Scraps

Level Design
Project Overview
This project was done for the last class in my associates degree. The goal of the project was to get into a group of 3-5 game designers, create at least one level mechanic, create a LDD, and then blockout the level with a focus on IPM for the chosen level mechanics. The level needed to be anywhere from four to eight minutes in length using the critical path. The project was completed in two and a half weeks.
My Contributions
For this project I was essentially the project coordinator. Starting off the project, I put together a team I felt would be the most passionate about putting in the work necessary to make something both fun to play and beautiful to look at. From there, my contributions mostly consisted of: level blockouts (lobby, basement, ski rentals/security room), creating blueprints centered around the chosen level mechanics (fireplace, security cams, falling floor, all doors), and gameplay refinement (adjusting the placement, location, balance, and quantity of different level mechanics).
Creating The Level Flow
Starting with brainstorming, the team came together and shared each idea for a level mechanic. With the four mechanics in mid, we all hopped into a call to create mood boards of different areas of the world we thought would be interesting. The mechanic that everyone decided was their favorite has to deal with melting of ice using a torch that could be ignited by different heat sources. Naturally, this led the team to level ideas that were mostly relegated to the mountains to most effectively use this mechanic.
Mood Boards
Using PureRef the team put together a few mood boards to highlight different possible landmarks, gameplay beats, and atmosphere desired. My goal was to communicate a Ski lodge high in the mountains that doubled as a secret testing facility in the basement. This lodge would only be accessible by ski lift.
Gameplay Beats
The next objective for the team was to whittle down the number of mechanics being using to more accurate fill the time frame, and then outline the game beats. Sketches provided by Logan Smith. Yellow areas are designated for the power box mechanic, blue areas are designated for the torch and ice mechanic, and green areas are the designated areas for planting explosives and combat encounters.
Blockout / Alpha Build
After a few days of planning, it was time for the blockout stage. For this project we were introduced to world partitioning and One File Per Actor for the work flow. This proved to be an efficient way of working as it allowed me to create the base blockouts for most parts of the level in a very short amount of time. After every base blockout room has been created, it was time to stitch each part together. This was fairly easy do to the adherence to the sketches. Last piece of the build was to add in level mechanic according to the previous outline and wait for playtesting.
Testing
After the player testing had commenced, we had plenty of issues to tackle. A couple of the most notable issues centered around the player not having enough practice with the power box mechanic before having to practice the mechanic in the security room and also the player having access to the second floor of the lobby area when that space was not able to be completed without finishing the planting of explosives in the basement. These bugs would all be addressed in the beta build.
Beta Build
The beta build proved to be the most challenging part of the project. Not only did we need to address the bugs brought up during the testing phase, we also needed to find assets, materials, textures, and anything else we wanted to bring into the project during this time. This whole beta build process had a deadline of five days. The main concern during this time was making sure the gameplay felt right and all important player concerns had been addressed. Fixing these issues was well worth it and made the game feel more playable, suspenseful, exciting, and intuitive. However, it did leave us with only three days left to asset swap. It was during this time that we implemented a code freeze and focused entirely on the aesthetics of the level. All assets and materials were required to be free and have minimal stretching.
The end product is detailed below.
Final Build
The final build of the game was entirely a pet project for myself to add life to the level where I felt it was lacking. These changes were all made within a single day. The level was lacking in ambient sound. So my first goal was to create a sound manager that would raise and lower the volume of ambient sound depending on where the player is in the level. If the player is outside, the will be hearing the howling of the wind over the mountains. if the player is indoors, they will hear a muffled version of the wind along with the wooden creaking you would get from an old rickety lodge. The last sound I added was for the fireplace. This was much needed to give and extra bit of life to the lobby area that would essentially be acting as the main hub. Lastly, I wanted to add a snowing effect around the building of the level to really bring out the sense of being on a snowy mountain.
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