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Title_SalmonRun.png

Description

Salmon Run is a third person runner game in which the player plays the role of a salmon in love with a bait.

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Players must race against the time to reach the end of the level as fast as possible.

 

At the beginning of production, the goal of Salmon Run was to catch the bait as quickly as possible. Following a few test sessions, we were able to determine that this aspect of the game was problematic and therefore, we had to change it.

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My role as a level designer was to sketh and build the level in Unreal engine. Since we had no programmer on this project, I had to code some parts of the gameplay  and build the system to create the river, the waterfalls and the pipes.

Platform
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PC

Engine
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Unreal

Genre
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  • Runner

  • Time Trial

  • Single Player

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Features
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  • Jump / Double Jump

  • Dash

  • Collect token to increase speed

  • Obstacles reduce speed

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Tasks
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  • Level and Game Design

  • River System

  • Audio Integration

  • Intro Cinematic

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Development time
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7 weeks​

Team size
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7 persons

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Mechanics

Mech_Jump.png
Jump
Mech_DoubleJump.png
Double Jump
Mech_Dash.png
Dash
Mech_Token.png
Collect tokens to increase your speed

Level Design

Level rules and difficulty point system

To establish the difficulty of the level, I created a point system for the river path and the obstacles in relation to their type, their location or the path that the player must take to avoid them.

 

For example, a long straight line will reduce the difficulty of the section while a series of curves followed by obstacles will increase it.

 

It should be noted that speed sections, slopes and jumps will not increase the difficulty but the intensity of the level.

 

Here is the system:

LD_Tool.png

The map

Spline Mesh tool

The river, the pipes and the waterfalls of the level were all created with a single blueprint that used the Spline Mesh feature of Unreal Engine. With this system, I could repeat different modules along the spline and add modules on the edges which saved me a lot of times.

 

Here is how the system works:

More Time?

  • First, I would have reworked the camera so it follows correctly the movements of the character while in the curves

  • I would also have added more variety in the obstacles such as :

    • ​Fish net or hook launched by fishermen

    • Ring of Fire that gives a bonus when the character successfully jumps in the center

    • Whirlpools that could even serve as a passage to other levels

    • Blades that tries to turn the character into sushi (maybe a level with a Japanese cuisine theme)

    • Objects falling in the river (depending on the theme of the level)

    • More dynamic level

  • Death system so the player doesn't just try to beat his own time but can actually lose​

  • Several levels with different themes that revolves around the idea that the character tries to rescue a pretty fish that is actually just a bait

  • AI that attack the character:

    • By chasing him

    • By quickly running toward him

  • A looping level in which the player must fight a large mechanical shark on a jetpack driven by a goldfish who would be the rival of the main character. The enemy is positioned right in front of the character, and the player must dash on the projectiles thrown by the enemy to defeat it or use the level layout to jump high enouph and hit the enemy's head.

  • Semi-linear levels with much more path and maybe even the possibility to go underwater

Credits

Sofya Bakirova

Joffrey Baribeau

Kathleen Borduas

Charles Fortin

Sandy Alexander Chow

Pierre-Alexandre Côté

Stéphane Tcheukam Tchamou

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