Tel: +46 76 188 86 39
Mail: fabianadlertz@gmail.com
Fabian
Adlertz
game & Level Designer
Stockholm, Sweden
About
Altered View is a narrative single player Task simulator where you play as a silent protagonist going through a rehab course shaped like an ordinary office workday. You have papers to shred, coffee to brew and e-mails to send. These are just some of the tasks on your task-list that is provided to you by an AI-overseer. During the course of the game, weird and unexplained moments may occur in the form of “glitches”.
Details
Roles: Level Design and
Product Owner
Genre: Narrative Task Simulator
Engine: Unreal Engine 4
Team Size: 9
Project Length: 7 Weeks
Platform: PC
Maximum Play Length: 20 minutes
My Contributions to the project
Product Owner Responsibilities: My role as the product owner for this project was to keep a clear line of communication in the team and to make sure that all the members of the team had the same vision and a common goal. I also wrote user stories and kept track of the backlog to make sure that everyone in the team had tasks to do. I also did a lot of playtesting throughout the project to make sure the gameplay met our expectations
Level Design: For this project I did the level design for the entire beginning Office area. Since we were 2 Level designers in the team we split up the level and worked on different parts while always keeping up a good line of communication and giving feedback to each other constantly. I also designed the "Glitch" effect areas and several of the different tasks.
Collaboration: To make sure the project went as smoothly as possible I worked closely with the scrum master and members from the other disciplines. This ensured that UI, art, gameplay mechanics, narrative and performance worked as intended.
Design Pillars
Exploration
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The player explores the Office and interacts with an variety of objects
Simplicity
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One-Button Gameplay, easy and simple tasks with smooth mechanics
Unsettling Feel
Narrative Ques from the AI-Overseer and Glitch Effect (takes the player to a creepy Place)
Game Loop
Explore Office Area
Complete Tasks
Get New Tasks
Unlock New Areas
Level Design Process
When designing the level I had Exploration in mind from the very beginning. To promote this I designed the level to be a big and open sandbox with a lot of different objects to interact with. We also decided very early on the setting being in an Office.
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1st stage- Grey Boxing
For this project I went straight in to Unreal and started to block out a level concept
2nd Stage- Rough version
When I had a rough version of what I wanted I started playtesting and replacing meshes with 3D- assets
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3rd Stage- Deciding Shape
At this stage I had decided on the overall shape and flow of the level and tasks
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4th Stage- Implementing
Adding and implementing 3D-assets and task object assets, iterating was also key from playtest feedback
5th Stage- Finalizing
Iterating and implementing details and adding lighting which gave the correct tone
Level Breakdown
Main Floor
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
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A
1
Start- Tutorial Area
Info Desk
2
Lobby area
3
Kitchen Area
4
Conference Room Area
5
Office Space pt1
6
Office Space pt2
7
Supply Room
8
Archive Room
Second Floor
5
4
3
2
1
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A
B
1
Upstairs shelf and door to Lab
2
Reception
3
Security Desk
4
Lab Desk Area
5
Crane system area
Third Floor
1
B
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1
Ending- Final Cutscene and reveal
Player Guidance and Progression
Design Glitch Areas
The Glitch moments and areas are designed to be a narrative tool that tells a story through the environmental level design. They also had to be designed to give the player an unsettling feeling, feel unpredictable and work as a contrast to the original level.
Conference Room
Original Design
Glitch Design
In-game
Archive
Original Design
Glitch Design
In-game
Security Desk
Original Design
Glitch Design
In-game
