Level Prototyping

I started this project drawing top-down plans to get ideas rolling and workshop with the team. I used these plans to quickly get a feel for how to best express the mechanics and design goals of the game through level design and gameplay. The setting was determined to be a medieval castle controlled by a terrorist organization set in the modern day; I studied medieval architecture for inspiration.

Paralleling the paper prototypes, I made a gymnasium and a sample level for the engineer to work within while creating the first mechanics.

Grey Box

I started to put the ideas into engine using Unreal's many useful tools for boxing out levels. I made the two levels from the plans, then boxed out the size and height of the rest of the rooms to act as a blueprint to build off of moving forward.

I developed a color language for objects that weren't ready to be added but needed to be thoughtfully placed in the level. For example, the enemies were red cylinders with black eyes, and ammo boxes were small green cubes. This is when I started to consider how each room will be colored in order for players to be able to identify distinct rooms.

I boxed out the rest of the castle (this time doing the design straight into engine rather than first on paper) and added the final room where the player's mission culminates. The room with the rocket, the Science Room, is a metal annex to the existing stone castle made by the terrorist to house the rocket that is set to destroy a large city. I use this room - and it's balcony holding the rocket - as a weenie to foreshadow the coming complications in the player's mission. This metal structure can be seen from earlier in the level, in the garden, intriguing the player with what's to come.

Vertical Slice

At this point in the process our goal was to make the first two rooms entirely playable with mostly finished assets and level design. The player starts in the Wine Cellar, and is drawn toward the starting weapon using a spotlight. The table with the weapon and ammo teaches the player how to pickup items, and also allows them to skip the weapon entirely if they want to attempt a pure stealth/pacifist run. They then are confronted with a vent, which is the only way forward; this forces the player to learn how to crouch. The next part of the Wine Cellar allows the player to either stealth past the first enemy or engage it in combat and be rewarded with more bullets - showing the player different gameplay approaches I designed for. After this encounter, the player must jump over debris and follow a staircase to the Living Room.

The Living Room is the first room that features radically non-linear level design. The player has two exits to choose from, with a myriad of paths to get to each. The upper exit can be more easily reached, but offers less reward. If the player uses the lower exit, they must stealth through the pathing enemies, or carefully manage their bullets while dispatching of the enemies.

Once the vertical slice was complete, we did playtests and came away with many ideas for changes. The most enlightening level feedback was that the doorways were not easily distinguished amongst the crowded levels. The remedy for this was to add distinct doorframes wherever there is an exit from a room.

Finishing the Level

The remaining work mostly consisted of decoration, lighting, and level design tweaks. I worked closely with the 3D artist to incorporate some of the more important assets, such as the rocket. Besides receiving a few 3D models, I sourced many public domain assets from around the web. I also sourced textures and did some blueprinting to create the retro style pixilation that is found on every object.

The crux of the level is the Great Hall, where the first mission is completed and the second mission is received. The first half of the level is very non-linear, allowing for many permutations of player pathing. We needed a solution to the issue of players either getting lost, or not knowing where to go. An emergent property of non-linear level design is the difficulty of player's achieving linear objectives. My solution was to put a giant hole in the ceiling which gives the player a landmark to look for, and makes the story details more realistic as the friendly forces now have a reason for knowing what is in this room.

The Great Hall is a vast room with many approaches, both for stealth and run-and-gun play styles. The centerpiece of this room is the boulder, which contextualizes the broken roof and breaks lines of sight - encouraging the player to explore the entire room in order to piece together its layout. The Great Hall has rafters above the ground, allowing for more stealth options and creating a parallaxing effect as the player moves across the room, giving a better sense of scale.

After finishing the decoration for the entire level, I added in small touches to aid the player experience and further sell the space as real. For example, I added blood spatter in the kitchen so the pantry where the hostage is held is more memorable and identifiable, and I added a few staircases that were blocked off so that the player feels they are moving through only part of a larger castle.