Unreal Engine 5.6 | Adventure Autorunner
Role: Level Designer
Platform: PC
Tools: Unreal Engine
Varion — a boy gifted with the power to shift between Red, Green, and Yellow. As a mysterious entity known as the Pale Regent drains emotion from the land, the ground beneath your feet constantly changes color. To survive, you must stay in harmony. Match your color to the shifting path. React quickly. Stay balanced.
One mistake, and the world resets around you.
design techniques
Responsible for creating multiple challenging practice and mastery levels throughout the game. Introducing and incorporating new level mechanics. Ensuring the game gradually increases in difficulty to match the player’s skill level.
Teaching level mechanics
In this video, the player is introduced to the color changer level mechanic. This new level mechanic randomly changes the player’s color. This is introduced in an isolated, low-risk introductory zone, with only the player encountering this mechanic on its own, without any other level mechanics in the mix to help the player better understand how it works.
I used this space to introduce the double jump. Since this is the third demo level, the player should already know how to basic jump and hold jump.
Using the breadcrumbing technique, I used collectible orbs to guide the player along the path.
Signposting
Corners and sharp edges make players more cautious because they suggest danger.
I used the black blocks creatively to support signposting by arranging them into sharp-edged shapes to help the player identify the best time to jump, combining with breadcrumbing through collectible orbs to reinforce them.
Using black blocks shaped as arrows pointing downwards to lead the player in the direction they should go.
signposting using colors
I've used red colored blocks surrounding the player to communicate that the tile they land on will be red. This teaches the player to pay attention to environmental cues for hints.
Player Choice
I wanted to make the gameplay less linear and provide the agency of player choice, whether the player is a completionist and wants to collect all the obs or a player that want the easier, faster, and less frustration-inducing route.
main path
alternate path
main path
alternate path