Level Designer
Sarah Carter

Welcome, gentle reader, to my portfolio and all the treasures that lie within...

The Design on Paper

As I was aware that my levels would be reviewed by potential employers, I decided to create a Demo first, and then expand that into the full world in discrete chunks when I had the time to work on the project. I decided the basic plot of the game; and chose Temcia, the capital of the Heartlands (the neutral realm) as the starting point. This was to introduce the various factions to the player without bias and let them make their own decisions on what faction, if any, they wished to follow.

I drew out basic maps of Temcia and the various sections of the city - keeping in mind what architecture is available in the TES Construction Set. However, the character would not begin the game in the city but in a dream.

Green Fingers

1. Annika the stout Dwarven lady who lives in the Slums and tries to improve them through her beautiful garden has had thieves recently who have been digging up her vegetables and trampling over her flowers. She wants you to find someone in the City willing to sell, give or barter with her for an Arborean Stranglevine - which would act as a deterrent to further thefts.
2. Annika also explains Dwarves and how there are two types of Dwarves in general; those who feel more of a connection with stone and the mountains, and those who favour the earth and the forests. This represents Boran’s, God of Law and Earth, aspects. The inside of her house is full of greenery and plants, looking more like a potting shed than a domicile.
3. Annika is an alchemist and is willing to give you free access to her garden in return for preventing uninvited guests. The garden has one of most common ingredient plants and several rarer ones also.
4. Once the player has accepted the quest, Arborean Stranglevine becomes a new Topic. Perhaps the most logical place to start is the only person who the player has been informed has been to Arborea; Yzaxtol. Unfortunately, he spouts nonsense. H’ssith and Carla know more, telling the player about the dangers and treasures of that ever-changing and unpredictable land; along with that elves and kenders are the native races.
5. Salendoria the Elf woman at the dress shop in the Merchant’s Quarter (Belle Donna) has more information about the plant, that it hunts by waiting until something is beneath it and then drops down to strangle its prey.
6. Jaren the Kender male at the ingredients shop in the Merchant’s Quarter (Bittadis Bittadat) has one in his basement to harvest ingredients from. As Annika is a potential competitor for his business and she tends to grow her own ingredients rather than buying his, he doesn’t see why he should help her for nothing. However, if you can get him three Nightshade ******s then he will sell her a cutting. (“Which will be quite a task, I can tell ye! Stranglevines don’t like blades for some reason..”)
7. Two Nightshades are available in Annika’s garden if you can unlock the gate or jump your way in; or four in the Palace garden.
8. When you give the Nightshade ******s to Jaren, he asks you to come back later. You can stay and watch the fight. When the plant “dies”, the Stranglevine cutting is added to his inventory. Then he returns to his desk and waits. Upon being asked on the Stranglevine Topic again, he gives you the cutting.
9. When you give Annika the cutting, she gives you a medium gold reward and a key to the garden. Faction reactions with Boran rise by 5.

You can also short-cut the Nightshade part of this quest by unlocking the cellar door in Jaren’s shop and defeating the Stranglevine yourself. If you do this, when the quest is finished you gain 10 points with Boran, and lose 5 points with Aerii Faction reactions.

NB: Temcia does not have the main God faction reactions. Later on in the game, travelling to the opposite religion’s land will be distinctly perilous and to generally be avoided.

Edited For Content

I use the TES Construction Set for Oblivion, along with the plugins Dwarven Beards, and the official expansions: Shivering Isles and Knights of the Nine. I re-texture some models such as the Lizardman skin and a set of blue glass armour as the high end reward for the Water/Good questline but mainly I use vanilla models and change them to fit the concept more effectively.

Follow the Script

As you awake, the green bed seemingly out of place within this snowy forest; you see through the dusted trees the dim flicker of lights, or perhaps the glint and glisten of waves. Mayhap a deer picking its delicate way through the grass. Whichever way you go, eventually you come upon a tall statue of impressive meign. You click on it, and lo and behold, the statue speaks to you! It gives you a choice, pledge yourself to its cause. But there are other choices, and three other statues, and if you talk to all four and then leave through the bed then you will be given a fifth option. to follow the neutral religion of the Heartlands. The Temple of Light.

