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Super Sudden Death Land

My Role

I was the sole Level Designer on a team of four. I designed and constructed the entire overworld for the game as well as scripting environmental changes.
Play the game here:

Game Summary

Super Sudden Death Land is a turn-based JRPG where every unit has a single hit point. Players ward off
enemies, gain new abilities by leveling up, and explore the world to expand their party.
Beach Opening Shot.png
Engine:
Unreal Engine 5
Platform:
PC
Development Time:
1 month
Team Size:
4 team members

Design Goals

Lock & Key

My design of the island needed to introduce new characters to the player's party and show their utility. I show the player magical barriers that require a new party member's spell to pass through them.

Incentivizing Exploration

Obtaining and equipping items is a central experience in the JRPG genre. I designed areas along the critical path that showed just enough information to be intriguing to players.

Lock & Key

LockKey_GIF_1.gif
LockKey_GIF_2.gif

Metriodvania inspired design

New party members needed to have an important impact on the player's party, to achieve this I leveraged the team's magical shield mechanic and designed a lock-and-key style encounter. This was inspired by Metroidvania-style games and works to control overall level flow.
LockKey_GIF_3.gif

Incentivizing Exploration

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Sense of Discovery

To create a sense of discovery I placed secrets along the critical path often behind rocks or in between trees.

Showing one chest at the beginning of the game clearly presented in the open encourages players to search for more.
Secrets_GIF_1.gif
Secrets_GIF_2.gif

Initial Concept

Area2_Forest.png
Annotated_Forest.png
Iteration
As development began the areas I constructed in the editor closely resembled my designs on paper. The main aspects of iteration were adding more combats to help with the game's overall pacing and adding secrets for players to discover near the critical path.

Postmortem

What Went Well

  • Three distinct areas that each flow differently
  • Lock & Key system works well
  • Great scope for the project

What Went Wrong

  • Low level of polish due to time constraint
  • Players explore somewhat randomly to find rewards

What I Learned

  • How to make an effective game quickly
  • Experience with UE5 blueprints
  • Players are attracted to visual stimulus

Gallery

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