Little Red Riding Hood
Junior Mission and Quest Project (Fall 2025)
This project was a three-mission-long level made using Unreal Editor for Fortnite, following a slightly modified version of the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The level follows Little Red as she tries to deliver a special treat to her grandmother while avoiding encounters with the Big Bad Wolf.Throughout the three missions, there are unique locations and environmental storytelling features that expand the world. These levels also use several cinematic camera sequences to create scripted cutscenes that delve deeper into the story.
Environmental Storytelling
Although Little Red was focused heavily on the level design, a lot of effort went into the environmental storytelling of each individual mission. Each area of the levels was designed to have a mini-story so that each area feels distinct from the others. For instance, the ice castle filled with traps is surrounded and filled with frozen characters to evoke a feeling of danger to the player. On the other hand, the first mission’s starting area is made to feel like a simple little town to make the player feel like they are beginning their “hero’s journey” and leaving home for the first time.
In a similar way, the environment is also made to have hints towards the final boss fight, where the player slowly learns about the missing kid who was sick, who is eventually revealed to have been eaten by the wolf and turned into a giant monster.
Early on, I struggled a lot with making my levels both feel like interesting spaces to navigate while also not containing too much downtime between major gameplay moments. My first two levels, although being fairly fleshed-out spaces, ended up being a bit too big for the amount of playtime that was expected with these. As a result, there were many moments of traversal that were too long, with nothing meaningful to do during that time.
I was able to use that knowledge to make the final level feel much more concise and have less time without anything for the player to do or fight. I also made sure to keep the level short so that it could be completed within the level’s limited time span.
Cutscenes
This project was actually my first time creating real, in-game cutscenes. There was a very large learning curve when it came to figuring out how all of the parts needed to make a cutscene came together. It taught me how to use cameras to capture characters or important moments, implementing and lining up spoken dialogue to their corresponding characters, and how to effectively transition between cutscenes and gameplay.
I was able to take what I learned about cutscenes in this project to then go on and create better cutscenes in future projects, including Bring Da Beat Back. I now know enough about cinematic sequences to be able to quickly make simple cutscenes for prototyping and playtesting, as well as when and where to best put them.