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*Title art by Miranda West.

Frogmented: Level Design & Documentation

Frogmented is a physics-based 2D platformer I worked on for the 2020 UT Austin Game Jam. I was in charge of all of the game's level design and led the creation of its documentation. I worked Unity to put together the level after a series of planning stages. Frogmented was received extremely well, winning "Best in Show" and garnering attention on itch.io for its challenging but engaging gameplay and fun aesthetic.

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Multi-Step Level Design: Steps and My Thought Process

Below is a walkthrough of the main steps seen in Frogmented's Level Design and my thought process behind them. One of my main focuses for creating the level was embracing the game's beauty in its simplicity, so I set a goal of naturally and unobtrusively guiding the player through the game's mechanics. I felt after watching people play the game that I was fairly successful in this effort; it was a joy to watch people naturally get accustomed to the game through the way I laid it out.

(Click through with side arrows)

Documentation

Although the game had to be completed in a very limited time, I still believed it imperative to have solid and understandable documentation for it. This mainly came in the form of a centralized design document that summarized the main premise and essential components of the game.

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Page 1 of the Frogmented Design Document. As the game progressed, some of the features mentioned were scrapped, but the initial vision for the game stuck to what was documented.

Level Design Process

  • Planned out and wrote down basic structure of level

  • Sketched out level design on paper

  • Implemented assets created by art team to build level in-engine

  • Refined level after testing for best play experience

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Screenshot of finalized level design.

Project Success

The entire team ended up being quite proud of what we accomplished with Frogmented. In the end, the game felt like it had realized the ideas we had for it going in, and the positive reception to it was incredibly encouraging. I believe our shared excitement and passion for what we were creating translated into the final product, which resulted in it getting the awards and surrounding conversation that it did.

Credits

​Team members:

Weston Wright - Scripting
Jordan Pak - Environment and UI Art
Kathleen Haklar - Environment Art
Miranda West - Character and UI Art
Lexie Rodriguez - Music & Sound
Casey Donnellan - Mentor

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Audio

  • Sound effects from freesound.org

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