Visbreaker

Visbreaker is a fantasy 3D-person action-adventure game where you play as Kaleb, a trained warrior capable of fighting and using the magic power known as Vis to hunt down the last traces of magic in a world rebuilt from the ashes of a long war.

This project was created for the Level Design Stream during the Game Design Program at Vancouver Film School.

Platform: Windows PC

Engine: Unreal Engine 5.3.2

Software: Adobe Photoshop, Google Sheets, Google Docs, Miro

Duration: 4 months

Team Size: Solo

Role: Game Designer | Level Designer | Narrative Designer | Blueprints Programmer

Accomplishments

Complete narrative design and writing, including dialogues.
Implemented a rock-paper-scissors magic-combat system using blueprints.
Designed mini-quests and tasks to enhance the pacing through blueprints and level design.
Crafted 3 different environments that seamlessly merge into each other to bring the world to life.
Created a contained linear experience with a strong sense of adventure and exploration.

Game Design

In this project, I crafted a narrative for an epic fantasy adventure strongly inspired by franchises like The Legend of Zelda and Fable.

The main goal was to evoke the experience of playing as a powerful warrior conflicted between his duty and the need to understand his roots.

Gameplay Pillars: Uninterrupted combat, mystery and intrigue, adventurous journey.

Gameplay Loop: Investigate, fight, talk to the NPCs, and do tasks or activities.

Features:

Action-adventure combat with hitpoints, stamina, close-ranged and long-ranged weapons, and mana points.
Rock-paper-scissors magic combat system using strengths and weaknesses when facing multiple enemies.
Rich dialogue that helps develop the narrative with different personalities and flexible layers of information.
Tasks and mini-quests with rewards that promote the level of exploration and improve the pacing to create an engaging experience.
Dynamic UI information on goals and progression.
Player-centric progression.

Key moments:

Meeting Isabel and rescuing the villagers: First enemy encounter, learning the combat mechanics and magic system.
Reaching Hardstone: Distended playful tasks through the village to learn more about its inhabitants and the plot, reinforce basic mechanics, and enjoy varied forms of gameplay like shooting distant targets, collecting items through simple platforming, and a mini-arena challenge.
Acquiring the electric spell: After having learned the basics of combat with magic with the fire spell, the player is rewarded with the electric spell before heading to the temple.
The Forgotten Temple: The final section of the game is a dungeon designed to put every mechanic learned so far to the test, with an increasing level of difficulty, and introducing simple puzzle elements to keep the player engaged.
Learning the Truth: Being a narrative-based experience, the ending of this demo depicts an important plot twist that involves a conundrum between the protagonist's duties and his past, posing a life-changing decision for the future.

Fire-magic combat: enemy weak to fire

Target shooting minigame: reinforcing mechanics while optimizing pacing

Platforming: varying the gameplay and enhancing the sense of adventure

Dungeons & Puzzles: Putting everything learned to the test

World and Level Design

Contained linear experience with multiple paths and a sense of exploration thanks to proper use of space, paths, elevation, and landmarks.

Multiple paths, use of elevation to provoke curiosity and hide information, and foresight of enemies.

Interest and vast areas with multiple paths and a clear critical path guided by landmarks

The adventure is evoked through the use of semi-open areas to explore and multiple tasks to take on

An engaging multilayered dungeon that tests every mechanic and system with increasing difficulty until reaching the climax

Anchor 3

The Silence After

Game Design | Production
Unity

Doomsday Protocol

Game Design
Unity

Burst Your Bubble

Game Design | Programming
Unity 6

Visbreaker

Game Design | Blueprints
Unreal 5

Visbreaker

Visbreaker is a fantasy 3D-person action-adventure game where you play as Kaleb, a trained warrior capable of fighting and using the magic power known as Vis to hunt down the last traces of magic in a world rebuilt from the ashes of a long war.

​​​​​ Accomplishments ​

Complete narrative design and writing, including dialogues.

Implemented a rock-paper-scissors magic-combat system using blueprints.

Designed mini-quests and tasks to enhance the pacing through blueprints and level design.

Crafted 3 different environments that seamlessly merge into each other to bring the world to life.

​Created a contained linear experience with a strong sense of adventure and exploration.

​​

Game Design

​ Features:​

​

Action-adventure combat with hitpoints, stamina, close-ranged and long-ranged weapons, and mana points.

Rock-paper-scissors magic combat system using strengths and weaknesses when facing multiple enemies.

Rich dialogue that helps develop the narrative with different personalities and flexible layers of information.

Tasks and mini-quests with rewards that promote the level of exploration and improve the pacing to create an engaging experience.

Dynamic UI information on goals and progression.

Player-centric progression.

​

​ Key moments:

​

Meeting Isabel and rescuing the villagers: First enemy encounter, learning the combat mechanics and magic system.

Reaching Hardstone: Distended playful tasks through the village to learn more about its inhabitants and the plot, reinforce basic mechanics, and enjoy varied forms of gameplay like shooting distant targets, collecting items through simple platforming, and a mini-arena challenge.

Acquiring the electric spell: After having learned the basics of combat with magic with the fire spell, the player is rewarded with the electric spell before heading to the temple.

The Forgotten Temple: ​The final section of the game is a dungeon designed to put every mechanic learned so far to the test, with an increasing level of difficulty, and introducing simple puzzle elements to keep the player engaged.

Learning the Truth: Being a narrative-based experience, the ending of this demo depicts an important plot twist that involves a conundrum between the protagonist's duties and his past, posing a life-changing decision for the future.​​​

​​ ​

Fire-magic combat: enemy weak to fire

Target shooting minigame: reinforcing mechanics while optimizing pacing ​

Platforming: varying the gameplay and enhancing the sense of adventure

Dungeons & Puzzles: Putting everything learned to the test

World and Level Design

Contained linear experience with multiple paths and a sense of exploration thanks to proper use of space, paths, elevation, and landmarks.

Multiple paths, use of elevation to provoke curiosity and hide information, and foresight of enemies.

Interest and vast areas with multiple paths and a clear critical path guided by landmarks

The adventure is evoked through the use of semi-open areas to explore and multiple tasks to take on

An engaging multilayered dungeon that tests every mechanic and system with increasing difficulty until reaching the climax

The Silence After

Game Design | Production Unity

Doomsday Protocol

Game Design Unity

Burst Your Bubble

Game Design | Programming Unity 6

Visbreaker

Game Design | Blueprints Unreal 5

FOQUES

Game Design | Blueprints Unreal 5

Greg's Quest

Game Design Unity

Accomplishments

Created a contained linear experience with a strong sense of adventure and exploration.

Features:

Key moments:

The Forgotten Temple: The final section of the game is a dungeon designed to put every mechanic learned so far to the test, with an increasing level of difficulty, and introducing simple puzzle elements to keep the player engaged.

Learning the Truth: Being a narrative-based experience, the ending of this demo depicts an important plot twist that involves a conundrum between the protagonist's duties and his past, posing a life-changing decision for the future.

Target shooting minigame: reinforcing mechanics while optimizing pacing

Game Design | Production
Unity

Game Design
Unity

Game Design | Programming
Unity 6

Game Design | Blueprints
Unreal 5

Game Design | Blueprints
Unreal 5

Game Design
Unity