Whichever you choose, choose wisely.

ScriptName FAITHAeriiStatueScript

short AeriiSpeech
short button
short pledge
short supplicant
float timer

Begin OnActivate

if isActionRef player == 1
 if ( GetStage FAITHAeriiQuest == 0 )
  set supplicant to 1
  set AeriiSpeech to 1
  set pledge to 0
 elseif (( GetStage FAITHAeriiQuest == 5 ) || ( GetStage FAITHAeriiQuest == 10 ))
  if ( GetStage FAITHAquataQuest > 10 ) || ( GetStage FAITHPyroemQuest > 10 ) || ( GetStage FAITHBoranQuest > 10 )
   MessageBox "You have already pledged yourself to another God. Would you like to change deities?", "Yes", "No"
   set pledge to 2
   set supplicant to 1
  else
   MessageBox "Do you wish to pledge your allegiance to Aerii, Goddess of Air and Chaos?", "Yes", "No"
   set pledge to 1
   set supplicant to 1
  endif
 endif
endif

End

;This section will control the audio files played when the statue is activated

Begin GameMode

set timer to ( timer - GetSecondsPassed )

if ( timer <= 0 )

if ( supplicant == 1 )
 if ( GetStage FAITHAeriiQuest == 0 )
  if ( AeriiSpeech == 1 )
   DisablePlayerControls
   ;PLAY AUDIO
   set timer to FAITHAeriiStatueRef.say FAITHAeriiStatue01 1 FAITHAeriiVoice 1
   set AeriiSpeech to 2
  elseif ( AeriiSpeech == 2 )
   EnablePlayerControls
   SetStage FAITHAeriiQuest 5
  endif
 endif

 if ( pledge == 1 )
  set button to GetButtonPressed
 
  if ( button >= 0 )
  set pledge to 0
  endif

  if ( button == 0 )
   SetStage FAITHAeriiQuest 20
   set button to 0
   set supplicant to 0
  elseif ( button == 1 )
   SetStage FAITHAeriiQuest 10
   set button to 0
   set supplicant to 0
  else
   set button to 0
  endif
 elseif ( pledge == 2 )
  set button to GetButtonPressed

  if ( button >= 0 )
  set pledge to 0
  endif

  if ( button == 0 )
   if ( GetStage FAITHAquataQuest > 10 )
   SetStage FAITHAquataQuest 25
   endif
   if ( GetStage FAITHBoranQuest > 10 )
   SetStage FAITHBoranQuest 25
   endif
   if ( GetStage FAITHPyroemQuest > 10 )
   SetStage FAITHPyroemQuest 25
   endif
   SetStage FAITHAeriiQuest 20
   set button to 0
   set supplicant to 0
  elseif ( button == 1 )
   MessageBox "You have remained true to your God."
   SetStage FAITHAeriiQuest 10
   set button to 0
   set supplicant to 0
  endif
 endif  

endif

endif

;change the weather when approaching the statue to accordance with the relevant element

if ( GetDistance Player < 2000 )
 SetWeather FAITHArboreaWeather
endif

End

ScriptName FAITHAwaken

Begin OnActivate

if (( GetStage FAITHAeriiQuest == 20 ) || ( GetStage FAITHAquataQuest == 20 ) || ( GetStage FAITHPyroemQuest == 20 ) || ( GetStage FAITHBoranQuest == 20 ))
 MessageBox "You have chosen your path, now awaken once more."
 SetStage FAITHCharacterGen 10
 player.MoveToMarker FAITHStartBrokenBlade
elseif (( GetStage FAITHAquataQuest > 4 ) && ( GetStage FAITHAeriiQuest > 4 ) && ( GetStage FAITHPyroemQuest > 4 ) && ( GetStage FAITHBoranQuest > 4 ))
 MessageBox "You have chosen to walk the path of the Temple of Light."
 SetStage FAITHTempleOfLightQuest 5
 SetStage FAITHCharacterGen 10
 player.MoveToMarker FAITHStartBrokenBlade
else
 MessageBox "You cannot seem to wake up from this strange dream."
endif

End

Future Plans

I intend on furthering the Demo by adding the details to the Slums and completing the other sections of the city of Temcia; the Warehouse/Docks, Noble’s District, Merchant’s Quarter and the Palace.

