Overview
Cloudtop Kingdom is a 3D platformer level design exercise built in Unreal Engine 5, inspired by the spatial design language of Super Mario games. The project focuses on creating a cohesive, vertically-oriented kingdom environment with clear visual landmarks, readable platforming paths, and a sense of scale that rewards exploration.
Level Design
The level is structured around vertical progression — players ascend through cloud platforms, castle architecture, and floating islands. Each section introduces new spatial challenges while maintaining sightlines to the goal, giving players a constant sense of where they've been and where they're heading.
Environmental storytelling is baked into the layout: the kingdom's architecture tells the story of a place built upward into the sky, with increasingly precarious platforms and grander vistas as the player climbs higher.
Design Process
The level went through multiple blockout phases, starting with rough geometry to nail the jump distances and camera angles before adding visual detail. Playtesting focused on whether players could read the intended path without explicit guidance — relying on color, scale, and spatial composition to communicate direction.
Results & Takeaways
This project reinforced the importance of vertical level design principles — how elevation changes create drama, how sightlines guide the player, and how Mario-style platformers use scale and repetition to build a vocabulary of spaces the player can read intuitively.