Team Size

- 20 | Sunpress Games

Software Used

- Unreal Engine 5.6

- Blueprints

- Adobe Illustrator

Responsibilities

- Designed level 2 (of 3) from blockout through final polish

- Animated scripted events

- Set dressed across multiple levels

- Worked with programmers to design unique combat mechanics

- Implimented enemies and environmental interractions

Overview

Regradable is a third-person action platformer built around high-mobility traversal. The protagonist’s vine arms provide a versatile movement toolkit, including swinging, ziplining, and grappling. These mechanics empower players to fluidly navigate the game’s sprawling city levels.

Design Goals

- Support high-speed traversal
- Create spaces where enemies function as both threats and tools
- Find unique interactions for player mechanics
- Maintain constant pressure through moving environmental hazards

Constraints

- Large movement range made distances difficult to judge
- Combat system was developed during production
- Mechanics were constantly changing, requiring revisions to gameplay spaces
- Layout had to remain readable despite verticality and dense architecture

Level Breakdown

Purposeful Spacing: Unlike the densely packed lower levels, this district features a more open layout designed to accommodate the flow of working-class transport, including trains, cars, and ships.
Environmental Storytelling: The sky is completely obscured by the upper-class districts sprawling overhead, creating a massive, oppressive ceiling above the lower city. By physically stacking one class above the other, the architecture reinforces the city’s social hierarchy.

Guiding the Player: From the starting point, the player’s attention is drawn to a distinct opening in the ceiling where ships continually pass through. This opening serves as a clear visual landmark and establishes the level’s ultimate upward destination.

Enemy Placement: Enemies in Regradable function as both threats and traversal tools. Players can grapple onto enemies for additional mobility or use them to destroy certain objects. The challenge was balancing enemy placement so encounters remained dangerous while still creating opportunities for creative movement and problem-solving.

Enemy Interaction

In order to make our combat system stand out, I devised a system allowing players to connect enemies and objects with vines through a seed-throwing ability. I documented the mechanics in detail and collaborated with the programming team to develop the system.

Environment Interaction

To make the city feel more interactive, I implemented a series of simple environmental puzzles that build on the existing mechanics and expand the utility of the player’s vine abilities.

Emergent Design

This combat arena was designed around an emergent interaction discovered during playtesting. Players found that connecting two enemies across a gap caused both of them to fall, and they enjoyed experimenting with the result. I incorporated additional gaps into the arena to support this behavior and create more opportunities for creative combat.

Monorails and Tone

The level contains a dense network of overlapping monorails that adds movement and energy to the environment while also creating a recurring hazard.

The game’s tone centers on chaotic, desperate movement and a “move to survive” philosophy. The monorails reinforce these ideas by constantly pressuring the player. Players can spend only a few moments on the rails before another train arrives.

Vine Swing Prototype

I created this Blueprint prototype to explore the intended look and feel of the vine swing and provide the programming team with a clear reference. It was not intended for use in the final game. Its purpose was to test potential solutions and communicate the desired movement behavior.

Before full level production began, I established a distinct shape language to visually separate the city’s social classes. This early blockout demonstrates how the upper city was designed to visually dominate the lower districts.

The Lower City: Characterized by densely stacked, jagged, and blocky geometry, the lower city conveys a cramped and chaotic environment.

The Upper City: The upper city uses lower visual density and larger, smoother, more continuous forms to communicate space, wealth, and order.

Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration: My early blockout also served as a testing ground for the environment art team to explore lighting treatments and establish the broader art direction.