This was the first game my daughter ever played. She loved exploring the island to find the animals and used weenies all the time to navigate! We used 'umbrella beach' and 'rocky beach' to distinguish those beaches too! We both loved this game. Thanks for your contribution!!
As a junior level designer, I find these kind of videos amazing ! Even tho I studied game and level design for 4 years, these advices feels really precious. Thanks for sharing Steve !
I really enjoyed my time exploring in Alba. I’ll need to pick it up again and purposefully walk round the island noticing the nuances of the level design - the main areas and things are very memorable.
The "Disney Land Design" trick is a good one! I think Uncharted 4 uses this in a great way, especially in the last chapter: you wake up at the beach and immediately see this huge, weird shaped mountain in the distance - and you spend the next 4 hours or so heading in that direction 😅
I love this game! Even after completing it, I find myself booting it up just to run around and enjoy the world. The level design was super satisfying and now that you mention the Disneyland similarities I totally get it!
Update on the tree planting scheme that Alba and UsTwo Games supports - we reached 1 million players, which means 1 million new trees have been planted, woopwoop: twitter.com/ustwogames/status/1504101023903674368?s=20 Also - if you'd like to learn about the more technical side of how Alba was made, our lead programmer Manesh did a great talk about it for Unity, here: czcams.com/video/YOtDVv5-0A4/video.html
@@stevelee_gamedev There's some great stuff in this series! I know its mainly targeted towards aspiring Level Designers but there's definitely useful stuff in here that LD's at all levels can learn from :)
I'm finally playing the game, I just cleaned up the castle youhou ! :p You really nailed the distinguished areas and weenies part, it's a pleasure to take the challenge to reach an area without looking at the map, because it' easy, safe, and comforts you on the fact that you're getting familiar with this world. I kind of got the same feeling with a short hike, but getting the camera at ground level and the island having less altitude makes me prefer Alba on this part. Me and my partner are having a good time, thank you
Hi Steve! After watching your Level Design videos, I was exploring your old videos and saw this video, but I held off myself until I've tried this game for myself. Now that I've finished the game, I really appreciate the experience you and ustwo team have crafted. Although I am a bit of hardcore player with the urge to finish every mission, which I did attempt on the first few hours of the game, but then I realized I was being too hard on myself and then just went with the wind and had a great time after that. I'm also glad that the game has a satisfying ending, I did not feel bad because I did not take all of the animal photos prior to confrontation with Major. Regarding this video, I shall remember it as: The one when I got a new perspective for setting up a theme! 😂 I haven't watched Friends before so this is completely new to me.
Another great video. The part about the beaches was really insightful. Its the sort of thing you dont even think about when playing a game, I guess its all just subconcious, but this is such a neat trick to help players with navigation and location memory! I'm also gonna play GoldenEye again on my N64 after work and look at Complex specifically with a new mindset! Will check out Alba on PS4 if its on that platform.
Hey, Steve, nice video! And great work with Alba, having lived in spanish Mediterranean myself I find the level design very appealing. Now I kinda want to develop some small open world game myself 😂 PD: new sub :)
Cheers! A few key people on the team (including creative director David Fernandez Huerta) who grew up in similar parts of Spain, and the authenticity of the Alba’s setting (the nature, architecture, characters etc) is all credit to them and others in the team, more than me :) But glad you liked the game, and cheers for the sub 👍
Great videos! Congtrz As a matter of fact, I have been an interior designer for about 5 years, however I always loved games and decided to invest in taking a master's degree in game design. I intend to do level design especially for competitive games, Valorant style, CS, OW. My master's thesis will be Level Design: Create Levels for Competitive Games. Being 30 years old, am I already "old" to enter the market? :(
Hey Diogo, thanks. Hard for me to say, honestly - but my short answer is that 30 isn’t old :P If you can find the time and means to learn the ropes and create good work, then I don’t see why it’s too late. And I certainly don’t think it’s too late to pursue things that interest you, regardless of whether they become your new career. Good luck, and enjoy :)
I'm a transportation/traffic engineer! Lots of industries follow the same concepts of level design. Good luck on your journey to game dev. All I can say is that there probably is a lot of parallels between interior design and level design. Similar to transportation engineering and level design. Good luck!
