Fallen Kingdom
Fallen Kingdom is a 3D platformer with various mazes and obstacles to navigate. Make your
way through the decrepit remains of a long-lost civilization in order to collect skulls and
secure your victory!
Contributions
- Level Design
- Set Design with Opensource Assets
- C# Programming
Challenges
The objective of the map is to collect all the hidden skulls throughout. I wanted to keep the visuals grounded in reality, so in order to make collecting the skulls a challenge, platforming was mixed with some mazes and problem-solving. Splitting up what the player does when they have few controls themselves lets them feel like they are doing many different actions despite only being able to run and jump. Sometimes the platforming is very obviously just jumping from one ledge to another, and sometimes its figuring out what to platform to in the first place.
Setting
The player emerges from a thick forest and into a red, moonlit canyon. As they move forward, the greenery appears more and more sparse, the music becomes eerie, and the first thing they see is their first collectable skull. This sets the theme for the rest of the level within moments of entering. The dilapidated castle, barren, grey graveyard, and dark underground tunnel all tell the story of a Fallen Kingdom the player must explore. These locations are distinct enough that the player never feels lost, without being so distinct that they take away from the overall feeling.
The Graveyard
The Graveyard’s platforming is one of the mildly puzzling ones, as there isn’t an immediate direction that the player is meant to expect. Each grave was placed with deliberate intent, either missing dirt or uprooted slightly, to guide the player towards their goals. The first grave the player will see when being forced to enter from the left is just high enough that they can jump on top of that grave, and subsequently across all other graves to the main tomb that holds a skull. The caskets on the far end of the graveyard are piled in such a way that the player can leave when they are finished.
The Tunnel
The tunnel was a bit tricky when working with the terrain system. In order to maintain the look of the ground, more Unity cubes were placed along the top, with the walls being made of the castle’s same stone. This is to give the illusion that the tunnel itself must have connected to the castle at one point, which would explain the barred off entrance. Most of the map’s lighting comes from the moon, so the cave itself was given an overall red glow instead of having a direct light source. The tunnel itself works as a maze, forcing the player to find all the skulls without getting lost.
The Castle
Without a specific asset for the castle, most of it is the Unity-generated cubes stretched and aligned in as many ways as it took to look like a convincing castle. While the asset store was used for props, such as the candelabras and bookshelves, the rest had to be constructed using various cubes and textures. These then had to be tested for proper platforming distances and level flow.
