Pro Skater Inspired Blockout
Overview
Narrative / Setting:
Set within Hong Kong’s Streets.
Constraints:
Medium Sized level exploring the level design behind games such as Tony Hawk Pro Skater and Skate. Everything must be skateable. Must include certain landmarks such as the Monster Building and the Hong Kong Observation Wheel. Must include collectables and objectives to complete throughout the map.
Role: Blockout, Lighting, Pacing, Prop and Texture Placement.
Development Time: 4 Days
Team Size: Solo
Genre: Sports
Tools Used: UE5
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Idea
I was tasked with creating a blockout of Hong Kong inspired by Tony Hawk Pro Skater for a job interview.
I decided to go with a linear approach to the level as is similar in other games in the Tony Hawk franchise. I wanted the player to be able to advance very easily throughout the level without feeling like they are just going along a corridor.
Goals
To learn more about Linear level design.
Practicing and refining my level design pipeline.
Design a level that naturally fits within Hong Kong whilst using architectural concepts.
To learn more about Unreal Engine.
Restrictions
Level has to be a fairly realistic interpretation of Hong Kong with Specific Buildings
The level has to contain 7 different objectives.
Just blockout, no texturing or modelling due to time constraint
Complete within 5 Days.
The level had to contain posed characters doing tricks throughout the level.
What I learnt
How to be more efficient with the level design / blockout pipeline.
Level design aspects to consider such as Metrics, Wayfinding and Massing.
Flow within level design
How scale affects players perception of the experience
What went well
I am overall very happy with the pacing of the level, I feel like the level feels like a tony hawk level in terms of setting, collectibles, objectives and level design
The level feels quite authentic (in my opinion) to Hong Kong as I researched pictures.
I completed the project in the limited time that I had
What didn’t go well
I did not have time to reiterate the level design unfortunately
Due to not having a skateboarding character controller ( as this would take way too long), I did not have chance to test the level and therefore do not truly know how effective / fun the level is.
I feel like the level could do with being more open as the level only really opens up near the end of the level.
I was not too keen on the first area of the level as I feel that I did not add enough things to skate on such as props etc
Process:
Research
First things first, I researched Hong Kong, found out what the observation wheel and the Monster building look like and what the general region looks like. Then, I listed down all of the collectibles that I would like the player to be able to collect throughout the level by looking at the level objectives for actual Tony Hawk games. The objectives for the level are:
SKATE
Wallride 5 balloons
Secret Tape
Grind 5 benches
Collect 5 noodle boxes
Hit 4 Kickflips
Do a front flip through the wheel.
After I had created the collectibles, I then researched Tony Hawk games and made a note of how the levels typically flow, if they were linear or more open and how collectibles were integrated into the levels. Finally after this, I created a rudimentary map of what the level will approximately look like, which took a few attempts for me to finally be happy with.
Layout
The layout of the level is quite simple and fairly linear until the end of the level. Due to the fact that most Tony Hawk levels are timed, I designed the level so that players could obtain all the collectibles in one run if they were skilled enough without having to backtrack throughout the level to collect the ones that they have missed. This was especialyl important as I knew that the level would have to have a good amount of verticality since the Monster building and the observation wheel were very tall. Therefore the level is basically on a giant slope down in which you go through the monster building and then essentially go down a massive ramp through the observation wheel, then finally you are at a pier (more open area) where there are more things to like ramps and bowls and grind rails in which you can do tricks to increase your score for the level. The video above explains the level in more detail if you are interested.
Blocking out
When blocking out the level, I wanted everything to be clear on what it was since I knew that I did not have time to texture or to model anything properly. Therefore I carefully used certain colours of the grid material to denote certain things such as rails were green, ramps were orange, skate collectibles were pink etc. In addition due to most of the level being planned out already, most of my time was just spend actually blocking out the level and then tweaking how the ramps and the rails and the collectibles were placed that makes sense in the Third person perspective.
Other Tweaks
To sell the level design more and add to the level, I added posed animations of characters doing tricks over areas where I intended players to do so such as the mega ramp and the tiered grind rails.
Overall
Overall, I am extremely happy with the project with the speed of the blockout. This project has deepened my level design skills and improved my workflow . I think in the future I would be ensure time to test levels and get another set of eyes on the project before sending it off.
