Pet Collector
Pet Collector (on Roblox) is a PVP game where up to 12 players in a match must protect their pet while hunting for other players’ pets.
Role: Game Level Designer
Responsibilities:
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Conceptualized, prototyped, and tested numerous arena-style PVP levels
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Collaborated with game design and engineering to generate game features
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Worked with art department to theme and set dress levels
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Triaged level bugs with QA during and after level production
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Provided live-ops support for levels
Player vs. Player Level Design
Our arena-style levels were supposed to accomplish the following:
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Bring players into contact with each other
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Make movement through the level mobile-friendly yet fun
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Provide hiding spots for players and their pets
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Elevate the mood of the gameplay through set-dressing and lighting
Level: Waterpark
Key features:
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Two primary levels of elevation
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Plenty of platforming opportunities
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Occluders for loosing chasing players and to provide hiding spots
Prototyping
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Set the scale of the level by creating a square floor 255x255 studs wide.
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Blockout the primary lanes circulating around the level using grid materials to study the scale of objects
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Higher upper circuit (blue) and lower circuit (yellow)
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Add ramps and boxy geometry so players can easily access the higher lanes from below
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Raise geometry to occlude certain sightlines and raise tension
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Raise outer boundaries once intended
Testing
Once I had enough to test with, I organized playtesting sessions with the team where I learned the following:
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Overall layout was solid since players enjoyed moving through the level
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Players liked the platforming opportunities but the gaps needed to be mobile friendlier
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The narrow platforms were much too challenging on either mobile or desktop
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Iterating
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Per the feedback I received, I narrowed some of the gaps between platforms all accross the level
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I thickened narrow beams and other geometry that posed a challenge to traverse for mobile
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I proceeded to color code the environment to better differentiate different types of geometry (occluders, platforms, ramps, etc)​
Set-dressing process
I consulted the art director (Michaela Nienaber) on our team for guidance on how to imbue this level with a strong environmental identity. We discussed different options, such as zoos or a factory floor. In the end, I consented to the art director's vision of a water park and it was my sole role to utilize whatever environmental assets were at hand to accomplish this.
I gathered reference images to inform the possible outcomes for the final look of the level
I normally start set dressing at the macro level by bringing in large, noticeable hero assets that serve as focal points for the players to orient themselves.
At the micro-level, I bring in player-sized props such as wall decorations and pool chairs to sell the environmental theme.
Given that water parks are theme parks, and theme parks can have distinct areas, I decided to differentiate parts of the level from each other: an icy area, a sand castle area, and a rocky pirate area.
Towards the latter playtests before shipping this level into the live game, the game designer had one more piece of advice: cut the central sand castle (seen above) to improve sightlines so players can better see across the map. As much as that sand castle served as a focal point, I concurred that cutting it would serve the overall goal of ensuring players see each other and come into contact. I cut the sand castle and the end result is:
Waterpark!
Level: Miami Mall
Key features:
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Vertical arena with three primary levels of elevation
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Mobile-friendly speed pads and jump pads for dynamic movement throughout level
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Open sightlines all throughout so players can more easily intercept each other
Research
Taking a look at the array of levels we had in the game, I thought we needed more arena-shaped ones, so I pitched a level with the architectural layout of a mall.
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These are just some of the reference images I gathered.
Prototyping
I decided to go with a octagon-shaped level with three floors for a few reasons:
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It would help evoke the architecture of a mall court such that players would recognize the environment
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The angles would help promote open sightlines so players can run into each other for PVP combat
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An octagon would help me build the level quicker.
My first step was to model an octagon in Blender and import it to Roblox studio to serve as the center of the level. All geometry in the level from that point on would derive it's rotation and coordinates from that base.
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I then used a plugin on called "Archimedes" that automatically duplicated and rotated geometry, to build the level quicker.
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Once I had a hollowed out octagonal floor, I raised if off the ground and duplicated it two more times to serve as the floor and ceilings of the level, for a total of three floors.
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To help players utilize the verticality, I implemented some escalators, jump pads, and an elevator serving as the focal point of the level.
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At this point, the whitebox prototype was complete.
The result:
After playtesting the level with the team, the prototype was deemed to be both fun and mobile friendly. The biggest piece of feedback for the level: jump pads needed to be calibrated to launch the player more accurately and the overall level needed distinctive callouts to help players orient themselves. And so, I moved on to the set-dressing and lighting stage of the level creation process.
Set-dressing
My challenge for set-dressing this level was to reuse art from other levels in such a way that it meshes with the environmental mall theme. I decided to make storefronts that would occupy some of the inner walls. For example, some storefronts would look like an electronics store, while others would look like an art gallery. Whereas the storefronts were all made by me using simple geometry, the content (all the props) were made by our art team.
Lighting pass
To make this level look and feel distinct from the other ones in the game, I opted to go for a striking interior lighting scheme: neon lights and a Miami color palette (blues and pinks). Here were some of my references:
I performed the lighting pass in steps:
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First, set ambient lighting from high noon (seen in Waterpark) to about twilight
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Dial up the bloom just enough to let neon colors pop without being too intense or blurry
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Starting on the first floor, add one pointlight to fill each space of the octagon, folder them, duplicate that folder two more times for each floor, then set the first and third floor lights to pink, and the second floor to blue.
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For the storefronts, add pointlights to highlight the props better and to make each store look distinctive.
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Finally, add lighting props such as ceiling, floor, and wall lights using emissive neon colors to contextualize the source of the lighting
Before
After
Before
After
End Result: Miami Mall!