Project Abaddon
Abaddon
OlympiA:
VR Climbing Level Design
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Duration: 6 weeks
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Team Size: 1
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Software: Unity, Photoshop
Gameplay
Pillars
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Climbing
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Exploration
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Mythology
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Introspection
Game Description
Virtual reality climbing game: Explore the after life and scale Mount Olympia and get to the top to ascend to heaven - or fade away and disappear into nothingness.
Paper Map
The Blockout (Level Beats)
Skill Check 1
Learning to jump (Beat 1)
The ridge along the center requires the player to jump over it to progress.
Skill Check 2
Learning to climb (Beat 1)
The player can't jump over the debris, but must use the pegs in the wall and climb for the first time. This is very important to learn because the majority of the game will be spent climbing.
Skill Check 3
Learning to zipline with physics (Beat 2)
Here the player must learn to pick up objects and learn that they can use them to do things - in this case, using a hook to zipline down an emissive white wire.
Skill Check 4
Using held objects to change the environment(Beat 3)
To reinforce what the player learned in skill check 3, the player is now required to use a sword to cut a rope that ends up lowering a bridge - allowing the player to progress.
Skill Check 5
Learning about jump pads (Beat 4)
Player steps on an emissive white symbol on the floor after being prompted by an NPC to do so - this launches the player high into the air requiring the player land on a wooden platform high above the symbol.
Skill Check 6
Final slog of a climb - learning to exert yourself (Beat 5)
This is the final challenge of the level. The music changes to Vivaldi's winter as the player begins their final climb. It's the longest and by far the most arduous which when compounded with the earlier climbs results in the player really having to try and exert themselves to make it to the top.
First Pass Lighting
After giving a prototype out, I got a very interesting piece of feedback from an artist... it was that the level didn't feel very mystical, despite the setting taking place in the afterlife. So I decided to take the lighting in a new direction, primarily using high fantasy tropes and Warcraft 3 magic forests as a reference.
Second Pass Lighting
I'm a lot happier with this lighting pass & the feedback I received echoed that the setting felt much more mystical, magical, eerie and mysterious... all things that reinforce the story of the level... so I decided to keep this style over the bright, sunnier version.