I just finished Alba for the first time and was holding off on watching this after I beat it. Great video! Was wondering if you have any plans on doing a similar video on John Wick Hex design?
Hey Milad, great to hear you enjoyed Alba :) Yeah I've thought about doing something on John Wick Hex, but it's a tricky one in some ways, and it's in a long queue of ideas that take a long time to make. We'll see 👍
@@stevelee_gamedev That's good to hear. Since I commented this I also played John Wick but unfortunately at some point it became too hard for me, so I had to drop it. But the layout of the levels and the way enemies surprised you and spawned from different locations each time was really interesting to me. It must have been tricky to do the layouts while considering the multiple ways enemies approached the player.
Thank you for this video, I just played this lovely game and it was great to learn more about how it was designed! On the placement of the animals, do they change at all based on the day / night cycle and the day of the week?
Hey Aoife - cheers, and good to hear. Re: animal placement, they definitely don't change based on day / night cycle (I think that would've been a lot of work for relatively little return, and also potentially confusing for players trying to find the animals), and as far as I remember they mostly stay the same throughout the week too, except for some that appear when certain quests are triggered and completed. Hope this helps 👍
Wow! This video was a great find! I recently just made a video highlighting Alba reaching the 1 million plant goal! I just stumbled upon this game in Apple Arcade (maybe off of a Reddit recommendation?), and I immediately fell in love. The gameplay, setting, characters, and message really stood out. I just finished the newest bird watching DLC. Did you contribute to that by chance? Thanks for a great game!
Nah, your phone is the camera. The game was made with iOS in mind, and when you play it on an iphone and you're taking photos, you actually hold your phone up and turn it around to point at things, like Alba does in the game :)
It was best story mode game i ever played its so beautiful and relaxing till date i am searching game similar to alba can you tell me if you know any ? 😌
As Alba being a mini open world game I am curious what the actual size is of the game. is it 1kmx1km or even smaller? YT is full of how "impressive" the maps sizes in AAA games are but nothing is said about small open world sizes.
Honestly, I wouldn't know about the exact dimensions unfortunately. But based on the rough time I think it takes to run from one side of the island to the other - bearing in mind Alba's running speed not being very fast - I'd guess that it's probably less than 1km by 1km?! I'm curious now, haha
Hey, I think it’s primarily about having some good portfolio work that is relevant to the jobs that you’re applying to, rather than having a university qualification. Having said that, games courses are a good way to be immersed in a gamedev-focused environment, where you meet and collaborate with likeminded people, and work on projects that hopefully serve as relevant portfolio work. But ultimately, I think the course is a means to the end, and not the end. In case you haven’t already watched them: several of my other videos are about portfolio work - I hope they’re helpful!
This was the first game my daughter ever played. She loved exploring the island to find the animals and used weenies all the time to navigate! We used 'umbrella beach' and 'rocky beach' to distinguish those beaches too! We both loved this game. Thanks for your contribution!!
Lovely to hear that it was the first game your daughter played - glad she enjoyed it, and thanks for letting me know :)
I'm so happy that my talk provided you with some inspiration! Alba looks like a great place! I can't wait to explore it myself! Cheers!
Oh hey Scott, yeah it definitely did 👍 Hope you enjoy Alba :)
cool
This was an incredible game. A nice easy play with a great soundtrack and an incredibly fun world to run around in.
Lovely to hear, thanks Eric :)
As a junior level designer, I find these kind of videos amazing ! Even tho I studied game and level design for 4 years, these advices feels really precious. Thanks for sharing Steve !
You're welcome Hugo, cheers for watching!
I really enjoyed my time exploring in Alba. I’ll need to pick it up again and purposefully walk round the island noticing the nuances of the level design - the main areas and things are very memorable.
The "Disney Land Design" trick is a good one! I think Uncharted 4 uses this in a great way, especially in the last chapter: you wake up at the beach and immediately see this huge, weird shaped mountain in the distance - and you spend the next 4 hours or so heading in that direction 😅
I love this game! Even after completing it, I find myself booting it up just to run around and enjoy the world. The level design was super satisfying and now that you mention the Disneyland similarities I totally get it!
Lovely to hear, thanks :) Glad you enjoyed the game!
Thanks for making these videos Steve! It's awesome to hear those insights into game development and level design. Keep it up!
