Narrative Designer

Level Designer

Botanical Gardens Bioshock
Unreal Engine 4

A passion project that took an existing game and created a level that could fit within the world.

Located beyond a secret passage between Arcadia and the Farmers Market only those that know what to look for can find traces of its existence. Those that do tend to not return as Patsy Woods, driven mad by heartbreak uses them as further test subjects for her ADAM and serum experimentation.

View LDD

View Beat Map

Process Work

Research

Conducted research into the various levels within the first Bioshock game, took note on size, linear vs non-linear path progression, characters, core mechanics and style of the levels.

Once the research had been compiled I began to research on the chosen theme botanical garden looking at common building shapes and designs.

Design

Started designing around the theme botanical gardens, the first construct being the 'outdoor' underground garden and the circular green room. From there while developing the core characters and enemies for this level more rooms and paths were added to flesh out the level further and create an engaging space for play.

Gray-Box Prototype

Using the research and the blueprints I created I constructed a gray-boxed level. It took two variations to get the sizing right for the various room sizes as there were many contrasting components that needed to feel unified.

The key components were maintaining map size and conveying the theme even when bare.

This level underwent two playtesting iterations.

Documentation

Alongside building a gray-boxed level a LDD was slowly evolving. The levels lore, characters stories and details surrounding the game and level filtered into the ever growing LDD.

It was important that everything from visual references to blueprints, gray-boxed screencaps to first art pass screencaps were included.

Blueprints

Full top down overview of the Botanical Gardens level. There are multiple paths that the player can opt to take when exploring this map however the golden path remains linear and leading.

Beat Map

A beat map outlining the progression system that I designed for my Bioshock level showing the teach, test and challenge zones as well as key audio, character interaction and drop locations throughout.

Gameplay Pillars

COMBAT:

A constant pillar throughout the BioShock game. This level is not any different, the ability to use various weapons as well as the Electro Bolt and other plasmids will be catered for. There will be spaces throughout the level for taking cover, stealthing and advantage points for combat.

EXPLORATION:

Exploration is a core pillar that will be a forefront in this level. There will be multiple ways to tackle the map and player agency to explore at their own pace and in the order they choose. With various hallways and stairs that lead to different parts of the map, players will always have something new to explore or discover within the level.

ROLE PLAYING:

The role playing pillar will be centralized around the visual storytelling aspect of the level. As the player moves through the map they discover various things and visual story points within each room helps tell the story. The arranging of furniture, objects and people will allow the player to discover the story throughout the map while leaving some things open to interpretation.