SUMMARY
Produced Spring of 2021. Built-in Unreal and operating on PC, Surtrt Fjäll is an immersive exploration, puzzle, and combat experience. Based on Norse mythology the story leads players through a hero’s journey to defeat the fire demons in the mountains and overcome the final boss. This was an ambitious individual-level design project, that focused on the player experience, Blockout layout, progression, mechanics, and resolve.
SPECIFICATIONS
TEAM: 1 - Personal Project
GENRE: 3rd Person Melee Combat
DURATION: 4 Weeks
SOFTWARE: Unreal 4, and Photoshop
GAME OVERVIEW
Surtur is from Norse mythology, a fire demon, that would engulf the earth in flame. Fjäll was inspired by the naming of mountains and rivers in Iceland, so the translation is Fire Demon Mountains. The player is on a quest to extinguish the fire demons and those who serve the evil lord. The player must traverse across hostile lands and solve the mechanisms to smother the gauntlets and defeat the final boss Surtr.
VISUAL RESEARCH / THEMATIC
I began designing the levels by conducting research and gathering visual references to create a mood board to establish the overarching theme, that being an “open world“ much like BOTW with exploration, puzzles, and combat encounters.
GUIDE MAP PROCESS
This was the original process for the design and layout, I began with a rough layout and included scribbles of puzzle concepts and scenarios the player would encounter. I was focusing on engaging the player with three primary tasks to complete before taking on the boss Surtr.
BEATS AND PACING
The above diagram is a peek into my process, and how I construct a tailored player experience. The focus is on the player’s learning process and experience. Pacing content and adverting expectations to keep a fresh experience and get mileage from available mechanics. Each area teaches the player different concepts and mechanics, following an arc much like a story, a barrier to overcome, amplifying intensity, and then meeting resolve.
Walk Through
At the start of the game I want the player to have an out of body experience where they see themselves lying on the tomb. The player is in a safe space and can explore and discover items by traversing. A soft spoken elderly voice provides context to your hero's fate. ➤
When the player leaves the tomb they are greeted by small armed enemies, after their defeat the door is opened by a thankful NPC worshipper. ➤
Entering the artifact room the player learns to push and move a box ➤
There is also a small platforming segment to obtain some loot ➤
Pushing the artifact into position the player can traverse over the gap➤
If players explore the cave they can find some health potions➤
Interact with levers to traverse bridges and battle enemies to exit the cave➤
Exiting the tomb the player enters a open world like experience with three paths they can take to unlocking the fiery tower➤
First is the poisonous lake, where the player operates pressure plates in the correct order to raise and lower a bridge to the correct height .➤
After traversing both puzzles the player extinguishes the first gauntlet➤
The Second path is the cave which leads to another challange➤
We discover a gate and a suspicious marking foreshadowing our objective➤
We find the box on a floating island and strange teleporting statues, in the center are ranged archers➤
Using the box as cover and pushing the cube under fire, the player must follow the scrap lines to conquer the puzzle➤
After pushing the cube to the gate we face the orange fire demon in a light arena ➤
Defeating the demon we extinguish the orange flame and see a cutscene of the flame on the bridge dissipating, with only one remaining flame, blue ➤
At the windmills, we can find that all of them are locked except green. Each is well guarded, with patrols below and ranged enemies on the second floor. Entering we find a key that leads to the second floor ➤
After defeating the ranged foe, interacting with the button activates the windmill to rotate lighting the center tower➤
The player completes each windmill from green, to orange to blue, aligning each laser with eh center tower to lower the draw bridge and enable the player to fight the blue fire demon ➤
Once all gauntlets are extinguished the player sees the final cutscene of the bridge being cleared and the path being opened➤
After defeating the final boss the player has one last vista before the game ends➤
REFLECTION
a lot of technical and layout process was put into the project to refine my level design skills. Exploring puzzles, and combat experiences while still seeking to create a fun and dynamic experience. A lot of ideas came from the first scratch draft for the block out and it wasn’t until executing the plan that I needed to problem solve some scoping issues. From playtests, I found that I could create more atmosphere with more audio and dialogue feedback and I needed to focus more on rewards and loot. My next plan is to refine the visuals and narrative to seek more emotional reactions. I set out to create a BOTW Zelda-like experience by exercising my level design skills to create a friendly layout approach by spacing puzzles, combat, exploration, and platforming, all within contained spaces.