3D game concept Feedback

 Building out our first game in a full 3D space presents a whole new layer of design philosophy and creative freedom to the table for creating levels. Working in a 3D space means something much more for our levels, the way its structured and how much a player can interact with means so much more. Its rare to get board moving place to place in a 2D styled game however in a 3D game you are much more prone to risking players becoming board with traversal. Especially with a limit movement model that has no sprint feature its important the player doesn't feel constrained to one option or has nothing to interact with.

My main goal of the 3D level was to grant the player a feeling of exploration. I wanted to full dive into a large scale exploration of a location. To accomplish this I did 3 main things, to start I wanted an establishing shot for the players to get a sense of what they were uncovering. The level begins with a high up establishing shot where the player sees the forest the river and the abandoned castle in the distance. The player must then scale down the mountain into the forest crossing the river to make there way through the forest, it is hear they run into their first batch of enemies and breakable blocks. While attacking the enemies it is likely they will break a block some of which hide secrets. The switch the player hits triggers a moving platform to come down from high in the trees, This interaction gives a sense of mystery and wonder...what is the strange technology hidden seemingly randomly in the forest. After the players progress through the forest they reach the castle, after traversing over the river again they go up the stairs to the upper defensive wall where they are met with a large amount of enemies that swarm the player. Bursting through all this the player reaches the final section of the wall where the treasure lies.

Overall with the level there are somethings I like and others I want to heavily change or add to. I feel I want to make the forest section much more interesting an overarching puzzle to open the gates to the castle is my favorite idea for it so far. Design wise modeling (a block) of leaves for the tree tops unless I increase density and go with a bamboo forest kind of look. Having multiple approaches into the castle is another idea. either they deconstruct the forest puzzle or brave a complex jumping puzzle through the sewer grating. The next step is to increase to the complexity of the castle itself, at this point its not much more than a wall I'm thinking I either put a larger castle behind the wall or a threatening looking pit of magic and hellish nature in which the players must traverse through more complex sections in order to find interesting treasure and rewards.