AquaQuest
VR Platformer
Roles: Game and Level Design, Level Art & Concept.
Team: 3
3 Months
Concept
Aqua Quest is a game where you play as an employee who is controlling a smart waterbag in vr to water inside homes and greenhouses. Traverse around pets and various robots, including roombas, drones.
This game is an ode to platformers, immersed with VR, set in the future(2400 AD), there is a fun dystopian narrative, with unique enemies and a message to water and grow more plants.
Inspired from games like Moss and Toy Story 2, I came up with this concept of making a scaled down creature traverse and do platforming.
The Player plays as a Waterbag traversing through the building completing objectives and evading enemies (cat, roomba, drone.)
Water Bag
Enemies
Level Design
Process
I designed a facility which has the tutorial of the game, it starts inside a basement, the player learns new mechanics as he climbs the stairs to reach the first floor, where the player is tested, platforming to find ways, then enemies are introduced with their weaknesses shown. Player moves up a level to reach the roof greenhouse of the facility.
Focusing the level design, by using examples and a mock project, the concept should include going through vents, chimneys, and cabinets to show the scale, There should also be more than a single entry to a room but single exit to converge the level design according to the active objective.
Facility 1st Floor Plan
Facility 2nd Floor Plan
Facility Basement - Tutorial
The first part of the level is the tutorial where the player learns how to move, slide, jump, interact and fill water.
The level has a low ceiling, giving the player a cramped feeling, with some windows to look at the broken buildings outside
The level has turns and curves, making the player used to the navigation of the game.
Facility First Floor - Testing Mechanics
Facility's first floor is layed out with plants and water fillers, the level circles around till the player reaches the kitchen from which the player has to go up the vent, to reach the second floor.
The first enemy, the roomba is introduced here.
Facility Second Floor - Testing more complex situations
The greenhouse on the second floor has a similar navigation to the first floor, the player has to move circularly clearing each space and watering plants.
Drones are introduced with roombas.
Level Showcase
The level showcases many platforming techniques using some level design blueprints like the lift and jumpables. Playing this the player does not feel that he is going in a circular path after clearing each area.
Final Look of the Level
Level Design Timelapse
Before and After (Greybox and Final Look)
Learnings
I used a maximalist approach where I designed many pathways in the facility for each room, then I filtered some pathways that were difficult, it was easy to remove such paths. I interated many times on the level. I used a direction light to set the main mood of the level and further added more depth by adding extra lights.