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KYLE KOTOVSKY
Beyond The Marion
Placebo Entertainment
Role:
Technical Functional Team Lead
Level Designer
Technical Designer
Date:
May-August 2024
Engine:
Unity 2022.3.27f1
Genre:
First-person puzzle and walking simulator
Description:​
A summer personal project made with a team of 20 very talented people. We were all Bradley University students who wanted to make a game together over the summer, and this was our result. As the second in command of the Polaris Mark 0, the player must make their way to the bridge thwarting potential catastrophe one after another. In this time-loop game failure is a part of the process, the player will learn more about what they need to do through trial and error in order to save the ship and crew.
My Contributions:
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Facilitating milestone kickoff and weekly sync meetings with my team.
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Implementing finalized art assets and animations for all 5 NPCs and player character through Unity Animation Controller, C# scripting, and developed tools.
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Utilizing Unity ProBuilder to create 4 iterations of the level, optimizing geometry and improving player navigation for the final product.
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Building geometry and room layouts to support a 70s retro-futurism theme with curved surfaces and wood accented paneling.
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Appling VFX to enhance player interaction with the world via C# scripted interactions.
Game Trailer
Vertical Slice Map
Gold Master First Section
Vertical Slice
Initially, I was the Level Designer for the team. I began by greyboxing the first section of our map using Unity ProBuilder, creating a base layout. The map is divided into three sections, and I collaborated with the design team to plan the next two sections.
First Iteration
Second Iteration
Working in conjunction with the rest of Design, I was able to create a basic level with the needs of other features and characters planned for this first milestone.
Third Iteration
Fourth Iteration
One of the artists on our team showed me a rough blockout of how he imagined the ship to be looking, and he suggested making the hallways curve instead of being right angles.
Vertical Slice Map
Vertical Slice Gameplay
With Vertical Slice done, I was now able to start work on the Alpha version of the map and include the second and third sections.
Alpha
The layout I created for the Vertical Slice worked, but it didn't convey a ship-like feel. A series of hallways and rooms lacks the essence of a spaceship. To enhance the feeling of being on a spaceship, I planned to put more focus on the bridge, as they are typically the most detailed parts of a spaceship in science fiction due to their significance.
How can I make this room feel important with just geometry?
By changing the elevation of the player!
Bridge Greyboxed
Top-Down of Map
The player stays stationary vertically during the game, so adding a vertical incline in the final room will subtly highlight its significance. This idea mirrors ancient architecture, where grand staircases lead to entrances, making the elevated spaces feel more important.
Second Section
I opted for a hallway design in the second section, inspired by the curved hallway art I had seen. Unlike the first section, this one only required two rooms for the characters, prompting me to get creative with the layout. To avoid unnecessary backtracking, I chose an oval shape that forces players to choose between two paths, with a connecting door that can be unlocked later as a shortcut.
Beta
The map layout is now greyboxed, and we just need to wait for the art to populate it with new assets. However, due to summer delays, I shifted my focus to other tasks.
Room Addition in Section 2
Our design team requested a room to be added between section 2 and 3 which was going to have a mini game.
Animation Implementation
I volunteered to implement all of the character and player animations using Unity Animation Graphs while working with the artist creating them for immediate feedback and fixes.
Gold Master
Gold Master was the time of crunch, as all the art assets that were in the works were being finished one after another. Good for the art team, but that meant I needed to implement a lot of art assets in a very short amount of time.
Final Level Top-Down
Beauty Shots
Click the image to see it at full resolution
Click the image to see it at full resolution
Click the image to see it at full resolution
Click the image to see it at full resolution
I am proud of what I had done on Beyond The Marion, but that doesn't mean that I don't think I could have done better.
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If I had more time with this project I would start with adding more to the bridge, it looks very good on it's own, but compared to the rest of the game it feels too empty. Time was also a massive constraint, with the project being over the summer I had other responsibilities, an internship, classes, and a part-time job making finding time to develop the game a challenge.
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Overall, it was an amazing experience, with a few hiccups, but every member of the team was so talented and wonderful to work with that it made the whole experience worth it!
Team Photo!
