About Viking Hiking
Viking Hiking is a 3D skilled platformer in a small open-world level with a complex character controller with moves flowing together. Use your horn to pole vault across the island and help Bøf collect the runestones.
Movement Instrument
Use Bøf's horn to maneuver around the island, complete challenges, or explore. Follow the path or make your own by combining moves.
Pacifist Viking
Bøf being a gentle viking means he wasn't allowed into Valhalla the usual way. Reach the top of the mountain and find a new way in.
Open Scandinavian Island
Throughout the island are challenges to overcome. Follow the lost souls and find the runestones spread out across the island in any order you want
8 weeks
20 developers
Unreal Engine 5
Level design role
Planning and blockout
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Conducted research on reference games and communicated required tools and level elements needed for the level to prop artists and system designers
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Created level sketches depicting the biome arrangement and player progression. This was done alongside the environment artist to ensure proper scope and to communicate design intention early.
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Created a toggle map to communicate to the team how paths, viewpoints, NPCs and checkpoints overlap and connect.
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Set up the first blockout and created the core gameplay loop to ensure all core systems were implemented before testing.
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Created challenges that vary in difficulty and level mechanics to make an engaging and well-paced level, that guides the player while letting them explore.
Playtesting and iteration
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Set up playtesting and iteration documentation to track recurring feedback over multiple iterations and standardize documentation.
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Tested over multiple iterations with hypothesis, method, and testers noted to ensure the same quality across multiple playtests.
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Interpret QA tool information from playtesting events to iterate based on quantitative as well as qualitative feedback.
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Iterated based on playtesting responses and observations
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Helped set-dress the level along with environment artists and made sure the design intent wasn't lost.
Island layout
Island research
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Researched reference games, primarily 3D platformers, and their level layout and pacing.
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Created the requirements for the level for start and end, biomes or areas, and separation of level ingredients.
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Created reference boards for the biomes to show our intent to the art team and decide on necessary props
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Researched creating distinct areas and giving them each an identity (Genius loci)
Island Design
Island layout
First iteration island mainly focused on level scale and traversal loops
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Created the level sketches, traversal maps, and note graphs.
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Developed a toggle map for the team to help show different layers of information as needed.
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Created the first blockout along with the environment artist.
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Iterated on the level layout with the environment artist based on feedback from testers.
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Created challenges for the level.
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Iterated on the challenges based on feedback from testers.
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Helped setdress with the environment artists and gave feedback to ensure level design intentions stayed.
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Created the outro fly-through of the level and the credits
Final Iteration
Onboarding
Tutorial research
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Researched reference games, primarily 3D platformers, and their onboarding regarding visuals, and tutorial layouts.
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Researched how the introduction and development in our reference games fit into the four-step level design process.
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Set up requirements for the tutorial before starting to sketch the layout.
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Used research to iterate on tutorial along with player feedback.
Tutorial Design
Tutorial Layout
First iteration of the tutorial
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Sketched the layouts for the tutorial with sections for each mechanic the player had to learn before leaving.
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Created the first blockout of the tutorial with the environment artist to ensure proper layout.
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Implemented level ingredients, checkpoints, dialogue points and challenges in the tutorial.
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Iterated the tutorial following playtests with feedback on readability, flow, progression and challenges that could be skipped.
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Worked with environment art to make sure the collectibles would be guiding the player properly and challenges were still functional when set-dressed.
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Sketched the layouts for the tutorial with sections for each mechanic the player had to learn before leaving.
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Created the first blockout of the tutorial with the environment artist to ensure proper layout.
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Implemented level ingredients, checkpoints, dialogue points and challenges in the tutorial.
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Iterated the tutorial following playtests with feedback on readability, flow, progression and challenges that could be skipped.
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Worked with environment art to make sure the collectibles would be guiding the player properly and challenges were still functional when set-dressed.
Final Iteration
Final Iteration
Major iterations
Level Verticality
Initially the level was too flat and didn't have any particularly interesting views, so with the help of our environment artist we changed the layout of the level, adding the stone arch and made more layers in the terrain.
This helped by creating a more exploratory feeling with paths crossing over each other or requiring a different path rather than just going there immediately. By adding more verticality we also give the player more opportunities to use the character's movement to get to new areas and make their own paths to their goals.
Tutorialization without dialogue
Through playtesting with children in the target audience we found that they generally had a much easier time learning the mechanics than teenagers. They were more open to playing around with the controls and didn't have as many expectations to how the controls "should" work.
Some playtesters still had issues due to the tutorial being done in dialogues in English, and for Dutch children this could be an additional hurdle. Because of this we decided to create decals showing the movement they were supposed to learn. We wanted to keep it diegetic as the rest of the game has minimal UI, and we wanted to avoid teaching through a gif pop-up. This worked out and towards the end most players skipped the dialogues and just learned from the decals.
Set-dressing
Common blockout language
Throughout the project, we worked alongside the environment artist to make sure we kept the scope in check both regarding asset creation and level size. Having the environment artist be part of the process from the beginning gave them a much better overview of our concept and allowed them to give feedback immediately. This also meant we could create a common blockout language such as blocks showing areas where no gameplay was intended or where line of sight was intended. Building rapport with the environment artist so they respected our work and would involve us when set-dressing meant we could give feedback or tweak their work without hurt feelings.
Feedback for environment artists
In the beginning, we had a single environment artist, which made it easy to keep up to date and give feedback, but as other artists finished their tasks, such as the rigger or prop artists, they joined and helped with set-dressing. This made it more important to keep up to date with them all and remind them to check with me before submitting anything, to ensure we don't lose the intended gameplay or guidance. This also included the artists creating easter eggs or small areas without gameplay but for pacing and avoiding challenge fatigue. These areas also helped inspire me to more challenges or new areas in other parts of the level.
Along with the set-dressing I also tweaked guidance aspects such as the ravens, with a new blueprint allowing for more locations to better guide the player, or making sure the set-dressing doesn't obscure paths or challenges.