Gerald Krison
Hi, I'm Gerald Krison, a level designer from Germany who loves creating levels with all my heart. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, I have worked on various shipped titles in all kinds of genres. Feel free to take a look at what I have worked on or, below, HOW I work, for example.
I am always excited about new challenges and new contacts.
Contact:
Geraldkrison@gmx.de
General Level Design tasks
Design breakdowns
Here you can find examples how I worked on different genres:
Quest design in an RPG
Random generated maps in an RTS
Racing Level Design
RTS Maps breakdown
Autogenerated Maps
For autogenerated maps I build different kinds of "Blueprints"
I made a bunch of Spawner-Blueprints with different entry and exit points.
Also I made a huge ammount of how I call it "Islands" in different sizes and use cases.
Also I built a lot of blueprints for outside of the player area to fill the random maps with a bit of life
MainQuest Maps
If the player occupy some locations in Mainquest- or Sandbox maps, shortcuts can be unlocked.
In this map I created 3 shortcuts.
The player enter the Overworld from his ungeon.
The left path is the right one, if he goes right, he is infront of the green barriere and will find a eward.
If he kills the green pawner, he achieve a shortcut. The path to the right is now open and shorter then the path to the left.
After killing the yellow pawner, he opened a new even shorter shortcut.
After killing the blue oss and pawner, he get a new shortcut to the final oss and pawner.
General Level Design breakdown
Here is a small section of a Level and how the proces works from concept to finish.
I had to blure some spots because its a unannounced game.
In the concept is -in the best case- everything more or less rough defined like: in which part of the game it plays, story of the lv in the game, USP, goals, theme, quests, encounters, maybe also lighting, mood and some mood pictures/concept pictures if possible.
Of course there is at least a 2D concept of the map that every department should be able to understand.
Aaaand then it will be changed. A lot.
Or...not at all... it depends.
After the concept phase, a first blockout draft is possible.
Here you can see the first blockout of a start of a level.
The player has to traverse from left to right on a moving platform. Thats the start of the area.
At the end of this phase all gameplay elements, mechanics, scripts and encounter should work and feel good.
In best cases the basic shape and collisions will be given.
Next it depends on what assets are already there. In this case, there is no whiteboxing necessary.
After a possible whiteboxing phase, the general shape and collisions should be worked out in more detail or even completed.
Like in all phases, iteration is a normal process. Here I want to have the entrance in a more intresting way next.
I changed the entrance in a more open space and add more details in the shape of it.
Not only, but also because this part of the map is underground, it is necessary to determine where the light sources are located early on. At the very least, placing lights here is advantageous. (blue circles)
In further steps, I edited the surroundings so that you can no longer see outside the map ingame.
Then I added more details, foliage, a few particles, decals, and other stuff I found.
Post-processing settings, wind, music, and sound I also added.
Finally, I finalized the lighting mood and created backlights, highlights, etc. to harmonize well with the fog and surroundings. I staged certain assets as I had planned beforehand to create the right feeling and/or guide the player.
Final ingame scene
Boss Level Design breakdown
In the Project was also a Boss. I planed the Arena for it in close collaboration with the Game Designers.
After iterating and testing different ideas for the Boss-arena and his specific abilities...
...the final idea was born.
One of the most important features I had to pay attention to was the gameplay for a special attack of the boss. (You can find a video of it here.)
Of course, the attack and other abilities of this boss didn't exist yet. Therefore it can easily happen that in the next step, the dressing, big changes can still happen.
fortunately there were hardly any changes to be made.
Redressing tasks
I have redressed a few areas of the project.
(Redressing is to improve already existing areas.)
The gameplay and the shapes will be kept as far as possible.
Here is an example.
<- Before
<- After
Here I have tried to take up the theme of a prison.
In the non-playable area, for example, I changed simple walls to cells and changed other small details in the area.
I improved the player guidance with a few candles and prepared the player for a fight with blood decals on the floor. I edited the lighting to create a creepier atmosphere.
