Project 1:
Eisenheld is an action platformer game centered on the player causing havoc around a mutant-aquatic infested airship. My team took inspiration mainly from games such as Metal Slug for the action and Mutant Mudds for its platforming.
Platform: PC Players: 1 Genre: Action Side-Scroller, Multi-Dimensional
Digipen Games Gallery: https://games.digipen.edu/games/eisenheld
Role:
Level designer
-Research -
Metal Slug
We wanted the game to feel like
Metal Slug as it has a lot of action elements to its gameplay with many things happening on screen.
- Inspiration -
We wanted the player to feel like an overpowered character playing our game.
Weak Enemies [CHECK]
Guns/Missiles [CHECK]
Particle Explosions [CHECK]
We also wanted the character to have grappling as a choice to allow them to traverse and explore the map more.
- Level Design -
Mutant Mudds
For level design, I wanted to explore multi-dimensional platforming which is a challenge. The inspiration came from the game mutant mudds with its puzzle platforming.
I decided to follow how Mutant Mudds does its levels, which are split into 3 grounds;
Foreground [FG]
Middleground [MG] and
Background [BG].
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Players can step on arrow platforms to traverse in-between grounds.
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-Level Planning -
For the story, we planned on a robot mech running around an airship destroying foes. It can also launch grapple hooks to move faster. I sat down with my designers to settle on the gameplay and gameplay space. We aimed to complement the action-oriented gameplay with the phasing mechanic.
Whiteboard discussions on how the game should be played prove to be useful as we can throw out ideas and settle on a final conclusion.
I then translated the ideas and cleaned up some of the designs in Photoshop. This is just a general on how the whole level will look like.
-Click on the image to enlarge it
Areas, where the phasing mechanic is present, will have a top-down design layout at the bottom, showing the grounds and where the players can move via arrows/ red platforms.
-Execution -
Metrics & polish
I used the built-in tile-map editor in my engine to focus on the layout of the whole level before adding in the tiles. After getting the dimensions of the player, I started working out the metrics for each of the grounds.
-Click on the images to enlarge them
The middleground [MG] is where the main gameplay will be happening with combat and grappling. You can see the final product on the right side.
[MG]
The foreground [FG] has many open spaces thus I set up kill zones below them. I also made an indication of where the puzzle platform will go.
[FG]
The background [BG] has some events where the player encounters new types of enemies. There is also a Killzone set up for the later part of the stage.
[BG]
Final
Ship-able
The final product has many filters and techniques with lighting to further simulate the multi-dimensional platforming. There are many iterations done during these periods to make the game look and feel good in between grounds.
The final product is best shown in this: Eisenheld Trailer:
Here is the link to the Digipen Gallery where you can download a copy and test the game:
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