top of page
  • Black LinkedIn Icon
  • Black Twitter Icon
  • Black Facebook Icon
Golem
Longbow Games
A girl and a golem work together to solve environmental puzzles to climb an ancient tower.
Level Design
I was hired at Longbow Games as an intern to work on Golem as a level designer. There were only 5 people working on the game, so I inherited a lot of responsibility and creative freedom at Longbow. Once I got familiar with their in-house game engine, I established a workflow that I applied to the 5 levels that I created in 5 months. I worked on the levels from a grey-box state to completion, including polish. Every Friday I would present my work supported by research if necessary and would receive feedback which I would apply to the level and discuss my plans for the following week.
Challenges
The first challenge I faced while working on Golem was getting familiar with the in-house engine, which took me a few weeks. Because the team working on this game was fairly small, I had limited resources to work with when it came to structural, utility and decorative models. I met this challenge by getting creative. Although there were model 'sets' for the different levels, I could still pull from other sets and adjust the appearance of them to work in the level I was currently working on. It was important for the levels to feel structured, fresh and natural so a big part of my job was to ensure the resources I had were used to their fullest potential
Another challenge I faced was that the 'bare bones' state of the levels that I received had the points at which the player would enter and exit the level as well as any core puzzle elements, excluding any other information about the space at which it inhabited. The levels take place within an ancient tower and I had to do the necessary research regarding architectural structures using natural materials in order to support my designs. This helped me make informed, supportive design decisions as well as developed my knowledge in architecture design.
bottom of page