The Design Process

  • Researched for various penthouse interiors as well as notable indoor-heavy levels in Mirror's Edge.

  • Designed a top-down view of the level and marked notable interactions for each of the three floors: a rooftop, the second floor, and the first floor.

  • Created a script for the character controller to model Mirror's Edge's parkour movements, such as gradual increasing in running speed, ledge grabbing, ledge climbing, ground roll, and highlighting specific objects in red within a certain distance to the player (simplified Runner's Vision).

  • White boxed the layout of the overhead map, iterating on the design and scale based on the movement of the character controller, possible enemy encounters, and potential problems from internal play testing.

  • Iterated on the overall layout design to accommodate various play styles in the game.

  • Used a world-based grid material to further assist in obtaining an accurate scale of the environment.

  • Utilized Unreal Engine's BSP brushes to create low-poly models and assets that better fit the overall look of the level.

  • Modified materials and material instances to get desired colors and texture for the environment.

  • Used lighting and colors to indirectly guide the player towards specific paths within the level.

Project Summary

  • Time frame: 5 weeks

  • Engine: Unreal Engine 4.19

  • Other Software Used: Adobe Illustrator

For this project, I designed a level based off Mirror's Edge from scratch, starting with references and a sketch of the layout, and ending with a high-fidelity white boxed level. The entire purpose of this project was to challenge myself to design and build a level for a game that is out of my comfort zone, and to test myself on building levels with mechanical intent. I taught myself how to create state machines for ledge grabbing, modified the character controller to accommodate ledge grabbing and the landing roll, and learned about dynamic materials to simulate Mirror’s Edge Runner Vision. This was specifically to help me build the level to more accurately scale to the character’s movement.

The level I am building is a penthouse located in New Eden Estates, which is a stated residential area in Mirror's Edge. Most of the assets shown in the final screenshots were made using Unreal Engine's BSPs. In the final state the level is in, I imagine the level to be more of a high-fidelity white box that would then be handed off to an environmental artist or level artist to finish.

Layouts and White Boxing

Here you can see the early stages of the design with the top down level sketch for each floor, as well as the white boxed stage of my design.