Cheers, glad you like it 👍
My goal is to get into world building/level design for mmo type games so this was very useful and had some great info!
Great to hear, glad you liked it :)
OMG this is one of my fave games of all time... I love how relaxing it is....
That's lovely to hear, glad you enjoy it :)
Update on the tree planting scheme that Alba and UsTwo Games supports - we reached 1 million players, which means 1 million new trees have been planted, woopwoop: twitter.com/ustwogames/status/1504101023903674368?s=20
Also - if you'd like to learn about the more technical side of how Alba was made, our lead programmer Manesh did a great talk about it for Unity, here: czcams.com/video/YOtDVv5-0A4/video.html
Thank you for all the useful information and insights! I'll definitely use the "friends test" and weenies in my future projects. 🔥🔥🔥
You're welcome - glad you find it useful 👍
this deserves more attention
I agree! Haha
Awesome.
so lovely. looking forward to checking it out
Cheers Olly - hope you like 👍
Another great video Steve! I will definitely be using the "Friends Test" in all my future work!
Cheers Michael, glad to hear it's useful :)
@@stevelee_gamedev There's some great stuff in this series! I know its mainly targeted towards aspiring Level Designers but there's definitely useful stuff in here that LD's at all levels can learn from :)
I'm finally playing the game, I just cleaned up the castle youhou ! :p You really nailed the distinguished areas and weenies part, it's a pleasure to take the challenge to reach an area without looking at the map, because it' easy, safe, and comforts you on the fact that you're getting familiar with this world. I kind of got the same feeling with a short hike, but getting the camera at ground level and the island having less altitude makes me prefer Alba on this part. Me and my partner are having a good time, thank you
This is lovely to hear, thanks :)
Hi Steve! After watching your Level Design videos, I was exploring your old videos and saw this video, but I held off myself until I've tried this game for myself.
Now that I've finished the game, I really appreciate the experience you and ustwo team have crafted.
Although I am a bit of hardcore player with the urge to finish every mission, which I did attempt on the first few hours of the game, but then I realized I was being too hard on myself and then just went with the wind and had a great time after that. I'm also glad that the game has a satisfying ending, I did not feel bad because I did not take all of the animal photos prior to confrontation with Major.
Regarding this video, I shall remember it as: The one when I got a new perspective for setting up a theme! 😂 I haven't watched Friends before so this is completely new to me.
Hey, that's all great to hear, thanks! I'm really happy with what we did on Alba.
(Also - enjoy Friends, haha)
Have a great day!
Really enjoying these, please keep it up!
Nice to hear, cheers / will do :)
fun game. enjoyable. just completed it about 45 minutes ago
Good to hear :)
This game looks so cute. So excited to check it out! Thank you for the wonderful video! :) Definitely going to check out the gdc talk
Cheers Collin, hope you enjoy the talk (it’s pretty different to this video!) :)
Another great video. The part about the beaches was really insightful. Its the sort of thing you dont even think about when playing a game, I guess its all just subconcious, but this is such a neat trick to help players with navigation and location memory! I'm also gonna play GoldenEye again on my N64 after work and look at Complex specifically with a new mindset! Will check out Alba on PS4 if its on that platform.
Cheers Shinji - glad you find it useful, and hope you enjoy Alba 👍
Amazing
love this Steve. Keep up the amazing work!
Good to hear / will try! Cheers Jack :)
LOVE THIS CHANNEL
Cheers / good to hear mate 👍
Hey, Steve, nice video! And great work with Alba, having lived in spanish Mediterranean myself I find the level design very appealing. Now I kinda want to develop some small open world game myself 😂
PD: new sub :)
Cheers! A few key people on the team (including creative director David Fernandez Huerta) who grew up in similar parts of Spain, and the authenticity of the Alba’s setting (the nature, architecture, characters etc) is all credit to them and others in the team, more than me :) But glad you liked the game, and cheers for the sub 👍
Was wondering how you would approach open world games, thanks!
Yerwelcome!
Great videos! Congtrz
As a matter of fact, I have been an interior designer for about 5 years, however I always loved games and decided to invest in taking a master's degree in game design. I intend to do level design especially for competitive games, Valorant style, CS, OW. My master's thesis will be Level Design: Create Levels for Competitive Games.
