Hey, Sean here! 

Gonna give this devlog thing a go as seeing the journey of a project is a really important one and the project has already overseen several iterations from being designed on paper to being greyboxed and I feel it could be fun to share the process I have been going through. 

First and foremost, I should probably say this project was initially created for the purpose of a Uni project but I have the full intention to be iterating and learning from this project in the background. 

This is my own solo project which I may get help from a friend or two with a few mechanics here or there. But all the design will be done by myself. 

This module was designed around the level design process at SAE Sydney, and it was a 4 project process. 

Project 1: Design Rationale:

This project was kind of like a high concept document without everything and purely thinking about the level.  Originally the game was called Einar but I later discovered that another game had been released under the same title and quickly renamed it to Sudur. 

Project 2:  Level Design Document: 

The aim was to create essentially a GDD but specifically for the the level itself. Click here if you wanna have a geez at the document. I've recently updated it as the most recent build has had updates to the game and I will probably keep on working on this document as the project matures. 

Here is the landmark and perspective based maps originally made using Illwinters Floorplan Generator and then using InDesign. 

Project 3: Greybox level: 

Pretty self explanatory this one.  But the images here are great to see the transformation the level has taken. 

This was an early greybox with just basic shapes to make out the island and landmarks. Terrain still needed some shaping but overall it resembled what I planned. 

I then started to pain the terrain with textures to make up the island and also created the landmarks with probuilder. 

Due to too many of my peers also doing islands with green landscapes, I wanted to diversify my visual aesthetics so I took Miziziziz's advice and hit up ColorHunt to redefine my games look. This started first with the trees and the grass and then the skybox. 

Project 4: The level: 

Which is the build that I am writing about. Along with my submission, I created an overview video that goes through what I did to make the level and a series of extras (you know, to help me get those extra marks ;) ). 

In hindsight there is a fair few things I would change for future updates. 

1. Probably ditch the lowpoly shader on the terrain, its a performance hog and with the grass it is not as noticeable. 
2. Reduce the trees and terrain size. 
3. Rethink about the map and make it smaller. 
4. Add the breathing mechanic. Its almost done, just got to fix a few bugs. 
5. Learn Blender and create some world building props
6.  Add first person archery into the game. The player will shoot props to change the conditions of the world around him. 
7. The player can whisper on his arrows, different whispers provide different abilities to the arrows. 

More will probably be added to the list but I will add that to future devlogs. Thanks for reading and playing, if you happen to have any feedback or things you would like to see added to the world, please drop me a DM or comment.