Puzzle tasks
In this Action Adventure I was responsible for some puzzles and blockouts for them.
Puzzles are a special category of Level Design that I really like.
Puzzles can only be used as a 2d concept to a limited extent. Especially in a game with an isometric top-down view. That's why I test them as quickly as possible in engine.
Another special feature is that you would have to script puzzles functionally directly in order to be able to test them in real life.
The scripting for us LDs was built into our own engine and changed a few times to make it more convenient for us. I really enjoyed experiencing this development.
Oh yes, in this screen you can see the finished puzzle. The player can "shoot" an item with a certain skill to collect all the glowing pieces in the right order in one go.
A gate then opens containing a key, which he then uses to trigger an ambush. Once all the enemies are dead, the last door opens and he gets the reward.
My task was at this point nearly done.
The finished puzzle was then part of a large map that several people, including myself, worked on at the same time.
It was dressed separately and then reinserted into the large map by me.
RPG Quest breakdown
Here is an excerpt of my work for a short quest I created
In a small area in Amalur you find red crystals and undeads that only die when the crystal is destroyed.
You find out that a learned gnome might know something about it.
He lives in a house in the forest, away from the village, but has not been seen for a long time.
When you arrive at his house, I explain via environmental storytelling that something terrible must have happened and that the gnome has probably not been home for a long time.
The attentive player recognizes a trail of blood that leads to a chimney, and drag marks on the floor next to the chimney.
Here I want the player to become curious and wonder what might have happened.
Was the gnome kidnapped? what happened to him?
Curiosity is aroused.
If the player has a certain skill, he can discover a secret passage.
The fireplace opens and the trail of blood leads into the cellar.
Clear player guidance with environmantal storytelling.
Curiosity and suspense increase.
The player is led to a place where there are several dead bodies that have been cut up.
The blood trail leads slightly to the right, to lend the eyes to the right side. On the right side there are crates (something that attracts the player)
Behind the crates that the player can destroy, is a reward crate. (Reward for finding the secret entrance)
This lights up as soon as the player is near it. It is therefore very conspicuous and should attract the player.
Suprise:
If the player approaches the crate, he may not realize that enemies are already lurking in the room to the left.
Suprise attack.
In the cellar of the learned gnome he now finds one of these crystals and fights against undead.
First suspicion that the gnome has something to do with it, but where is he?
After destroying the crystal and after the fight, the player finds a passageway, the wall of the cellar is destroyed and leads into an underground cave.
In the cave he finds another crystal, it seems as if something is to be protected.
But what?
The light sources draw the player/the eye to the next steps to be taken.
Destroy the crystal and follow the path further into the tunnel.
After a narrow, winding path, the player finds a large underground room.
It seems that the gnome has been experimenting under his house.
Here the environment is supposed to tell that the necromancer did some of his research in this place.
Here the player finds a key.
The player is led to an ominous entrance (behind a waterfall, of course).
Which he can now open.
In a large temple in a hollowed-out mountain, the player must destroy 6 crystals.
Dark atmosphere, lots of enemies and crystals. Sign that it comes to the end of the quest and a final fight.
The crystals are spread out in different places.
The player can only get to one of the last crystals by using a skill to find secret places.
Several secret places can be found here (reward for having trained the skill).
When the last crystal is destroyed, the gnome necromancer appears.
Now the player can talk to her, she tell her story and after that they have to fight.
Racing breakdown
For this map we wanted to test if/how a night map with baked light works.
I thought about the theme of an island at sunset. We worked in blender for this project.
First I built a simple route, tested it often and iterated it.
In the back of my mind I already knew where I wanted to place items.
We tested the track a lot with the team to see how hard it was and if it was fun.
Then I added items and splines for NPCs and iterated of course.
When the track was ready, I blockouted the island, added assets, and vertex painted everything.
I added animals and splines for birds to make the island more alive.
The light was baked as mentioned.
This is the result.