Aphotic Descent

I designed most of the levels and gameplay for Aphotic Descent, an underwater horror game developed by Broiled Squid Studios. During the project's development, I created and annotated level blueprints using Krita, designed gameplay, puzzles, and scripted events for each level, and aided in grayboxing and setdressing each level. Additionally I assisted in designing game mechanics and enemy functionality, such as the blacklight tool and boss fight mechanics.
-----Process----
The level design process for Aphotic Descent was unconventional. I was given the narrative and enemy concepts and given the task of designing the level, gameplay, puzzles, and scripted events surrounding each level. From there, I created a level blueprint from scratch using Krita (and used Garry's Mod to help visualize and playtest 3D gameplay environments), annotated the level, and ran the concept by the creative director. From there, we whiteboxed the environment and made revisions along the way. Almost all levels ultimately differed from the initial map blueprint concept.
-----Challenges-----
The biggest challenge facing me throughout Aphotic Descent's development was scope and ambition. Though I had freedom to design the levels and their content, I did not have final say, and as a result my level concepts were often taken in completely different directions than I initially intended. Much of the reason for this was simply due to complexity; we had a small code team and while I tried to re-use assets and keep things simple, not everything I had in mind could be done by the project's deadline. It was a valuable learning experience familiarizing me with development ambition versus feasibility.
When it came to playtesting, some notable changes on my end were tweaking level difficulty, particularly towards the end of development. As downscaling resulted in some intended features being cut, some encounters felt more lackluster and unfinished as a result, such as the Angler Trench level. The Angler was intended to have more complex AI, animations, and abilities- but as we neared the project deadline, much of this had to be cut. Playtesting revealed players often had an easy time outrunning the Angler by mixing jumping and swimming to maintain a high speed without running out of stamina; my solution to this was to utilize traps from previous levels in greater excess, as well as adding more large obstacles, as the Angler Trench is an open level and the player has the ability to swim upward. By complicating ground routes and adding floor-based traps, the player is forced to walk carefully around obstacles--meaning the Angler could easily swim over them--or they would need to use their stamina to swim up and over these obstacles, adding more challenge to the encounter via the environment.
-----In Review-----
Ultimately, while I do wish some more of my ideas had made it to the final release, I'm proud of each and every level's final outcome. In particular, seeing the finished Eel Cove level for the first time nearly had me in tears; seeing my level idea go from concept to reality was like a dream come true to me. That feeling inspires me to work even harder to create engaging gameplay environments for players, and to bring all that I've learned on Aphotic Descent to future game projects.