Overview
Role: Design Lead
Team Size: 14
Genre: Action-Adventure
Mode: Multiplayer Darkride
Duration: 5 minutes
Software: Unreal Engine 4
Inspiration: Luigi's Mansion, Kirby Return to Dreamland/The Forgotten Land, Zelda Breath of the Wild, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, Wii Sports, New Super Mario Bros
Constraints: Stay under 5 minutes, 30 seconds per room
Responsibilities:
Create level layouts, blockouts, and setdress Mario and Mii room
Oversee level layouts and give feedback based on playtesting
Update leads on designer's weekly tasks and progress
Game Pitch - Compete against three players as you explore Luigi's haunted mansion defeating ghosts in this multiplayer Universal Studios themed Darkride.
Summary - "Luigi's Mansion Party" is a VR game created as a practice pitch to an SME (Subject Matter Expert) for Universal Studios Park. Players must help Luigi rid party crashing ghosts while traversing through different IP worlds in the rooms of Luigi's Mansion.
Gameplay Trailer
Level Overview
Objective
Stun ghosts and suck them into a vacuum while competing against other players to gain the highest score.
Steps 1-4
1 - Stun ghosts with the flashlight then suck them into the vacuum
2 - Travel through Luigi's Mansion Lobby
3 - Travel through Kirby World
4 - Travel through Legend of Zelda's World
5 - Travel through Pokemon's World
6 - Travel through Mii World
7 - Travel through Mario's World
8 - Travel through Luigi's Mansion hallway
9 - Shoot bombs at King Boo by sucking them in with the vacuum then throwing them at King Boo's mouth
Pre-Production Process
References
The game is based on Luigi's Mansion but every room is based on a different IP. All level designers were tasked to play the game their room was based on while creating layouts and potential asset lists. Current Universal rides also played a pivotal part in creating references.
Rooms:
Luigi's Mansion (Hallways),
Kirby Return to Dreamland/The Forgotten Land,
Zelda Breath of the Wild,
Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl,
Wii Sports,
New Super Mario Bros
Narrative
Luigi invited guests to have a party at his mansion, but the party was soon crashed by King Boo and his followers. Not shown in the demo, if this were a Universal ride, the storyline would be displayed on the tvs throughout the line queue.
Playable Characters
PLAYER USERNAME
The prototype is in VR and connects players through their Steam account. Each player has their own vacuum that accumulates points as they suck in ghosts.
Enemy AI
Boo/King Boo
Boos do not attack and have three stages as they circle around the player. "Patrol" is for boos flying around, "Blinded" is after the player shines a flashlight at them, and "Fleeing" is for when they get sucked into the vacuum.
King Boo is the final boss but does not attack or injure the player. To injure him, players take a bomb and shoot it at his mouth as he chases them down the hallway.
NPC
Since it's a party at Luigi's Mansion, many guests from different IP's show up in each room. Most of them are participating in activities based on what the room entails, while others appear in pictures. Some cameos appear in different rooms from their original IP.
Ex:
Mii World - Matt, Yoga Instructor
Kirby World - Kirby passed out from eating
Mario - Shy guys on a treadmill, Waluigi in a picture
Pokemon - Eevee in a picture, Yoshi's Egg in a container
Team Cameos
Everyone on the team had a Mii created after them and placed as a picture in the Mii world
Level Layout
The team’s ultimate goal was to create a quality multiplayer prototype for what could be a dark ride at a Universal Studios theme park. We started with an overall idea of what the entire space would look like then narrowed it down to creating the individual layouts. Each room not only had its own IP but was also based on rooms that would be found in a mansion or hotel.
Kirby - Cafe
Zelda - Pool
Pokemon - Gift Shop
Mii World - Arcade
Mario - Gym
Production Process
Blockout
Measurements
Measurements were determined after creating level layouts and testing how much space designers wanted to utilize when designing the car known as "Booma."
Player Character
0.75 x 0.75 x 1.75
Sitting down - 0.9
Height
Hallways - 4.5 meters
Double Door - .5 below meter height
Width
Hallways - 3 meters on each side (10 meters total)
Double Door Frame - 6.5 / 7 meters
Double Door - 6 meters
Boomba - Entire - 4 x 4 x 1 (height) meters
Tech
A tool was made for level designers to make it easier to create walls by tracing spline points to pave a path. This saved time especially when building the final boss level to help fill the hallway space.
Traversal
Each room was approximately 60 meters with a max limit of 80 to make sure the Booma had enough room to maneuver around and spin if needed.
Visual Language
When whiteboxing, majority of the assets were created as a blueprint class actor and duplicated in the space. This was to avoid importing meshes and leave space to import meshes that would be used for set dressing. Color was important to show the distinction between mostly smaller objects.
Breadcrumbs
The Booma automatically leads the player where to go next, but the character cameos direct the player's attention as to where there will be more coins.
Previous Changes
Scripted Mechanics
The player was originally meant to spend more time in the hallways and have "Ride Moments" where King Boo would appear then get pushed away by a surprise character. This was cut due to time restrictions and resulted in having players instantly go from one room to the next.
Gates and Valves
There were three rooms players would automatically go to and they had the option to find "secret" rooms. This was for replayability purposes and encourage teamwork to open these passages to new hidden rooms.
Traversal
Originally there were six rooms, two based on Mario Galaxy and Mario Super Bros. Mario Galaxy's idea of Starshine Beach Galaxy or Bowser's Lava Lair Galaxy was cut and changed to keep Super Mario Bros. Since the hallways were cut as well, a laundry room based on Luigi's Mansion and an open locker room space for Pokemon were deleted.
Set Dressing
After the final whitebox pass, level designers found assets related to the room's IP and theme. In comparison, not much had changed from the blockout, only a few items moved to make room for the Boomba.
Mechanics
Gameplay
The prototype design is linear, so we focused more on story beats and moments to create an exciting experience. This comes from saving tplayer's score and encouraging competitiveness to gain the highest score.
Traversal
The Boomba travels along multiple splines that are connected to each other in every room. For instance, pokemon has an individual spline separate from the one in mii world. This made it easier to manipulate where the player goes and experiment with twists and turns the ride could go through.
Points
Every Coin collected is worth 1 point
Every ghost a player captures is worth 25 points
Every time a player shoots King Boo with a bomb, it's 100 points
Enemy Damage
Boos do not attack and have three stages as they circle around the player. "Patrol" is for boos flying around, "Blinded" is after the player shines a flashlight at them, and "Fleeing" is for when they get sucked into the vacuum.
The player cannot capture the ghost without flashing the light. The ghost will fly away if the player lets go before completely sucking them into the vacuum.
King Boo is the final boss but does not attack or injure the player. To injure him, players take a bomb and shoot it at his mouth as he chases them down the hallway.
Scripted Moments
Scripted
We incorporated jump scares to essentially distract and put the player on edge but also hint at the upcoming attack by King Boo.
Screenshots
