Souls Project

Souls-like Prototype                                                                             August 2024-December 2024

Level Designer /  Systems Designer                                            Team Size: 1 (Solo)

Responsibilities: Level Design, Systems Design, AI Programming, Game feel/Polish

                                                             Project Goals

This project I wanted to try my hand at recreating a basic prototype of a souls games using commonly seen systems, mechanics, and level design techniques.

Map Gallery

Level Philosophy / Documentation
(Refresh if right side is blank)

 

When Creating this level I had to keep many things in mind when it comes to typical souls game design:

  • Souls games are HARD. Levels often take multiple run throughs for the player to learn all of its tricks
  • Encounter design can be unforgiving. Enemies often get hidden behind destructible terrain, and frequently placed where the area is not well lit or seen from the entryway
  • Checkpoints or “Bonfires” are often placed quite far away from one another, and are usually given to the player before a boss encounter.
  • Items can be hidden in small nooks and crannies within the map. The level often holds secrets for players who dare to explore amidst the chaos of battle

These are all theories/practices that can be seen within the map and general gameplay in some rough form.

Systems Work

In order to achieve the goal of a basic souls prototype these are the systems I had to prototype in order to measure my success:

  • Basic sword combat (3 step combo that deals damage)
  • Parry/Shield (ability to block attacks and deflect them) 
  • Estus flasks (Limited healing potions)
  • Souls (basic currency system) 
  • Bonfires (Save points + place to allocate souls to stat increases
  • Damage System (A way to give and take damage to ensure combat is balanced)

Thankfully I had an existing damage system I could port over for quick iteration and testing. Everything else in order to succeed just needed enemies with brains to ensure things feel good and are balanced 

AI Design

Click here to see a showcase of the Mage and Boss Enemy! 

This was easily the most daunting task of the entire project. This idea pushed me far out of my comfort zone and I started learning the AI Perception system in Unreal Engine 5. I found a few useful resources and got to work. While using this system I managed to create 3 unique enemy types within a short time frame of just 2 months a few hours a week. The enemy types I made are:

  • Melee Enemy
    • This foe closes the distance between itself and the player and attacks close range
  • Mage Enemy
    • This foe keeps a distance and teleports away if the player gets too close, leaving just enough time for the player to get a hit or two
  • Boss Enemy
    • This enemy combines both playstyles of the two basic enemy types to create a challenge for the player. The boss starts by keeping its distance and then closes the gap to attack the player closely.

Postmortem

Things I learned

Throughout this project I learned how to use several tools and systems within Unreal Engine 5 to make me a much better prototyper and designer. Some of the key skills learned were: 

  • Landscaping Tool (Hand crafted entire level) 
  • AI Perception System (3 unique enemies) 
  • UE5 Animation Blueprints (Notify windows and animation setup)
  • Game Combat Design (General Game feel + prototyping)
  • Making Components (Optimizing code by attaching it to universal UE5 components for flexible use. EX: Damage System, Custom Attacks) 

 

Restrictions

This project had several restrictions that caused me to create an amazing portfolio piece while still knowing there is room for improvement. These restrictions were:

  • No art assets used were mine and free (Animations, Models, VFX)
  • 4 month devleopment time frame working only 6 hours a week
  • Time frame caused lack of polish due to need for systems functioning
  • this was a SOLO project