Seaside Showdown is a third-person online multiplayer melee game. The player is a hermit crab, who is able to change shells to gain new abilities that affect their stats.
Seaside Showdown's arena is set at a beachside marketplace, featuring food stalls, a boardwalk, and a fountain. The scale of the game world creates the illusion of being shrunken down to the size of a hermit crab. Additionally, the setting is light-hearted and whimsical, complemented by the outline shading and bright colors of the props.
Given the beachside setting, the most prominent Points of Interest (POIs) were the market stalls, which featured a modular structure and unique props for each location.
The Market Stall Base served as a template for Seaside Showdown's modular level design.
Using the graybox base provided, I arranged props in the Ramen Booth that were both recognizable to players as a landmark and practical collision-wise for traversing, especially given the fast-paced and unpredictable nature of online battles.
Since the player is on the smaller side, this involved creating ways to reach the top of the booth. In this case, I used bar stool props to allow the player to jump atop the booth's tables.
Pictured above, the player character is sitting in the a scaled ramen bowl. This prop not only helped define the Ramen Booth's silhouette, but it also captured the whimsical feeling of shrinking down to fit in a ramen bowl.
In this early look at the Ramen Booth, the ramen bowl placment is finalized.
Not only do these bowls reinforce the theming of the food stall, but they also serve as player-versus-player obstacles to hide behind and jump over.
Tasked with finding a creative way for players to collect a shell , I decided to place the item in the Ramen Booth.
This required adjusting collision volumes to ensure the player could equip the shell without becoming softlocked, while also maintaining immersion in the booth's theme.
This version of the Ramen Booth is finalized. One of the key updates to the finalized prefab was including the hedge prop.
The hedge functions similar to a bridge in allowing players to travel across without falling between tables.
Pictured above, the player character is standing outside of the Ramen Booth.
The Ramen Booth stands out against other stalls with its signage, barstool platforms, and ramen bowl silhouettes.
These props are especially helpful for the player to identify the Ramen Booth from a distance when running or pursuing other players during an online match.
Pictured above, the player is able to interact with the "Takeout Box Shell."
The prop Takeout Boxes in the finalized layout create a barricade, allowing the player to quickly equip it and maintain partially hidden by the boxes.
Creative players can also camoflauge against the boxes with the newly equipped shell.