Mantra is a Sci-Fi movement shooter primarily inspired by Titanfall 2, Doom, and Halo. The gameplay emphasizes engaging traversal, combat, and puzzles.
Steam Demo
Responsibilities
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Inherit ownership of the 3rd level, iterating on the layout and finalizing the design.
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Design a variety of platforming encounters that challenge the player's mastery over the movement mechanics.
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Craft combat arenas that encourage movement and challenge the player with enemy placement and composition.
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Introduce a puzzle mechanic in level 3 that will be expanded upon throughout the rest of the game.
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Build spaces that guide the player, preserve the flow of gameplay, and showcase clear composition for readability.
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Prototype and implement dynamic level elements using Blueprint visual scripting.
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Collaborate with the art team in transitioning level blockouts to environment art.
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Work with producers to help them plan milestones and ensure the project remains on track.
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Document designs to pitch during weekly meetings and present my weekly progress.
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Playtest various levels and provide feedback to the other level designers.
Level 1 Exterior Combat Arena
My first task was to take a combat space in level 1 and redesign it to play like a Doom Eternal combat arena while preserving the physical size of the space.​​
Original Layout
The original design had a few issues that conflicted with the design goals:​​
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Enemies spawned behind the player and the corridor shape made it easy for the player to ignore the encounter.
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Player got stuck on the stair-like terrain if they tried to strafe during combat.​
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Player wasn't encouraged to engage with the movement mechanics or make interesting decisions under duress.
Redesigned Layout
Doom's combat arenas are built to facilitate engaging movement and provide multiple decisions from every position, so that's what I prioritized when planning the layout.
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Enemies now spawn between the player and their objective.
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Stairs are now slopes which don't interrupt the player's flow.
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Multiple routes and verticality provides engaging decisions and movement.
Level 3 Beat Map & Progress
After blocking out the combat arena in level 1, I was assigned ownership of level 3. Production recently requested that the level designers provide a breakdown of their level's beats and their progress, so I put together this map that will provide context to the beats I'll be diving into more detail below.
Cave Combat Arena
This was the first beat in level 3 that I started adjusting. Flying enemies and a grounded enemy spawn when the player approaches. I was happy with the enemy composition but thought there was room for improvement with the layout.​​​​​​
Original Layout
Redesigned Layout​
​​​With 2 pillars and 2 cover rocks, the floor felt too cramped to support movement while fighting the grounded enemy and instead felt like it encouraged the player to use passive and stationary tactics. I consolidated it to only 1 pillar and 1 cover rock so there was a lot more room to maneuver while still allowing the player to use the environment defensively.
The wall run near the gate didn't seem to have a tactical use. Jumping to it from the bridge leads the player straight into the gate and there wasn't a good angle to jump from the other direction to reach the bridge. I added more wall runs around the room so the player can freely move around the space without even touching the ground.​
The player is introduced to the concept of shooting targets to activate objects in the environment. For this encounter, shooting the targets would open the gate.
One target was around the corner from the gate. This was problematic because we can't guarantee that the player will see the gate open, running the risk of confusing the player. Especially because this is the player's first time encountering this new mechanic and we don't take the player's control away in Mantra with cutscenes showing that the player's action changed something.
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I thought it would be best to simplify things and introduce the concept in the most basic form, so I removed one of the targets. I could then expand on the concept by making the player shoot 2 targets next time.
The targets were also placed inside a mine cart, which I thought was a strange choice from an environmental storytelling perspective. It seemed like the key to open the gate, a permanent structure, should similarly be a permanent fixture.
Security Checkpoint
Following the cave combat at the start of level 3, I moved onto this location. Narratively, this building is where employees entering the mining facility would have their gear inspected as they pass through the security checkpoint.
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For my blockouts, I like to use high contrast colors to make gameplay elements stand out from the environment and guide the player. This is why I swapped the environment material from the bright default orange to a more dull grey.
This area expands on the target mechanic by making the player shoot 2 targets. The 1st target is font and center, similar to the target in the cave, but the 2nd target requires the player to go outside to shoot it. This teaches the player that they will have to search their surroundings to solve puzzles.
Originally, the player was supposed to jump out a broken window and follow a wire outside to find the 2nd target on the wall. I thought this placement felt a bit random and made me wonder why the security would have one key inside their office and the other key outside, so I changed this to make the placement of the target make a bit more sense.​
There was a conveyor belt where the employees would place their gear and have it inspected. Originally, the player could crawl through this to avoid the target puzzle. While I love nonlinear level design, I decided being able to bypass this puzzle was not ideal. This is because this was only the 2nd time the player encountered the target mechanic and I wanted to ensure they understood the concepts being taught before presenting optional puzzles.
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I ended up placing the 2nd target near the 1st target but pushed it through the security window and onto the conveyor belt, blocking it off. The player could then easily see the 2nd target through the glass while still having to go around to shoot it.
​The final section of this area had some sort of cave-in. The space felt like it lacked design intentionality, so I rebuilt it from the ground up to be a minor combat space in the facility's entrance hall. I added a bridge above the entrance door which had collapsed onto the door. This denial of affordance tells the player that they cannot exit the facility.
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The player could wall run up to the broken bridge to gain a height advantage during the fight and one of the doors is unlocked, leading to a collectible.
River Canyon
I didn't change much about this beat, but I saw that there was a large empty space with a huge door which I thought could be more interesting with a few enemies, cargo pallets for cover, and a cargo truck with wall runs to platform on.
Original Layout
Redesigned Layout​
Crane Traversal
This beat features the biggest changes I've made to level 3 yet. I took a very simple and straightforward platforming sequence and expanded on it. This video explains my thought process as I walk through the revisions.
Original Layout
In the original design, the player would simply wall run across 4 wall run panels to cross the gap. At this point in the game, the player has already chained wall runs over bottomless pits many times. I didn't want this space to make the player feel like they've "been there, done that", so I started exploring how to make it more interesting.
Redesigned Layout​
For the redesign, I wanted to preserve some of the original design by keeping the 4 wall run panels hanging from cranes. I didn't want things to be so straightforward though, so I decided to rotate the first set of platforms by 90 degrees. This prevented the player from jumping across while also opening up a new direction traverse the area.
​With this change, the player would first wall run over to control room 1 and activate the crane. This causes the first set of wall run panels to start rotating. The player must then loop back and wall run across the panels while they rotate to reach the other side.
Initially, the platforms would rotate into position and stop, but I wanted to add more dynamic platforming to Mantra because it felt fresh and engaging compared to the more static platforming that the player had been experiencing.