Ingame screenshot of a swarm before confronting enemies.

The player has to build bridges between the different levels, consisting of collected swarm units.

Game being plaid at Gamespace of HTW Berlin

Attacking an enemy from the front side might end in a quite a loss of units. But in narrow passages like this one it's challenging to bring units in the flank of an enemy.

By splitting up your swarm in smaller squads you have the options to attack enemies from different sides. Attacking form behind or from the sides deals more damage.

Explosion units chase enemies away. In this screenshot the player succeeded to chase one behind a gate, and activate the switch in the right moment to trap it.

These two switches are the first ones a player encounters. They learn how to use units to activate a switch and that a gate can be accessed by more than one switch.

One of the bigger puzzles in the game. Player have split up their swarm to and to figure out which switches or which combinations of switches are required to open a gate.

Gate-switch-challenge on the left side and alternative way across 3 enemies.

At this place players have to decide if they want transform some units into digging or into explosion special units.

One of the 3 big challenges of the final level. It needs very good timing of the different squads or quite a lot of units to access and activate the central switch.

Battle of the five armies - but the gate is closed. It's final challenge of the 4th level to find and activate all switches, which control the final gate.

Demonstrating and testing gameplay with help of an analog prototype level in our team.

First demo level built in collaboration with a team member.

I designed many level areas in pen&paper prototypes. Usually I took notes in form of sketches and transferred them into the levels in Unreal Engine.

Example of how concepts of level areas in sketches or pen&paper prototypes are implemented in a gray box level.

I used level blueprints to generate arranged level elements and make building the level a lot faster, because I didn't have to arrange every asset by hand.

Example of how one of my construction blueprint works. You can combine assets in a controlled or quite random way to give the level a unique appearance.

Screenshot of a gray box level part. I created central areas standalone, and if they worked I combined them with other parts.

For an easier handling of the level collider, I added handler which I could switch on or off as needed.

View on the first level.

We used prints of top down views of the levels to note problems and difficult areas, so that I could fix them.

I analyzed different approaches of players in one of the levels. They could be divided in 3 different types and I calculated the average way and win/loss of units of each way to optimize this levels and use the knowledge in the next levels I designed.

By comparing different player paths I recognized an almost never visited are in the level (red circle) and decided made this part of the level more attractive to players.

Prototype of how a simple gate-switch-combination works, and it's implementation in a gray box level.

I controlled the different combinations of gate-switch-connections with help of blueprints

Notes, sketches and different pen&paper prototypes with puzzle scenarios for later implementation in to the game.

One of the most complex puzzles in game. Five gates are controlled by four switches. For every gate you need a different combination of active switches.

Players have to split up their swarm into different squads to open all gates. If they aren't in the mood to puzzle, they can choose to fight their way through a 3rd passage, guarded by three enemies.

With good timing it's possible to lure the enemy from the right switch onto the left one, and to lock it up behind the gate.

Screenshot of a tutorial screen explaing that an enemy has different target zones.

Tutorial screen explaining the explosion units.

Tutorial screen explaining the digging units.

We used analog prototypes to demonstrate how the explosion special units can blow up breakable walls.

Fight scenario with two squads hiding to attack the enemy from behind as soon as it is enganged in combat with the third squad.

Demonstration on how explosion units can be used to chase enemies and blow them up.