Assassin's Creed Valhalla - Animus Anomalies
Platform:
PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS5, Xbox Series X
Tools Used:
Anvil, Custom Level Editor and Tools
Role:
Junior Level Designer
Overview
Animus Anomalies are 10 activities around the world focused on puzzles and parkour challenges with a fragment of a video as a reward. Completing all the levels will form the entire video with information abour the story of Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
To access these levels, the player must find the glitches interrupting the animus simulation and activate it, then the player will switch to Layla and geometry pieces will appear in front of the player showing the reward at the top of the structure.
From the initial 10 Animus Anomalies planned for the game, 3 were assigned to me at the beginning, then I was assigned to a 4th level to help on the design of that Animus Anomaly:
-
Originals:
-
Basilica Ruins Animus Anomaly (Mercia - Lincolnscire)
-
Briudun Hill (Northumbria - Snotinghamscire)
-
Hlutrholt (Hordafylke, Norway)
-
-
Support:
-
Quartzite Ridge (Mercia - Sciropscire)
-
We set some design rules before building these levels, so they all can have the same harmony:
-
360 approach, around the Glitch Point we added additional objects glitching as "bread crumbs" to help the player to find the Animus Anomalies.
-
We defined a unique overall shape, so every Animus Anomaly feels distinct from the starting point, to reinforce surprise and epicness feeling.
-
We used procedural set of pieces in order to build the levels, so the all share the same pieces and feeling.
-
As players can find this activities in any order, we designed the levels in a way the first steps on the Anomaly are small tutorials, so the player can understand the nature of that Animus Anomaly.
-
We define from the beginning if the level is focused more on Parkour or Puzzle, they all have elements of both, but we wanted to make sure some of them feels a bit more puzzle or parkour.
-
For every Animus Anomaly, we designed the level in a way they have a unique gameplay element, so the gameplay on each one of them feels different.
See below for more detailed information!
NOTE: All screenshots and video reflects the work of the entire team.
(Art, VFX, SFX, Code, Design, QA, etc).
Basilica Ruins (Mercia - Lincolnscire) - Gameplay Video
Detailed Information
Level Design and Blockout
-
Place the geometry pieces with the Metrics in mind, so the navigation and parkour are fluid and correct.
-
This level was designed more Puzzle than Parkour, with this purpose, the special element in this puzzle is that the player need to aim first before conecting the light beams, breaking the usual gameplay loop of conect light and then aim.
-
First approach with tutorial elements, in case is the first Animus Anomaly.
-
Designed with 2 areas, the tower and the ground:
-
The Tower: Parkour section, but the path is uncomplete, player will need to conect the light beams to the unstable pieces to complete the path and reach the reward.
-
The Ground: Puzzle section, player will need to manipulate the gameplay ingredients in order to bring the light to the unstable pieces at the tower, so he can climb on them.
-
Scripting
-
Custom trigger to activate and deactivate reset triggers.
-
Checkpoints to save the progress.
-
Dialogue Triggers to play story dialogues during the path.
Briudun Hill (Northumbria - Snotinghamscire) - Gameplay Video
Detailed Information
Level Design and Blockout
-
Place the geometry pieces with the Metrics in mind, so the navigation and parkour are fluid and correct.
-
This level was designed with balanced experience of Parkour and Puzzle, this Animus Anomaly has 3 floor, in every on of them there is a puzzle that allows the player to progress to the next floor and at the same time comlpete the path to reach the top of the structure.
-
The special element in this level was the intermittent light beam, forcing the player to think and timed up their movement in order to progress.
-
First approach with tutorial elements, in case is the first Animus Anomaly.
-
The difficulty of the puzzles and parkour is higher the more the player climbs up.
Scripting
-
Custom trigger to activate and deactivate reset triggers.
-
Checkpoints to save the progress.
-
Dialogue Triggers to play story dialogues during the path.
Hlutrholt (Hordafylke, Norway) - Gameplay Video
Detailed Information
Level Design and Blockout
-
Place the geometry pieces with the Metrics in mind, so the navigation and parkour are fluid and correct.
-
This level was designed to be more Parkour than Puzzle, so I designed it with Pilars conected by bridges were every bridge is a challenge for the player of parkour and puzzle with and overall shape of ascension.
-
The special element in this level was the fast moving hazard challenging the player their timing skills with the parkour movement.
-
First approach with tutorial elements, in case is the first Animus Anomaly.
-
The difficulty of the puzzles and parkour is higher the more the player is progressing through the bridges.
Scripting
-
Custom trigger to activate and deactivate reset triggers.
-
Checkpoints to save the progress.
-
Dialogue Triggers to play story dialogues during the path.
SUPPORT: Quartzite Ridge (Mercia - Sciropscire) - Gameplay Video
Detailed Information
Level Design and Blockout
-
NOTE SUPPORT: On this level I helped another Level Designer designing the basic concept, gameplay, parkour and puzzle of this Anomus Anomaly in the first iterations, later on, he took control of the level and did the final iterations, bug fixing and polishing until release date.
-
Place the geometry pieces with the Metrics in mind, so the navigation and parkour are fluid and correct.
-
The special element in this level was the big moving hazards affecting huge areas of parkour forcing the player to time up their movement with the hazards to solve the puzzles and surpass the parkour.
-
First approach with tutorial elements, in case is the first Animus Anomaly.
-
The difficulty of the puzzles and parkour is higher the more the player is progressing through the different areas.
Scripting
-
Custom trigger to activate and deactivate reset triggers.
-
Checkpoints to save the progress.
-
Dialogue Triggers to play story dialogues during the path.
