Summary:
The map is a semi-open world designer for the extraction shooter genre where you are a mercenary entrusted with searching and retrieving contaminated material from an alien colony.
Objective:
Creating an immersive and functional environment for testing level design principles, flow, readability, objective progression and some environment storytelling. Additionally testing Blueprint programming skills.
Tools:
- Unreal Engine 5.4;
- Tether Plugin (for cables);
- Advanced Locomotion System;
- Gaea Landscape Creator;
Role and Responsibilities:
As a Level Designer, I was responsible for creating the level concept, and level blockouts, designing level sections and guaranteeing level quality through playtest.
Important Note: This level is still a WIP. Because of this, enemy behaviour and playable areas are limited. A playable build can be found at the following link.
Overview
Video showcase here!
Design Techniques
Teasing and Landmarking
To ensure clear player navigation, some landmarks represented by communication towers were placed above important buildings or compounds, assuring that the player always has a clear goal to follow.
Guiding Lines
To further aid player navigation within compounds, electric cables act as visual guides, directing the player's attention towards objectives.
Rails and lightpoints also help with player guidance.
Reveal
Some spawn points use “tease” and reveal to gradually show the compound to players.
Pre-Production
Flow and Pathing
Before beginning the level blockout I first define where the main locations and compounds should be.
After that I create the major structure rotations and locations, to ensure that the player can navigate smoothly throughout the level and keep the movement flowing.
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Military Zone Pathing and Clash Points
Understanding the open-world aspect of the level, the player pathing is not solid and repetitive. Allowing the player to create new paths, “pixels”, power picks, and other strategies is crucial to the map’s longevity and replayability.
Even if the level is not linear, the player’s possible behaviour can be predicted and with those predicaments, the proper combat space and cover placement can be allocated. A few player’s possible flows can be found below.
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Knowing the player pattern makes it possible to predict encounters and clash points.
The image on the right showcases the possible encounters (question mark) and highlights clash points with the X. Those points are created by the most probable repetitive interest point independent of the spawn or route taken by the player, and the main objective that will draw player attention because of its existence.
Landscape & Heighmap
Using a software called Gaea to create the landscape was a very important choice, it helped me to create a high-quality landscape with textures which helped me to create a placeholder material.
These characteristics helped me to adapt the player flow and landmark locations to a closer final version of the terrain which improved a lot of production time.
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References and Mood Board
After drawing the map I researched references to help me during the blockout phase. This meant having mood boards and watching sci-fi movies and videos from games that I would inspire myself. The idea was to create the most believable area possible, assuring that the player would feel immersed while having fun.