KYLE HANSELMAN
Video Game Level Designer
IMPOSTORS
SUPERMALL FINAL IMAGES
Supermall was a large map designed for 12-15 players and up to 3 Impostors. It features many rooms, secondary paths, an even distribution of minigames, and hidden tunnels to create good flow while allowing enough privacy for Impostors to kill; this made a balanced experience where any match could go either way.
For the first several months on Impostors, I was the only person working on the environment; this was a gift and a curse. I could stretch my skills and have ownership of my work, but as a junior artist, I struggled with creating a new pipeline and environments with no direction or concepts to work from. Ultimately, all assets above, discounting the graphic design, are my work. I created the modular kit, materials, props, and decals seen in the environment and set dressed all spaces. I also performed extensive optimization, lighting, and post-process passes to arrive at a final appearance.
Another studio joined the project after about 10 months, and I received much-appreciated feedback and direction from their art director, which lent itself to a bright, colorful, and consistent environment, as seen above. Their artists produced the graphic design seen in the posters and menus.
TRAILER
Impostors is a social deduction game in an 80's themed mall. Players explore the mall, play video games, and attempt to discover the Impostor, who is trying to kill the other players.
Disclaimer: My work was unrelated to this game's blockchain, cryptocurrencies, or NFTs.
MINIMALL FINAL IMAGES
The second level built for Impostors was Minimall, designed for 5-11 people. This map came about when we realized that Supermall was not fun to play with less than 10 people, but we knew if we shrank it down, it would be too cramped for the 15-player lobbies we set out to create.
Minimall is meant to be just that - Supermall, but mini. It has the same rooms, minigames, and art, just at a significantly smaller scale. Minimall was a smash hit with playtesters, most enjoying the tense, close-quarters gameplay and appreciating the carefully balanced locations of minigames, tunnels, and obstacles.
MINIMALL SKETCHES
Minimall underwent the same sketch and client review process as Supermall. Luckily, with lessons learned from Supermall, Minimall was much easier to design, and the wall blocking volumes were accounted for in the design before the blockout was made.
MINIGAME FINAL IMAGES
For innocents, the game loop of Impostors is mostly to navigate the map, avoid dangerous situations, and complete minigames. While I did not design or script the minigames, I did create the art for them. Mostly, these were assets pulled from the primary environment, which were upscaled so they held up visually at a larger scale.
ASSET LIBRARY
As mentioned above, I was the only artist working on Impostors for several months. Naturally, this lent to me creating quite the catalog of assets, as seen above.
I had two primary focuses while creating this artwork. 1) Performance: We initially wanted Impostors to run on low-end hardware, so I set a hard polygon and texel density cap for myself. 2) Art style: The client wanted a cartoony, 80s-inspired bright, and funky look.
SUPERMALL SKETCHES
As always, I began with a sketch. Since I had a client to tend to, I started with 5 preliminary sketches. I presented research I had performed to justify my shapes, scale, and locations, then presented these sketches, explaining what made each unique. The client picked favorites but made suggestions, which became the following 3 sketches. After many iterations, we settled on a design I drew out digitally for clarity.
As the first map created for Impostors, Supermall presented many exciting challenges and discoveries unique to the project. Naturally, there were balance and aesthetic tweaks over time, such as changing door placement and room shapes to improve flow or give a slight advantage to one side or the other in specific locations, making some risky while others safer. Other issues included limited player visibility, tedious traversal, and too many alternate paths, which made it too easy for players to miss each other. I fixed most of these by downsizing the level incrementally - performing nick and tucks to extra halls, doors, and rooms.
The most prominent unexpected issue was that of walls. In early iterations, players could hide effectively by standing behind walls thanks to the isometric/orthographic view while having 3D space. The solution was to place blocking volumes above walls so players couldn't hide - represented by thick black lines on the minimap; this had the side effect of lengthening the map vertically by a significant margin. The vertical scale made the level feel awkward, which we kept in mind for later iterations. We attempted a rework for Supermall to bring this into account, but play testers preferred the original design over all subsequent designs.
GAMEPLAY
On Impostors, I wore many hats. I was primarily a level designer and environment artist, but I also did some graphic design, look development, VFX, lighting, and character art while on the project. I created extensive documentation about level and environment construction, which a later team used to create levels consistent with my style after my contract ended.
While Impostors is not officially released, much of the game's content is publicly available thanks to closed betas. I worked on three maps while on Impostors: Supermall, Minimall, and Superstadium, the prior 2 are presented here.
DOCUMENTATION
Now, the moment you've all been waiting for: the documentation. If you'd like to know more about the creation of the levels and environments of Impostors, or want to see specifics, enjoy the PDF above.