David Runnding
Game/Level Designer
About the Project
Role: Level Design
Perspective: Third Person
Genre: Action/Shooter
Tools: Unreal/Diversion
Time: 3 Weeks
Time Size: 4
Introduction
The game was a 3-week school project during our Advanced game design course at Futuregames. The course was for us to make up a boss fight. I was in charge of the intro part of the game, The sneak phase as we called it.
I wanted the players to be able to play this sequence in several different ways. The last sequence of the level is linear but how the player got their was by their own decisions.
The sniper looks down from a high ground and serves as a menacing threat. The sniper should always be visible to get a reference of where the shots are coming from so the player knows where they can hide.
My work related to.
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Level Design - Sneak Phase
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Enemy Sniper Behavior
Game Backstory - WW1 inspired
After a battle to take over Thiepval your Officer has given you instructions to secure a Church bell tower in a nearby area to get a good sniper position. You and 3 other soldiers are in charge of this mission.
Upon arriving to the scene:
A left behind sniper spots your unit, Shooting down your fellow soldiers. You now have to avoid the shots and use the reload time to your advantage.
Level Design
Establishing Shot
The player starts in a trench were they can see two different paths. The sniper is visible at a high angle in a church bell tower.
The glint of the sniper warns the player that a shot is about to come.
Different Paths
I wanted to give the players more control by having several paths to traverse the level. The sniper location was the guiding point of which the player could travel.
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Right path (Yellow line)
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High Right Path (Blue line)
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Low Right path (Green line)
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Ending (Orange line)
I also added a different material on the landscape to show where the walkable roads are.
Right Path
This path I noticed was the most common to take when playtesting. I read about it after the project and people tend to be right side biased.
From what I learned it's due to these remarks
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90% of people are right-handed
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The most common reading is left to right
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Traffic habits - right side drivers tend to lean that direction when walking
High Left Path
This path was barely used. My guess is that this path was far to the left. Due to the hole in the wall, people got drawn to that path instead.
Since it also was a climbing wall the play testers said that it looked less appealing because it look like a block in the road or a dead end.
Low Left Path
When players chose the left path they often took the lower path. The hole in the wall drew their attention.
This path was by far the easiest and fastest route. As an after though, I would have developed in to be a bit harder.
Further Development
If I were to continue with this project, I would remake the starting area to be able to see the different paths a lot clearer. Find a way to make the left side more attractive to the players and with the right side biases in mind. I would also like to move the the ending path so it's further away from the sniper so It's easier to look up at the sniper.
Level Design Progress
I started drawing out the level in 2D and worked with a basic blockout.
I got feedback that the map was too wide and had to tighten it so both the paths could fit in on frame.
I then added some verticality into the level by having trenches and placing the church a bit higher up.
The feedback I got was mostly that the movement of the player was a bit awkward. The navigation of the level felt good and they seemed to always know where to go.
Sniper
Sniper Behavior
Our tech designer for the project was absent during the first week so I created a prototype sniper which stuck to the end.
The intention was that the Sniper should stay in one place during the game and the player has to navigate their way to it's location.
The problem with the sniper right now is that it is static and in a high position all the time. When getting closer it is a lot harder to see where it's location is and when it's actually shooting.
I have a glint, sound cue and gun fire VFX that helps the timing but I think it would enhance the gameplay by adding some animations (reload, aim etc.), adjust lighting and bullet trace (instead of debug line trace).