Being 30 years old, am I already "old" to enter the market? :(
Hey Diogo, thanks. Hard for me to say, honestly - but my short answer is that 30 isn’t old :P If you can find the time and means to learn the ropes and create good work, then I don’t see why it’s too late. And I certainly don’t think it’s too late to pursue things that interest you, regardless of whether they become your new career. Good luck, and enjoy :)
I'm a transportation/traffic engineer! Lots of industries follow the same concepts of level design. Good luck on your journey to game dev. All I can say is that there probably is a lot of parallels between interior design and level design. Similar to transportation engineering and level design. Good luck!
I just finished Alba for the first time and was holding off on watching this after I beat it. Great video!
Was wondering if you have any plans on doing a similar video on John Wick Hex design?
Hey Milad, great to hear you enjoyed Alba :) Yeah I've thought about doing something on John Wick Hex, but it's a tricky one in some ways, and it's in a long queue of ideas that take a long time to make. We'll see 👍
@@stevelee_gamedev That's good to hear. Since I commented this I also played John Wick but unfortunately at some point it became too hard for me, so I had to drop it. But the layout of the levels and the way enemies surprised you and spawned from different locations each time was really interesting to me. It must have been tricky to do the layouts while considering the multiple ways enemies approached the player.
Thank you for this video, I just played this lovely game and it was great to learn more about how it was designed! On the placement of the animals, do they change at all based on the day / night cycle and the day of the week?
Hey Aoife - cheers, and good to hear. Re: animal placement, they definitely don't change based on day / night cycle (I think that would've been a lot of work for relatively little return, and also potentially confusing for players trying to find the animals), and as far as I remember they mostly stay the same throughout the week too, except for some that appear when certain quests are triggered and completed. Hope this helps 👍
can you make the Alba: A Wildlife Adventure 2? the game give me chillls
Hehe I can't myself - you should ask UsTwo Games! But thanks, great to hear you liked Alba :)
Wow! This video was a great find! I recently just made a video highlighting Alba reaching the 1 million plant goal! I just stumbled upon this game in Apple Arcade (maybe off of a Reddit recommendation?), and I immediately fell in love. The gameplay, setting, characters, and message really stood out. I just finished the newest bird watching DLC. Did you contribute to that by chance? Thanks for a great game!
I worked on the first version of the DLC before I wrapped up as a contractor with UsTwo. And thanks, great to hear you enjoyed Alba :)
Do you get a Camera later on or, only the phone as a camera
Nah, your phone is the camera. The game was made with iOS in mind, and when you play it on an iphone and you're taking photos, you actually hold your phone up and turn it around to point at things, like Alba does in the game :)
It was best story mode game i ever played its so beautiful and relaxing till date i am searching game similar to alba can you tell me if you know any ? 😌
Aww that's lovely to hear, thanks! :) The only game that springs to mind with a kinda similar vibe is A Short Hike?
As Alba being a mini open world game I am curious what the actual size is of the game. is it 1kmx1km or even smaller? YT is full of how "impressive" the maps sizes in AAA games are but nothing is said about small open world sizes.
Honestly, I wouldn't know about the exact dimensions unfortunately. But based on the rough time I think it takes to run from one side of the island to the other - bearing in mind Alba's running speed not being very fast - I'd guess that it's probably less than 1km by 1km?! I'm curious now, haha
Will there ever be a sequel to alba like alba 2?
No idea to be honest, I only worked on the game as a contractor and am no longer with UsTwo unfortunately!
@@stevelee_gamedev that’s sad to hear hopefully they do have this in mind!
Hi Steve, I've got a question. Is it necessary to go to University for level design or is it possible to do the job without it, Thanks.
Hey, I think it’s primarily about having some good portfolio work that is relevant to the jobs that you’re applying to, rather than having a university qualification. Having said that, games courses are a good way to be immersed in a gamedev-focused environment, where you meet and collaborate with likeminded people, and work on projects that hopefully serve as relevant portfolio work. But ultimately, I think the course is a means to the end, and not the end.
In case you haven’t already watched them: several of my other videos are about portfolio work - I hope they’re helpful!
@@stevelee_gamedev Ok thanks for the response will definitely check it out!
Can u buy clothes?
In Alba? No, why?
@@stevelee_gamedev bro said why lol..cus im asking moron