Sacre Bleu - Level DESIGN

Role: Game Designer
Team: Hildring Studio (Stein Loetveit), Publisher Noodlecake Studios
Duration: 5 Years, Released April 2025
Tools: Unreal Engine 4

IDea

I was originally brought on to Sacre Bleu in February 2020 to outline the high level gameplay progression that the player would explore. Over the years my role shifted with the project needs and included level design, writing, UI, QA, combat design and accessibility. On release I was credited as the game’s designer. I’m very proud that our team, working part time, was able to release a game on Steam and Switch that reviewed relatively well.

Process

Our team started with ideating what the core pillars and audience of the game would be. We landed on what we called the “Musketeer ballet” a movement and combat style where the player was rewarded for quickly chaining attacks together. In early play testing this style of play appealed to a speedrunner audience which went on to influence the rest of the game's design. We then went on to create a vertical slice which we used to pitch to publishers eventually teaming up with Noodlecake Studios for full production.

A large part of the work I did on Sacre Bleu was level design. What follows is a breakdown of the creation of Armoury4 which at launch is called A4 - Forgerie.

The original idea was to create a nonlinear butterfly-like layout with four loops. In early playtesting we quickly discovered that the nonlinear approach was confusing for players as well as that four loops created too long of a level and we cut it down to three loops.

Within each loop the player would have a mix of combat and platforming challenges switching back and forth to keep things fresh. At the end of a loop was a lever that simultaneously opened the way to the next loop as well as one of three final gates to the exit.

One particular playtest provided invaluable early feedback where they skipped the first loop and got hopelessly lost and frustrated. I adjusted the player start position and blocked the exit ensuring the player had to start with the first loop before progressing.

As other mechanics were developed we would go back and make adjustments adding new enemies or tweaking platforming sections. For example, when the Zelous mechanic was added allowing the player to jump much higher we adjusted the location of a secret as well as positioning of pickups to hint that something was just out of reach. With each iterative round of edits the design of Armoury4 solidified into what I think is a solid level for the game.

Takeaways

In creating this level I learned the invaluable nature of external playtesting as well as how to effectively communicate and collaborate within a team. I’m incredibly proud that we launched this delicious little game and take all that I learned into the next project!