YOKAI RESCUE
GAME OVERVIEW
Yokai Rescue is a 2D action-platformer set in a neon-japanese universe. The player embodies Seiki, a yokai kitsune who has to ascend through an immense futuristic tower to get revenge for all the other yokais fallen in the fight against the Selvos.
The player can use unique capabilities to move quickly through the air and destroy any enemies getting in his way.
DEVELOPMENT INFOS
Role - Level Designer
Time - 2 months (2021)
Team size - 11
Genre - Action Platformer
Type of project - School project
Tech - Unity
Platform - PC (1 player)
MY RESPONSIBILITIES
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Finding new ideas for the game during the short pre-production.
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Creating and implementing the first level of the game.
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Creating different combat rooms for different levels.
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Help game artists with the integration of levels or level elements.​​​
DESIGN OVERVIEW
During the 2021 summer break, I worked 2 months as a Level Designer on Yokai Rescue. It was a Rogue-like project made by some of my classmates at Rubika and they decided to remake it from the beginning to create an action platformer with the same controller.
It’s a short time period for making a game with 3 levels and new mechanics but we took the risk. In the beginning, level designers had to think and propose ideas for the level elements. After that, each of the level designers (we were 3) chose a level to create and produce.
I was tasked to create and produce the first level after the tutorial. My idea was to use the controller to have fast and fluid movement between rooms.
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First of all, I designed a lot of small rooms that I could use in my level on paper, and I quickly put them on illustrator :
Different rooms on illustrator
I tried to design different challenge rooms, some are more axed on combat and others are more axed on platforming.
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Then I arranged the different rooms in a shape to make a first draft of the level :
First layout on illustrator
I tried to vary the challenges, I alternated between movement and combat.
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After 2 weeks, I blocked out the first version of the level and I iterated on it during the rest of the project. At the same time I helped the game artists with the art integration on my level.
After the playtests, my level changed quite a bit. This is the final version. It looks much more like a tower than the first iteration :
Final level
During the production of my level, I had to pay attention to the difficulty curve because this was the first level of the game. I tweaked many rooms to scale up and down the difficulty, I played on the number of enemies, the different obstacles and their speed or even on the shape of the rooms.
POST MORTEM
WHAT WENT WELL :
I could focus on my level only and the iterations that had to be done.
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All the team members were supportive and listened to each other.
WHAT DIDN'T GO WELL :
In the beginning, I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do on my level.
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During production, changes had to be made to some level elements and enemies and we had to change parts of our level design.
FINAL THOUGHTS :
Yokai Rescue was a project where I could focus on one level only and its iterations. I loved tweaking my level according to the playtesters’ feedback and seeing it evolve through time.
Play the game
The game will be available on Steam.