After that, the landscapes of the world of Faith will be built using both the Landscape tool and the Regions Editor to create vast flat salt-plains and rolling deserts, island chains and undersea cities, thick woodlands and underground manses. Whenever I finish a section the relevant agencies and companies will be informed and the new material uploaded onto this site.

The game continues with faction points being amassed or depleted from the relevant Gods depending on choices in the game world (such as freeing or using Ignean slaves) and successful completion of Quests given by the faithful. Faction ranks will be gained as more faction points are added to the total, resulting in better reactions to the followers of “your” religion, and a far more hostile response from those who oppose that religion.

The plot winds its way through all four of the lands (of course, the land which is opposed to your chosen faith will be suitably perilous) and results in the player becoming an Avatar of a God (or all the Gods if a follower of Light) and being sent along with a legendary magical item to brave the Black Desert, and find and fight the God of Death, Pharll - who once again has begun invading the lands of the living with an undead horde.

There are also specific quest lines for the Forgotten: Vampires and Liches, or those who become one of these during play. Dying in certain areas or to certain NPCs or creatures has a percentage chance of raising you as an intelligent Undead. If you have more than a pre-set number of skill points in Magic you become a Lich; if not, you become a Vampire. Both find sunlight a terrible burden and must find replenishment from the world around them in a way the normal races do not. Obviously, these two are Pharll’s creatures by nature. However, he abandoned and exiled them from his faith when they failed him at the end of the first Undead Wars. They regard him with a mix of regret and endless hateful bitterness; depending on the personality of the immortal in question.

“When all in the world have no hope left, there are only two things that will carry them through to the light and peaceful calm beyond this tempest: faith and bravery. The twin blades of the eternal hero.”

Other Experience

Level Editors

I have been level editing in one form or another since 2001, starting with Immortal status on a Mud and creating several areas for play using the Smaug codebase and text-based commands.

Neverwinter Nights was my next mod-editor of choice. Aurora was powerful for its time and I spent more hours editing than I did playing the game.

In 2004, I was introduced to Unreal Editor and Valve Hammer; creating a level each along with four others for a University project in the latter and solitarily in the former.

Neverwinter Nights 2’s Obsidian was a huge leap forwards in regards to customisation, but it was Oblivion’s TES Construction Editor that captured my imagination. Unfortunately, I missed the phenomenon that was Morrowind - in spite of playing Daggerfall. As such, it took me several months to learn Oblivion’s editor through the online Wikipedia that the Help topic in the Editor links to.

Since then, I have been working on various projects to learn the editor and have recently gained enough confidence to base my Level Designer portfolio within the program.

A Matter of Faith

In 2002, I began the process that would see me designing the majority of the campaign setting for “Faith”, a D&D Campaign setting based in a world where the Gods were more powerful and central figures to the players’ lives. I have being running roleplays of various systems for over eight years, and I allow write my own material and have yet to run a published adventure.

I am the Leader of the Silver Court, a guild for the forthcoming MMORPG, Warhammer: Age of Reckoning. The guild is relatively new but is a revival of two previous guilds, one of which I also led, and the other which I led in the (perpetual) absence of the guildleader - which were founded in 2000.

Hopes and Goals

In the future, I wish to continue my modding work, preferably by becoming a Level or Games Designer in the Games Industry which I so respect and admire for their hard work, dedication and endless creativity. While fantasy is my preferred genre, I have played and enjoyed a variety of games from first-person shooters to real-time strategy, to puzzle games and adventure. To work in the games industry would be a great challenge, one I believe I am fully capable of meeting and excelling beyond expectations.