Code S-44
2019
PROJECT CONTEXT
Our graduation project from Bellecour École, Code S-44, was created within a year by a small student team. I helped the team as a Lead and Level Designer.
​
Code S-44 is a stealth, aventure game. You play as S-44, a spider bot that can climb on litteraly every surfaces (even its enemies).
​
The game have been crafted with Unity 2018 and C#. We used Confluence and Jira as design/management tools, and ProBuilder/Maya for the level design.
​
WORK HIGHLIGHT
On Code S-44 I had two roles, which came with different area of focus. As a LD, I worked on :
​
- Establishing a level design philosophy - After studies and researches, elaboration of design guidelines and golden rules.
- Creation of a level design kit - Creation of a blockout version of that kit, later used to produce 5 levels.
- Production of 2 levels - Creation of 2 levels, including the tutorial. Collaborated with artists on the visuals and programmer on the scripting.
​​
My other role, lead designer, consisted of the following :
​​
- Scoping and planning - Support to the producer on the scoping of the project as well as the tasks creation for the design team (7 persons, using Jira).
- Support to the design team - Helped or found help when the team was stuck on design problems.
DESIGN PHILOSOPHY
After exploring different structures for the levels (ranging from very linear to widely open), the team established early on the philosophy behind S-44 levels. We decided to go for something close to the modern Hitman games from IO interactive, for following reasons :
​
- it provides a sense of exploration
- It makes progression and pacing still manageable
- it encourages replayability
​
Next, we chose to create a modular level design kit in order to build interesting environments, while remaining flexible, as well as to maintain a high iteration speed. We were very inspired by the Bestheda approach of modular LD (GDC talk by Joel Burgress and Nate Purkeypile).
1_ARRIVAL
1_Arrival is the first level of the game.
​
Its purpose is to introduce the player to the 3C and to the universe of the game.
​
We choose to split the level in two parts:
​
- First part - providing a safe space, with very simple puzzle, to help players accommodate with the 3C and basic mechanics (Interactable and Checkpoints).
​
- Second part - introducing players to the enemies, with simple detection system and stealth basics.
3_UNEXPECTED
3_Unexpected is the third level of the game.
​
My design goals were to provide some unexpected problems and solutions, as well as introducing T.0.N.Y., a main character in the story.
​
The level is also split in two parts:
​
- First part - challenging the players on what they already knows (guards), in a more demanding way.
​
- Second part - introducing a new mechanic - the drop - with a little bit of backtracking, and then a long open stealth sequence.