Cursed Crown Level Design
Description
"Cursed Crown" marks a significant milestone in my career—it was the first project I contributed to as a Level Designer at Glade Studio right after my graduation. I played an integral role in shaping the player's journey from concept to final implementation, taking charge of the overall level flow and meticulously designing the interactive experience to guide, challenge, and engage players throughout the entire game.
Background:
Set in the medieval fantasy world of Alder, follow the story of our hero and his snarky little friend in an action RPG, as they fight various monsters, solve dungeon puzzles, and recollect long lost memories.
Award:
Recognized as a Best in Play winner at GDC 2025. This accolade, judged by industry experts, highlights the project's excellence in gameplay and design. My involvement encompassed end-to-end level design, where I took ownership of both the macro-level flow and micro-level player experience.
Gameplay Demo
The demo presents a selection of the levels I designed. Further level design concepts, process, and final implementations will be presented and explained below.
Game Keypoint - related to LD
Given that our game's levels are procedurally generated, the following considerations must be addressed during level design:
1. The exits and entrances of each level should generally align. If inconsistencies occur, additional connection paths can be created as buffer zones to link different sections.
2. Due to the procedural generation of levels, it is essential to design and create modular assets that can be easily utilized by level designers during the level design and implementation process.
3. Rest areas should be incorporated between combat rooms to vary pacing and account for the player's emotion curve by strategically combining room types. For example: Combat → Rest → Special Event Trigger.
4. Different types of rooms should be visually distinct, with clear guidance along the primary route leading to the final boss room. This helps prevent players from getting lost in randomly generated layouts.
Level Flow & Game Flow
Verdis
As the first major city in Cursed Crown, Verdis requires a thoughtfully designed overarching layout. The flow logic of Verdis is built around addressing the fundamental questions players encounter when first entering the game world: What is the background story and central theme of the game? What can I do and learn in Verdis? What should I do next?
These questions will all be answered through my Verdis flow chart. As a level designer, my role is to act as a seamless "guide" for players, crafting intuitive level logic that introduces the game's premise and core themes effectively.
Part of the game flow of Verdis
These are 2 game & level flows I designed for the game experience we want to provide to players
Dungeon Levels
In Cursed Crown, the flow logic of the entire dungeon level will be designed around the game's combat mechanics. For example, since our gameplay is similar to Diablo's dungeon-crawling style, we encourage players to repeatedly enter dungeon levels to challenge varying difficulties and obtain equipment with different attributes and skills. Therefore, when designing levels, considerations must include spatial utilization and replayability, while ensuring the difficulty curve does not escalate excessively.
Additionally, according to the game's backstory, players have a certain probability of discovering clues related to the background narrative during repeated playthroughs of the level. Collecting these clues will allow them to progress through the level. For example, upon completing Chapter 1 and its corresponding tasks, players can unlock Level 2 (featuring different dungeon themes and level designs).
The Level Flows I created for Dungeon Level.
You can click on the image to enlarge it for detailed viewing.
Verdis Level Design
Paper Design
Here are the paper designs of Verdis Level.
This place is nestled in a valley, Verdis expands outward from its central City Hall (Guild). Given that Verdis is situated in a valley, it was designed with ample vertical spaces for players to explore. The city comprises five main districts:
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Residential Area: Primarily situated on separate hillsides away from functional zones, accessible via multiple routes.
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Farmland: Distributed around the residential areas.
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Training School: Located on a high mountain with a single entrance/exit for weapon skill practice.
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Marketplace: A core zone where players trade equipment and items, with access to dungeon levels via the rear city gate.
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Guild City Hall: The central landmark visible immediately upon entering Verdis, designed to enhance memorable recognition.
Mood Board & Final Result
I gathered several references to create a mood board for Verdis, which will guide the subsequent blockout phase and help define the artistic direction. The final overall representation of Verdis is presented directly below.
Dungeon Level Design
Level 1 & 2 Pace & Flow
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Pace: Level 1 (chill -> combat -> rest -> climax -> rest) -> Level 2. (Will create a chart later)
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While level1 is designed to be more focusing on players grinding gears and leveling, level2 is created to provide more intense combat and challenging as it is related to the endgame.
Level Theme
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Visual
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Stylized
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Anime style
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Visual guidance: lighting, some specific items for guidance (torch)
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Environment
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Level 2 is exploring different “lost temples” which in the Mountain Valley
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Level 1 is about players exploring abandoned, cursed ruins overrun by monsters.
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Verdis is designed to be a crowded central area to provide players with multiple convenient features including gear upgrade, buy equipments, enter replay level, interacting with other players or the companion, and learning about the background story of the game.
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Level 1 Paper Design
In the Dungeon Level, we ensure that during procedural generation, the connections between rooms are seamless while providing players with a unique experience each time they enter. Significant effort has been invested in designing transitions and diverse rooms—for instance, incorporating varied elevation differences, cover systems, and environmental features like dynamic weather. These elements not only enhance gameplay but also allow players to trigger random events and collect different story fragments.
Level 2 Paper Design & Moodboard
Dungeon Level 2 is divided into two main sections:
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Start Room
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Combat Rooms
When players meet specific conditions, they can unlock Dungeon Level 2. They will first enter the Start Room, where they can choose the elemental theme they wish to challenge. This selection will open the corresponding Temples for them to enter. Every room inside each temple is procedurally generated, categorized into combat, puzzle, rest areas, hidden chambers, and boss rooms. In Level 2, the game's thematic atmosphere, combat pacing, and overall experience will be entirely different from Level 1.
In Dungeon Level 2, players find themselves in the Lost Temple. We aimed to create the atmosphere of a ruined temple while giving players a sense of endless exploration within its depths. To achieve this, we incorporated numerous ascending and descending staircases in the connecting areas and designed multi-level spaces within the rooms, making players feel as though they are exploring different floors of the temple. Some rooms are open-air (located on the uppermost levels), while others are fully enclosed interior chambers.
Click on the image to enlarge it for detailed viewing and detailed information.
Here is the Level 2 Flow Chart:
Dungeon Level Iterations
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Linear experience -> random
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We were inspired by rogue-like level designs to provide players with long lasting freshness while grinding the same level, including Diablo, PoE, Hades and etc. Thus, we have designed a bunch of randomizable elements like buff, enemies & maps chunks.
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Level Design with AI companion
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Combat
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Some commands (attack, healing)
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Advice from AI companion: use the cover or use the commands to help.
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Exploration
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Let AI companion help players to find eastern eggs, treasure boxes or secret paths
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Puzzles
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When designing puzzle rooms, we originally had to account for puzzles that could be solved in both single-player and multiplayer modes, which was quite challenging. Now, with the introduction of the AI companion feature, we only need to design puzzles that can be completed with at least two participants, significantly reducing the difficulty of our level design.
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Level Change
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Finally, we choose to merge the rouge-like experience and Diablo-like experience. Because we still aim to provide players with diverse gaming experiences, allowing them to enjoy the thrill of grinding for gear while also embarking on a journey of growth and challenge.
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In Dungeon Level 1, we decide to expand the rooms because after GDC, we need enough rooms to create more combinations of level experience, such as puzzle + combat or side quest + combat.
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Dungeon Level 2 Showcase
Since the previous gameplay demo video showcased parts of Dungeon Level 1, I will include some level showcase images of Dungeon Level 2 here.
