Arnolid Abbey

About: Designing an RPG space in Unity engine

Software: Blender & Unity

After working on a few FPS levels, the goal for this project was to learn to put together an RPG style level with visual landmarks and storytelling. I also wanted to learn more about character modeling, texturing, and rigging to get my own character in the world.

I learned to mark seams and UV unwrap the character models, as well as learning the basics of proper topology and keeping an eye on poly count, trying to achieve a low poly look. I then set up a game ready rig from Blender to use with a basic animation set in Unity I found in the asset store. Next I set up a basic third person camera with cinemachine.

Once I got the basics of rigging and got my character ready to animate, I had to make adjustments to make it work with the tweaks of the animation set I chose to use. Like removing the pauldrons, although they looked cool, warped quite a bit. With an RPG character set up and ready to adventure, I set up a basic level layout to serve as a tutorial area.

I used Blender to build the main chunks of the level. Then found a free texture pack from itch.io with a triplanar shader in Unity to quickly build a basic environment for an RPG level.

I then grabbed a few free assets from the Unity store to decorate the scene a little bit and made a couple NPC models to serve as quest givers.

Gameplay

The level starts on the doorstep of an abbey on a marshy foothill pass. The player is immediately encouraged to enter the large open door.

Directly inside is a monk that offers a quest. If the player slays a lich that's taken home in the nearby tombs, then the abbey will allow the player through the pass. Through the far end of the hall, the courtyard can be seen. To the right another monk can be seen near his desk where the next floors can be reached,

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Through the other side of the abbey lies the courtyard where a large central shrine lays. Outside the courtyard are the barracks for a small garrison to maintain the mountain pass and beds for the monks and pilgrims.

Through the barracks is a training yard where the player can spar with an NPC and learn the basic combat mechanics to fight the monsters in the nearby crypt.

An alternative route through the level is a riverside trail to the gatehouse.

The path through the mountains is blocked by a couple guards who won't let the player past until they fulfill the quest given by the abbot. Across the bridge, a couple desolate farmhouses are left abandoned. The trail to the crypt follows a couple switchbacks higher into the mountains.

From up here the player can see a silhouette of the abbey and a view of the river valley.

Finally, the player approaches the crypt. In the chamber is a solitary door that leads deeper, where the lich awaits with a force of risen dead.

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