Open World Demo

About the open world demo

The open world demo was a semi introduction project in which I had to work with basic level design tools. The methods and tools used were brainstorming, mood board, low fidelity sketches, high fidelity levels, and grey boxing.

Game concept

The demo game is an RPG based on Aincrad, the floating castle concept. The player finds themselves in lost relics guarded by monsters of the castle, lurking within the ruins. The mission objective is to kill these monsters and head to a nearby town.

Research

What type of game concept I made depended heavily on the world design document. the world I designed is a combination between souls games and regular mmo rpg games. I used reference images to create the concept for the game.

Dark fantasy. A green and joyful place to be in but could become dark and miserable in no time. The aura of threats roaming each level decides how dark it should be, where an orc could make little to no effect on a joyful environment (green), a dragon could darken the level it resides within, in no time.
Dark fantasy. A green and joyful place to be in but could become dark and miserable in no time. The aura of threats roaming each level decides how dark it should be, where an orc could make little to no effect on a joyful environment (green), a dragon could darken the level it resides within, in no time.
darker shades of green or white(snow) combined with dark shadows/fog or red colours indicate a harder level or perhaps a boss floor level.
darker shades of green or white(snow) combined with dark shadows/fog or red colours indicate a harder level or perhaps a boss floor level.
Location and setting
Location and setting
Architecture reference (9th to 11th century)
Architecture reference (9th to 11th century)
The player will discover land and buildings inside this tower, feeling like a new endless world in a small tower structure. Limited play area but a sense of a new discovered world each level.
The player will discover land and buildings inside this tower, feeling like a new endless world in a small tower structure. Limited play area but a sense of a new discovered world each level.

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Sketches, charts and diagrams

After the world, story, and the game design document. I decided it was time to design a quest fitting for the game concept based on the mechanics of the player character. I made several iterations, first being linear based and the last iteration being an open world based quest mission. Created mission difficulty, metrics, progression, mission flow, and mission beat chart.

Map sketching with color coding objectives
Map sketching with color coding objectives
Open world quest concept
Open world quest concept
Open world quest flow chart
Open world quest flow chart
Quest details and progression difficulty
Quest details and progression difficulty

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Grey boxing

Grey boxing the level based on previous sketches and quests. I also implemented different compositions to guide the player’s eye in different directions with decorations in later iterations.

Grey boxed the level based on the level flow chart and level sketch
Grey boxed the level based on the level flow chart and level sketch
composition and different angles training to come up with a way of exciting the player to explore different paths leading to somewhere
composition and different angles training to come up with a way of exciting the player to explore different paths leading to somewhere
High fidelity of the level with decorations in place of grey boxes.
High fidelity of the level with decorations in place of grey boxes.

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