top of page
Light of Alariya
Top
Trailer
Trailer
Details
Details
Download:
My Role: Level Designer
About: Light of Alariya is an open-world, third-person, exploration puzzle game. In Light of Alariya, you traverse the ancient alien temples and ruins to restore the power of the stars and awaken your sleeping civilization.
Software: Unreal Engine 5
Total Production Time: 4 Months
Release Date: March 1st, 2023
Platform: PC
Resposibilties
Responsibilities
The initial paper draft of the world
The procedurally generated dune grids
The final sculpted world
Blueprint for a cinematic trigger
Example of an in-game cutscene
Video / Audio Implementation
Towards the end of the project, I was asked to create and implement our opening / ending cutscenes and assist our audio team with various sound implementation.
This required me to:
-
Export high quality cinematic scenes from Unreal
-
Edit these exports with a cinematic eye in Adobe Premiere
-
Implement the cutscenes in their proper places in the game
-
Access a sound database and edit together production-quality sound assets for the game
-
Experiment in blueprints for how to implement various player, environment, and cutscene noises
​
These tasks had me constantly thinking on my feet for efficient solutions to complex problems. As we were nearing the end of production, these tasks were crucial to the completion of our story and game - and I'm very proud of how I (and my whole team) responded to time-sensitive adversity.
Final cutscene of the main quest
Level Designer
-
Worked in a technical level design role
-
Identified the technology used to create a procedurally generated open world
-
Researched and played a part in the development of nearly every cutscene in the game
-
Assisted team members in audio and video implementation towards the end of the project
Procedural Landscape Generation
In the early stages of the project, I researched and presented various methods to our leads on how our team could quickly and easily iterate on creating the entire world for our game.
Some of my contributions included:
-
Developing a working knowledge of the UE5 Landmass tool including procedural generation
-
Working with the OpenLand UE5 extension
-
Creating the initial layout for our world on paper
-
Sculpting the initial pass of the entire world
-
Teaching team members how to use the tools I worked with
This process gave me hands-on experience with creating virtual worlds from scratch. I now have in-depth knowledge of the time, tools, and resources required to make a functional open-world game.
Cinematic Sequencer
Our Game Designer requested that our game needed a strong cinematic element. Our leads assigned me to this task due to my background in film.
This task had me:
-
Understand the UE5 Cinematic Sequencer
-
Teach my peers how to use the sequencer
-
Set up trigger blueprints for playing a cutscene, freezing the player, and returning control when it ended
-
Troubleshoot various cinematic bugs with team members
​
This experience gave me more confidence in node-based scripting in Unreal, while helping me merge my film education background into my game development career.
Retrospective
Retrospective
-
A better understanding of fun / engaging core-loops
-
Not over-scoping our project from the start
-
Ironing out technical questions early in production to allow teams to creatively iterate (instead of troubleshooting during late production)
What I Learned:
-
Various technical tools and practices for Unreal Engine 5
-
Knowledge of the time, tools, and resources required to make a functional open-world game.
-
How to deliver an ambitious idea in a methodical and team-oriented way
What Went Well:
-
Shipped the title
-
High-quality delivery of an ambitious student project
-
Was a team-player and took on difficult tasks with enthusiasm
-
Pivoted well when complex problems arose
What Needs Improvement:
Gameplay
Gameplay
bottom of page