PowerZ

— PROJECT NAME

PowerZ

— SUPPORT

PC, Mac

Mobile (Android & iOS)

PowerZ is an educational video game that aims to help children around the globe learn, understand and grow.

Through a colorful and magic world, it is a game before being an educational support. It is developed in close relation with schools and children to offer a good balance between fun & knowledge.

Level Design

Tools :

- UE4

- Miro & diagram for 2D prototypes. Notion for documentation.

Tasks :

- Level Design : Bubble plan, rough plan.

Prototyping & Blocking. Testing & iteration.

- Combination of exploration, educative gameplays (riddles…) & standard gameplay (fights, photo, puzzles).

Difficulties :

- Finding the balance between education & gameplay.

- Readability, teaching player 3D orientation.

- Finding the adequat approach for the level purpose & design.

— ROLE

Level Designer

Quest Designer/Scripter

— DATE

March 2022 – June 2023

Right approach & clear bubbles :

While we started with more open areas with a lot of freedom, it quickly appeared to me that it wasn't the right approach to address the player's unfamiliarity with 3D game environment & need to confront the player with educative content

Thus, I shifted towards dungeon-like layouts, with multiples "rooms" so that the player can learn the level step by step, with a more focused flow & more controlled environment regarding difficulty & education.

Balance between education & gameplay :

PowerZ's educative gameplay takes the form of

1) Puzzles & riddle (correcting a sentence, choosing the right shapes)

2) Finding species (animal & plants) to fill a compendium.

These are blended within the levels so players won't feel like filling an exercise book.

- Puzzles & riddles are spaced out, used as both mandatory & optional lever to unlock the path & rewards (gameplay item, secret places). Whenever it is possible, I tried to justify them & blend them in the environment to keep immersio.

- Species are split in multiple categories and difficulties, and distributed in the different bubbles so the player can find a pattern of logic :

Exemple 1 : A denser forest area means more vegetal species and animals associated with tree.

Exemple 2 : A desert with animals located near shadow or water spots.

Each area have assigned species & the compendium's clues hint towards the area's point of interests.

Metrics

Implementation of metrics, adjustment & standardization of controls.

Issue :

Due to multiple control scheme & the target audience being both diverse and learning to use their device, plateforming elements were very inequal and not adapted.

Solution :

Comprehensive metrics. Multiple difficulties.

Exemple :

Jumps can be very inequal : depth perception, timing, air control, ease to move like they want can be completely new concepts.

Turns can be difficult for a young player, even more with 180° turns : hard to turn properly, to adjust their angle, to understand they have to turn.

Testing & Iteration :

Through multiple tests on different devices, I established Metrics for different kind of situation : normal jump, complexe jumps, narrow paths and turns.

To take he young players unease with controls & 3D environment into account, different conditions & margin were added (one hand, lag…) in order to work with the less experimented players.

The implementation of metrics also helped with Blocking & prototyping, helping produce adapted environment faster.

Multiple Difficulties :

The game having a short target age range but in which player experience can be very distinct, both game and levels must fit for everyone.

Thus, levels are mostly balanced for newest players, but with alternative harder paths and more complexe layouts.

Scripting & Quest

Tools :

Blueprint Scripting, custom Quest system.

Tasks :

- Gameplay integration : chest, minigames, gameplay systems, killbox…

- Level Flow & Event/behaviour scripting to link the above.

- Quest & Level Cutscene to emphasize actions, showcase the level and help player orientation.

Cutscene & Quest as a LD support :

Young players having a shorter map memory, ability to focus or to catch the objectives highlighted in a 3D environment, quests & cutscene are designed and used to help address the problem.

Cutscenes showing clearly the objective, the means to reach it or the obstacles are important tools in that regard, while keeping immersion.

Quests on the other hand, guides the player and help getting familiar with the environments and its content step by step.