Peblito: Rock and Roll is a 3D platformer where you play as Peblito, a small yet determined pebble, on his journey through a whimsical volcano. Dash, swing, and roll your way through a variety of obstacles in this lighthearted platforming adventure.
Game Trailer
Role: Lead Level Designer
Software: Unreal Engine 4, Perforce, JIRA, Maya, Blueprints, Illustrator
Responsibilities:
Worked and coordinated with a team of interdisciplinary developers, including designers, producers, artists, and engineers.
Responsible for game flow and pacing throughout my levels in the game.
Worked with constraints set by design lead to keep pipeline flowing and stay in scope, while still having creative freedom.
Designed action blocks to test and iterate on the platforming mechanics of the game.
Responsible for the first, and the final level of the game, including concept design, white boxing, set dressing, lighting, and optimization.
Used Blueprints to script events with meshes provided by artists.
Implemented Unreal 4.26 water simulation using landscape tool and water sim plug-ins.
Pre-Production
Action Block Demo
We started by designing action blocks. These small chunks of gameplay allowed the team to quickly test mechanics and platforming combinations to find fun gameplay.
This brief video showcases some of the action blocks I designed alongside other members of my team. The design team gave feedback on how to improve these action blocks. We had many playtesters play our game which gave us analytics to improve our action blocks even more.
White Boxing
I tried to establish the scale of our level by hosting workshops with the artists and other designers to understand our art limitations as well as the playable area for fun and exciting gameplay.
Once I finished building a module, I added a little more detail and then sent it to the artist to do their set dressing.
Set Dressing and Lighting
Most of the time, I worked at the same time as the art team. We communicated regularly, rather than work in our own bubbles.
I did the first pass at set dressing by swapping meshes and applying materials. Then, the art team added in their details and brought it back to me to do gameplay passes to make sure everything was working. I would then do my second pass at set dressing. I added in more foliage and detailing to fill space and make the player path meaningful and visually appealing. The art team would then finish their set dressing, and I did a final pass to ensure proper gameplay.
Lighting was done constantly to make sure players could see and ensure the art meshes were shown off properly. Again, I did my pass at lighting, then passed it to the lighting artist.
Special Challenges
We started this game in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the very first moment, the entire team was available and accommodating so we could overcome the fact we were working remotely.
Held online stand-ups twice a week (one for the design team, and one with the whole team), keeping everyone updated on how things were progressing
Held "Core hours" during workdays - hours where everyone would be available to each other to help answer questions or troubleshoot potential issues
Got very familiar with JIRA and Confluence bug tracking tools
Held online game night activities to help everyone stay in touch and destress while celebrating our monthly milestones
The biggest challenge we faced was losing a few team members during production. They left us with great work but we needed to onboard new members to help us get out of production and into alpha. The onboarding process went smoothly, and we were able to get the new members up to speed and working quickly.
Onboarded 5 members (3 jr. Level Designers, and 2 sound designers)
Reviewed level designers’ work and gave improvement suggestions
Integrated into team meetings and group chats
Able to adapt and build on past members’ work