level designer

Unreal 5 | PC | SINGLEPLAYER |
ARCADE RACER | 54-person team

Lead LEVEL DESIGNER

high-level design goal:

Balanced, high-speed, anti-gravity racing

cONTRIBUTION

MECHANICS, track design, GAME FEEL

As the Lead Level Designer on HardDriverz, I oversaw the development of game mechanics, level design, balancing, and game feel.

Working with the leads and producers, I led a team of 17 designers to produce 3 distinct tracks. Each map had its own design goals, challenging layout, and visual theme.

production and teamwork

Beyond the game itself, my responsibilities included…

  • Translating the Game Designer’s ideas into mechanics,

  • Working with the LD Producer to coordinate deliverables, strike teams, and playtests,

  • And presenting development progress to faculty.

combining directed roads and free roam

  • Each track in HardDriverz combines standard circuit-style tracks with free roam zones (islands).

  • For this mix to feel just right, I created a list of design principles each map had to follow:

    • Pacing: Track structure is Road > Island > Road > Island > etc.

    • Freedom of choice: The fun aspect of free roam areas is choosing your own path - each island has multiple paths that all lead to the exit.

    • Conveyance: Each island has a clearly defined entrance and exit so players do not get lost (colored spotlights mark the exit).

SYSTEMS DESIGN: modular part balancing

  • HardDriverz allows you to mix and match different modular addons for your kart.

  • I worked closely with the System Designers to ensure that each of the 27 possible builds…

    • Felt good to use.

    • Served a particular playstyle.

    • Didn’t conflict with track design (i.e., a super heavy kart may not be able to complete a jump over a pit).

  • Balancing involved scheduling several live playtests, gathering data from tester surveys, and balancing addon stats to match desired experiences.

ISLAND ITERATION, cont.

  • We noticed that many playtesters would get turned-around while roaming the islands and lose their sense of direction. This led to wasted race time spend trying to find the exit.

  • To mitigate this, we improved the exit’s conveyance by increasing arrow decal/sign density and placing spotlights on either side.

Design Process

designing for high-speed

  • HardDriverz’s most important design pillar was speed - we wanted our players to feel the thrill of anti-gravity karts streaking around the track. I structured our level design principles to support this goal:

    • Wide turns: Make turns wide and long so players can anticipate and adjust for them.

    • Embrace straightaways: Areas without turns create high-moments where players can go full throttle.

    • Consider air time: High speeds lead to big air time after jumps; ramp placement needed to be intentional and thoroughly tested.

ISLAND ITERATION

  • In a racing game, “free roam” isn’t actually free roam - players need to be secretly directed. Players should be able to choose their own path but ultimately all arrive at the same location.

  • We put significant effort into iterating on the layout and feel of the islands to make sure they brought a fresh gameplay experience. Many hours were spent testing ramps, sightlines, and entrance-to-exit times for each path.

gallery

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postmortem

(design lead perspective)

What Went Well

  • Smart reuse of assets: We were able to produce three quality tracks by reusing a small number of obstacles and props. Our Mirror Mode felt unique and produced a new play experience.

  • Pipeline: Overall, the design pipeline was solid. Our physics and track designs were implemented early, allowing for more iteration and higher shipped quality.

  • Team roles: Splitting the designers into strike teams (Tracks, Islands, Systems) created a strong workflow. It also gave each designer more agency and freedom in their work.

What needs improvEMENT

  • Getting Modular Parts in earlier: Due to several UI/UX issues, the modular parts system was implemented very late into development. This created stress on the design team and shrunk our time for iteration.

  • Modular build identity: The effects of kart customization don’t convey well - most playtesters didn’t notice any changes in their kart’s weight, handling, or speed. This led to most builds feeling similar in practice.

  • Further track layout refinement: There still exists a few sharp turns and blind jumps in the shipped version. I’d like to revisit these and make them more predictable.

Even Better If…

  • More track environments: Given the short development time, the team could only produce three environments for our races. With a longer timeframe, the game experience could be improved with additional tracks.

  • Multiplayer support: For UI/UX reasons, multiplayer was cut from HardDriverz. Many aspects of the game’s design were built with split screen in mind, so they don’t shine as well in a singleplayer scenario.

image credit

  • Steam Icon: “Steam icon - free download png & SVG | streamline,” streamline, https://www.streamlinehq.com/icons/download/steam--31088 (accessed Jul. 16, 2025).