Kalan Jenkins
Level Designer
Pirates Cove is a first person stealth adventure game made in the Unreal Engine 4, created as a showcase for my level design.
-
Designed and created a first person stealth game that transitions into naval combat to showcase single-player campaign flow and level design.
-
Created a stealth based section on an island with 3 pathways and areas to hide from patrolling AI.
-
Created an action packed ship to ship combat section with multiple enemies and destructible environment rocks.
-
Designed and built from the ground up an AI system that patrols, roams, searches and chases the player using custom blueprints.
-
Implemented ship AI derived from the AI system, with unique functionality inspired from Black Flag.
Game Play Moments
In Pirates Cove I wanted to create a game based around a specific tone and play-style, wanting the player to feel vulnerable and as if they have a target painted on their head. Starting the game out I started the game out slow with a lot of stealth, then advancing into a ship cat and mouse style game-play where the player must avoid enemy ships and last onto a much harder second island to finally escape the Cove.
​
Pirates Cove has 3 major Sections:
​
-
Island 1: Simple introduction to the game and mechanics
-
Ship Combat: Staged aggression and encounters
-
Island 2: Much harder version of the initial Island
3 Different types of enemy ships
-
Warship
-
Frigate
-
Brig
​
Enemy behavior was tuned and defined through the use of Unreal engine Pawn Sensing with blueprinting adding additional touches to their game play.
​
Each enemy brought a unique tool set to the table and had to be dealt with accordingly in order to survive each encounter. How I presented these enemies or in different sets at a time demanded players to change up their play style and how they would react.
Different types of wayfinding
-
Lighting
-
Environment
-
Enemy placement
-
Vantage points
​
Lighting was used throughout the game in the form of lanterns directing the playing and showing them different paths they can take. Enemy placement mixed with the environment sometimes forced the player to play in a certain way, in hand forcing them in different paths.
Vantage points were added in the shape of towers, these towers give the player a safer and higher elevation to scope out the upcoming encounters. However the player backs themselves into a corner as enemies patrol at the very bottom so they may be seen while leaving