Chichen Itza- Level design practice

This piece of work was set around creating a level based on the famous landmark Chichén Itzá. The main elements that we needed to focus on in this game was creating different ways that we can guide the player. The game was made in Unity and all the models were created by myself by using Unity ProBuilder in engine. The purpose of the game is to highlight different ways we can lead the player. The game is not finished as we only needed to make a basic white box level. I first started to develop my prototypes into Unity to create the first basis. I started off with creating the main pyramid. This is where the player is going to start. The main goal of the level is to collect all 20 gems whilst completing puzzles and exploring the environment in order to gain access to the specific gems. In this workshop, I started to develop my pyramid and terrain and started structuring the different physical levels of the temples. The development prototype can reflect the design elements because it shows how the drawing of the plan can be created in Unity. We can also see that most aspects from the original drawing was implemented into Unity. In the workshop, I started to create different buildings and pyramids to work as a template to guide the player all around the level as a guide. Then in the workshop I also started to create different forms of hills and ditches for the player to explore, again guiding the player to the goal. I believe that the developed prototype can reflect the original design because it shows the different elements the player can explore and shows the different puzzles and challenges for the player. Specifically, in this development, I decided to focus on creating architecture and pyramids and creating the terrain. This meant that I could then focus on creating challenges for the player in the next couple of weeks. We can also see that from the original drawing plan, that the structure of how the player can go around the level is also the same in the prototype made in unity., I wanted to keep the same linear structure in the level for an easier way for the player to go around the level. When looking at Chichen Izza, I wanted to create a similar layout at this with having one key element in the middle of the level. My distinct feature is going to be the pyramid because I believe it will make the plater understand where the end goal is going to be, especially at the start point. At the start of the workshop, I focused on creating the terrain. I first started by creating the terrain in Unity and then adding the higher and lower elements of the terrain to make the terrain look more 3D and to create hills for the player to explore and climb. I believe this is a good feature to have for the level because it means the player can explore different axis in the game. I then started to use Pro-Builder to create buildings and pyramids and platforms for my mountains. I decided to add platforms to my mountains to make it easier for the player to climb mountains. One of the key elements I added that was not on the drawing of the prototype was a challenge where the player had to jump from platform to platform without falling into the water otherwise the player will re-spawn at the start. I wanted to add this into the level as I felt like the level needed to be more challenging and with this, it means the player needs to focus on collecting gems and health pickups. When creating the prototype, the main element that was the most challenging was to not include NPCs and combat. This is because obviously, we can use NPCs and combat as a way of guiding the player through the level and as a source of challenge.  

One way that I can improve elements of this game is through the use of adding more refined elements to the game. One way I can improve this is through the use of adding more collectibles for the player to make the game flow more with a structure. Another way I would improve this game is adding more challenges in the game. This is because I believe the game should have different challenges and puzzles in the game to make it more interesting for the player so there is no boredom in the game.