FIFA OPEN WORLD

The following work was made for my level design classes during my Master degree in Game Design at I.I.M., Paris, France, under the supervision of Hugo Duron, level designer on Hunt : Showdown.

I was challenged to design in 1 week an open world into the FIFA license (or as it is called now, EA SPORTS FC) and to do the blocking of a zone of the said open world.
The simulation aspect and the take that EA has on football (or soccer….) in general made me unable to propose an eccentric gameplay.
I therefore chose to provide an experience integrating open world mechanics into FIFA career mode. The result turns out to be much more hub-ish than expected. But it offers another approach to this roleplay mode by offering players something other than a menu to facilitate identification with their character.

I chose to create a city called La Ciudad, a city that revolves around football. I did the blocking of its downtown in Unreal Engine 5 :

Quick proof of concept – Some designed features are, of course, missing or unpolished

EXPERIENCE DESIGN – A QUICK SUMMARY

Navigation

It was important to me to provide an interesting gaming experience where players weren’t just walking, but still « playing football » in some way. Offering a pass system allowing players to temporarily boost their speed, coupled with a scoring system by shooting at urban goals, turns La Ciudad is a real fun exploration experience!

Life in the city – Quests and events

To accentuate the feeling of belonging to a world, I offer players a city in which they can meet other FIFA players but also where many NPCs wander around. They will be able to pass them balls, chat with their fans, or avoid the haters who will try to tackle them to steal their balls! In addition, real players from their team will walk the streets of La Ciudad, in order to create a coherent and living world.

All of these people will be able to take players on side quests and challenges related to football.
In addition, many random events linked to daily life will twist the player’s navigation in a semi-random manner between each match. This will create a feeling of renewal as well as anchoring in the reality of La Ciudad.

COMPLETE DOCUMENTATION

openworld_easportfc_clementnowacki

A PLAGUE TALE – LEVEL DESIGN CONCEPT

This level was made for my level design classes during my Master degree in Game Design at I.I.M., Paris, France, under the supervision of Laura Mas Maury, level designer on A Plague Tale.

The order was to built in Unreal Engine 5 a level that could fit in A Plague Tale : Innocence in 1 week. I had several constraint : the level must take place in an abbey and its surroundings, and the story mission brief had guidelines I had to follow as well. For example, the level had to start with a stealth phase and end with an escape phase towards the forest.

LEVEL

Here is the result. Plans, user story and design intentions are detailled below videos:

The level I built and a proposition of mission that could fit it.

A general tour of the level building.

PLANS

The general idea of the level is to offer a circulatory environment where players really feel like they are infiltrating a community removed from the world. It was important to start them a little far from everything to force them to walk, then to pass through the restricted areas that are the common areas of the abbey to feel that they are breaking in and that their presence is an intrusion .

Once in the abbey, players will arrive in the courtyard. This more open space will reinforce the feeling of exploration and danger when they have to find a way to distract the monks and later flee the building after stealing the relic.

Close up and detailled view of the abbey itself

USER STORY

The user story is a document of intentions of what we want to tell in the level and a list of all the places the player will pass and what he will do there.

FAR CRY – LEVEL DESIGN CONCEPT

I had the opportunity to work on this level during my level design classes during my Master degree in Game Design at I.I.M., Paris, France, under the supervision of Laura Mas Maury, level designer on A Plague Tale.

The level was built in the Far Cry 5 map editor (used for Far Cry Arcade) from Ubisoft in 1 week. I wanted to play with the zombie pack and bring an « horror » vibe to my level. It’s a « Journey » map, the main goal for the player is to reach the exit.

Here is the result. Design intentions and solutions are detailled below the video:

STORY – BACKGROUND OF THE MAP

You incarnate the only survivor of a plane crash after you and your friends were flying during a violent storm, somewhere in the eastern Himalayas. You wake up in the middle of the debris, on top of a mountain on which there is a mysterious temple.

INTENTIONS

I used to play a lot of Far Cry 4 and I was very fan of the Shangri-La phases . They are basically long corridors with a lot of zombie-ish ennemies in an south-east asian themed environment. I wanted to replicate a little bit of that with a thin layer of an horror atmosphere. It translates into various way in my level.

NAVIGATION

The level is divided in 3 parts.

