on.  I also proceeded to add complex collider and scale the model based on the first person controller.

Furniture

After examining my reference pictures I went through and started to box out the locations of the various props that would be within the level.  I made sure to keep note of everything I would need and kept everything consistent in side.  I didn't want to have half a dozen slightly different sized bookshelves.  I sized everything around the player controller with unreal and the bed piece.  

Feedback

Some of the big feedback I received from pretty much everyone was about the stairs.  They really like the circular stairs up to the top of the tower but there were two issues.  Firstly, why was the player starting at the bottom?  Which didn't quite seem to fit with the idea I was going with.  Secondly, while the testers thought the stairs were really nice and well done they didn't like having to go all the way up right away before doing anything else.  They wanted to jump into the story right away.  In hindsight this was something I completely agreed with.  I would also receive some reports of small gaps and such that would need to be polished later on.

Cleanup

Based on the feedback I made a few changes such as switching the spawn from the bottom to the top.  I also went through and fixed the various gaps and bad overlaps to make the models a bit cleaner and smoother.  

Flow & Mechanics

Mechanics 

1. Start: bed + Popup
2. At dresser: search through drawers - find clue (your clothes and some are missing) + Put on clothes
3. At center table: examine alchemist set and empty potion - find clue (a potion has been brewed and used recently)
4. At counter under stairs: examine ingredients that have been taken out - find clue (which ingredients have been used)
5. At bookshelf: search through books - find book of recipes - clue Examine book of recipes - conclusion (conclusion about what potion has been brewed, used, and its effects)
6. Trigger at door down: turnback message until puzzle solved
7. Bonus: Figuring out why (note on desk)
8. Blocker: Forcing you back until you do number 2 (put on clothes)
9. Leaving the Tower

Furniture

After greyboxing the furniture sizes and locations within the tower along with finding some idea pictures I began to create some detailed models to use within the level.  I wanted to keep the furniture unified so everything felt like they belonged together.  To do so I created a piece (the 3 tube like structures) and used it as flair for the end posts of each piece.  Each model has some version or versions of this piece on the model.

Inventory System

Next I decided to make a concept idea in photoshop for both the inventory and clue systems since they would be a key part of the game.  In the example picture to the right, you see the player has found three clues, missing clothing, missing alchemy ingredients, and alchemy tools that have been used and/or left out. Combining two clues, the missing alchemy ingredients and the alchemy tools the user is able to acquire another clue. In this case a list of potions that could have been made using those tools and ingredients along with a helpful hint about how to progress; searching for the recipe book.

Finalizing

To finish off my greybox of the wizard's tower I went through and added all the furniture to the actual scene along with the colliders.  After adding the furniture I felt like something was missing from the level so I decided to take the small potted plant I had made for another project and added it to the scene.  This help round out the very block furniture that dominated much of the environment.

Feedback

Some final feedback I received upon completion of this project was focused mainly around the central big table.  Those who went over my level felt like it seemed out of place.  Going back to look at it I realized it was too organic compared to the other the furniture.  The rest of the furniture pieces were fairly blocky with round accents while the table was almost completely rounded.  This would need to be changed for the next iteration of level to ensure unity among the props.