An action-platformer
Role: Level Designer
Bardo is a single-player platformer adventure game where you glide and jump through a realm of floating islands.
Team: 25
8 weeks
UE 5
Project Role:
Level Designer
Whitebox in UE5
Game research and sketching
Gliding sections
Platforming sections
Collab with artists
QA testing and iteration
Design documentation
Gliding
Platforming
Ranged beam
In this game you glide through the world of Bardo by using its magical winds, platform from rock to rock while evading dangers and collect Wisps that give you the power to shoot projectiles. By shooting crystals in the world you open Wind Tunnels and paths for yourself.
Bardo is about falling with style down dangerous tunnels, dodging rocks and floating enemies.
Trailer
About Bardo
Project deliverables
In the ideation phase I concepted many different gameplay beats and level layouts on pen and paper, based on inspiration from game research.
I used these sketches to communicate ideas to my teammates and align our visions.
Testing
Conducted internal and external playtests with clear questions and goals to find out if:
the level facilitates the core gameplay well
reaches the desired player experience
achieves a satisfying pacing
After playtests feedback was documented and organized into actionable points with priorities.
Feedback priorities
Gym Level
Set up a gym level to measure the player metrics of jumping and gliding and figure out the most desirable distances.
Workflow breakdown
Blockout
Using the proper metrics I blocked out different gliding and platforming challenges then combined them into different layouts to experiment with pacing and difficulty scaling.
Sketching
Whitebox prototypes
Sketched and blocked out different gliding and platforming sections in Unreal Engine that explore gameplay ideas and facilitate the core gameplay loop
Combined gameplay beats in different orders to create smooth pacing and a satisfying difficulty curve
Maintained regular communication with the art team about the goals of the environment and oversaw setdressing on the levels to make sure the design intent is kept up.
Gliding section prototype
Blocked out platforming sections using the proper player metrics from the Gym level. These served to:
Onboard the player with the base platforming mechanics: jump, double jump, ranged attack
Provide a slower, more grounded experience between intense gliding gameplay beats
Engage the player with jumping challenges
Facilitate exploration and reward the player’s curiosity
Blocked out gliding sections in Unreal using basic assets and later placeholder assets provided by the artists, such as rocks and platforms. These sections served to:
Onboard the player with the main mechanics
Challenge the player by requiring focus and precision
Provide an experience of speed and tension
Escalate in difficulty in a smooth and rewarding way and keep the player engaged with new gameplay mechanics
Gliding Sections
Platforming sections
Platforming section prototype
Gliding section in final build
Gliding section layout sketch
Platforming section in final build
Jump+Glide onboarding section sketch
Limited playtime and hard-to-learn mechanics required good tutorials to be in place. For this I:
Set up tutorial sections with prompt placements to onboard the player with every mechanic and gamepad control
Structured the pacing of level around the tutorials to avoid overwhelming the player
Communicated with concept artists and programmers to ensure clarity and readability in the visual prompts
Tutorial sections
Platforming section in final build
Jump+Glide onboarding section sketch
Collaboration
As the only level designer I needed to make sure that the current intent and state of the level is communicated to each teammate it concerns. For this I used:
Documentation and sketches
Posted summaries
Meetings
Communicate Design Intent
To ensure smooth collaboration between level design, environment art, 3Cs design and programming efficient, clear communication needed to be kept up. Understanding the perspectives and intent of these other teammates was vital for success.
Work with other disciplines
Test and validate
One of the most important tasks I had to take on was conducting most of the playtesting, turning that feedback into usable data and communicating those to the corresponding department in the team.
Responsibilities
Scrum
We conducted the production according to Agile principles and held the following rituals:
2-week Sprints with a clear goal
Sprint planning with tasks that lead to that goal
Build reviews to assess the state of the latest build
Sprint reviews and retrospectives to reflect on what we are doing well and what we need to change
Task tracking: Codecks
We used the software Codecks to track our development progress, including:
Tracking time individually for tasks created in Sprint planning
Counting velocity and drawing Burndown Charts to track the progress of the entire team
Additionally, this data helped us adjust our workload and improve our planning in the consecutive Sprints.
Team Practices
Peer reviews
To be able to work well with each other teammate and maintain a healthy professional relationship and environment we held Peer review sessions to give and receive feedback on:
Our collaborative practices and what we might lack as a teammate
Our professional attitude and adherence to the team contract
The quality of our work
After these sessions each of us reflected on our feedback and formed action points for what qualities we need to improve in.
Project reflection
Collaboration
This 8-week period working in a team has been a great learning experience in collaboration with other disciplines. I found out a tremendous amount about the perspectives, goals and workflow of environment artists and programmers while working close to them on the level.
After this project I feel like my communication skills improved a lot and I am able to solve many challenges that arise with cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Building natural terrain
Creating a level with natural terrain instead of man-made structures has also been a great opportunity to learn. From level concepting until hand-placing the rock assets I needed to adopt a new approach and a new workflow.