1. The Beginning

The beginning of the level is a very straight foward ‘corridor’ that shrink to the point that the player have to crounch to continue it to the end of the section. It act as a funnel where the player can’t be lost and that isn’t very dangerous, since zombies always comes in front of the player. They are a lot but they never take the player by surprise, making them pretty easy to kill.
At the end, the whole start of the level act as a tutorial for the player to familiarize themselves with the feeling of their shotgun.

2. The Village

The second part of the level is a more open one. A single path is drawn on the ground, in the dirt, but the player is allowed to take the path they want. In example, the player is not forced to directly walk into the villlage, but they can walk around in the forest nearby for a sneakiest approach.
This part comes in contrast with the previous one, to make the player feel that the world they are into is bigger than they thought, but, since every house is in flames, the danger too.

3. The End

All roads leads to the same end, which are two arenas: the bastion and the fort. Everything is more or less closed around the player, and their only chance to survive is to kill every ennemy without dying first.
It creates a focus on this last tension points after a relative freedom in the village.

WORKSHOPS

To create variety and keep the player, I created two workshops:

1. Breakable ground

The player has to shoot the ground at the start of the level, in the temple. I think it creates a cool moment and a certain « Whoah » effect since I had to create it entirely in the engine using test surfaces!

2. Quad

This workshop is a shot of power before the last section of the level. Shooting zombies in the head is fun, but rolling on them with a quad is funnier! It may feel a bit out of place considering the whole level, but it give the player a very interesting reward after several minutes of fights against zombies and a cool incentive to continue to play.

COLORIMETRY

The colorimetry is all dark and white with a huge satured red.
The only elements that stand out are linked to violence : blood, fuel barrel that can explode, explosion themselves, fire, zombies etc.

The red color oppresses the player during their journey.

SHOTGUN

I chose on purpose to give the player a single firearm, a very specific shotgun that can only fire two bullets before reloading. There is no other gun, the player has to stick with it.
I never wanted a very hard level, so I was pretty generous with the munitions. The player has a lot of room to miss their shots on several zombies without being too punished.
Nontheless, the shotgun magazine being limited, it forces the player to reload after almost every shot, making them vulnerable to a potential ennemy assault.

It helps to maintain this layer of pressure on the top of the head of the player that keep them entertained, despite being a killing machine that can one shot almost every zombie.

XTREM DERBY – CONCEPT

XTREM DERBY DEMOLITION is a mobile game concept made during my last year at ICAN. The teacher asked us to make a very complete presentation of an interesting game concept of our own. We decided to create a game about destruction derby with simple but nervous mechanics.

To fit with mobile games constraints, we decided to use simple mechanics to move the car in the arena. The player is allowed to play as much as he/she wants but his/her progression is slowed down by a car upgrade mechanic that require real time or real money.

Team:
Morgane ABECASSIS – Apollinaire BEHRA LE CAM – Alan CAILLEREZ – Jean DESBEAUX – Clément NOWACKI

STYX – LEVEL DESIGN CONCEPT

Styx is a stealth video game made by Cyanide Studios. The main character, Styx, is a green goblin who masters stealth and discreet robbery. He is also addicted to a drug named « amber ».
The following work was made for my level design classes during my bachelor at I.C.A.N., Paris.

This level was built with Unreal Engine 4.

STORY – BACKGROUND OF THE MAP

Styx is running out of Amber and hears of an Amber Bank where astronomical quantities of the precious liquid would be stored. After finding the position, he decides to rob it.

This level includes one main mission (steal the amber stock of the bank) and one secondary objective (eat all the contents of the buffet in the offices)

CONCEPTION

Above: A draft I made
Below: The level (blocking) finished

Yellow lights : main path for the player
White lights : secondary paths for the player
Blue lights : secondary objective zone
Red lights : « You almost finished the level keep it up » incentive
*The player starts at the bottom of the screen.*

The level was created with several layout of height to offer many ways to inflitrate the bank.

Pictures 1 & 2 : Entry hall, the player can walk on the ground or on the chandeliers.
Picture 3 : The player is hidding under the archives section of the bank. He/she can now obserse the gard’s routine.
(Click on a picture to enlarge it)

REFERENCES

I tried to convey a certain idea of wealth. I looked at french castles like le Louvre or les Invalides in Paris, France, which have long galleries with high ceilings, large corridors richly decorated with paintings, statues and a few big chandeliers.