Advanced Games Dev (AGD) week #3

I've started blocking out the initial whitebox for our AGD project within UE4. The main aim to this whitebox is to get a feel for scale, level flow and pacing, as well as creating a foundation to work on with the environment artists. Here's some mock up sketches for the original designs I wanted to implement for our cave/dungeon section for the demo and the first playable level of our project:

The sketches above are just rough variations for the designers (myself and daz) and some of the environment artits, This way we can get an asset list for props we would like through the level as well as getting a good setting for the theme and narrative we want to tell for this part of the level. My preferred level sketch is the second image, I feel the entry way adds some embedded narrative towards the level and offers large enough areas for the player to see the combat system in action; Though during level population I will have to showcase the art assets in a way to get them seen . Here's a quick progression shot for the level in UE4:

Though the level will be added to a lot, this is just a small version of the white box that I will edit heavily. Additionally, I have utilized the blueprint feature within UE4 to begin the basic player movements and camera controls. These were relatively simple to set up due to the project system allowing me to use a top down camera (however, I will be changing the settings at a later date to get a better angle and depth of field to better fit the game genre). Below is a simple screenshot showing the WASD movment controls I've set up using blueprint, these were influenced from looking at the third person shooter project that was available from UE4 and implementing them to the Top Down Project.