Preem Bust 101 - A Slippy trip down the level design rabbit hole
- brandonmcrae
- Dec 21, 2022
- 6 min read
Updated: Jan 2, 2023
Setting up the level base
Building the foundations of the level
In this phase I built the foundations of the level including the floors and walls of each room as well as the roofs and streets the player will be able to move around in. This was one of the more crucial parts of the block phase sense it helped to set the scale of every playable area and gave me a chance to do a small playtest from start to finish to test the length of each area without their respective filler events such as fights etc. With the foundations set I was also able to decide early if there were any changes needed made to the overall shape of the level before there was too much in the scene to move at one time. Below are some screenshots of the different areas after their foundations were set:
The only major details that were added to the foundations of this room are the walls and roof. I decided to add slants to the roof so that the shape closes in towards the top. This isn’t shown in the screenshot as the roof is hidden but the purpose of this was to better separate the roof and the walls for when I plan to add more details. The room itself is a 27.5x27.5 meter room which gives plenty of space to add things like a dance floor and a bar whist leaving room for the negative space the player will traverse.
This next room (The Lobby) is a two parter as the area at the top of the stairs is still classed as part of this overall area. This bottom room is a 17x27 meter room that has lots of room to add filler such as pillars to act as cover for the player for the fight that will take place here.
The second part of the lobby is at the top of the stairs and is a small storage room that the player can visit to pick up an optional assault rifle and some ammunition. There will be some unusable doors on the sides of the hallway which will add some depth to the area as it wouldn’t make much sense to have just one room up there but at the same time, I had no plans to add more rooms. The storage room itself is a 9x8.7 meter room which is pretty small although it would be perfect as there won’t be anything in the middle of the room which means cause it’s smaller there will be less negative space being wasted.
This next area (The Rock Garden) is a large open space which gives me plenty of room to play with the positioning of filler objects such as tables, chairs, a bar and some finer details if I have time towards the end. I made the Rock Garden as a 46.5x20.7 meter room as that seemed to be the best size for leaving plenty of negative space use for dropping enemies in for the fight that is meant to take place here. There is also a gap in the wall at the end of the area as this will be used for a destructible wall that the player will have to remove once they have cleared out the enemies to proceed in the level. This will be done via a sequence and a destructible mesh using the chaos system.
This next area is the Car Park that the player will have to make their way through to get to the next area (The Apartment Complex). As the initial design was flat I have laid out the foundation as such although it seems having looked at references that I will need to consider a better layout that takes advantage of the vantage point created from blowing up the wall.
This next screenshot shows the layout of the foundations of the hallways of the apartment along with the elevator that will allow the player to go to the roof. I plan to implement a simple blueprint that will teleport the player to the roof along with playing a cutscene to make for a clean transition for the player although that will be for a later phase.
In this screenshot I’ve also shown the foundations of the two buildings the player will be able to traverse for both the boss fight and the escape act of the story. No additional details have been added for now as I need to gather references that will help make these roof tops look more lively however for now the height difference of the building are set to use for the story.
In addition to that I have decided to change how the player gets back onto the streets as originally, I had planned to make the building low enough to just jump off but after having played with the heights, I realized that wouldn’t be possible without making the first jump unrealistic so instead I decided to import a set of fire exit rails for the player to run down instead.
This last screenshot shows the foundations of the streets without any set-dressing. The length of the street had to be played with in comparison to the initial design as it was too short and didn’t leave enough room to allow the player to fight through the streets without just running straight to the evac point which is the white block on the right side.
Fleshing out room layouts
With the foundations of the level laid I was able to start fleshing out the level section by section so that each section matched their setting better. For this I brought together a number of different references and combined them all into one material which I could then apply to a plane, so I was able to visualize each reference as I worked on each respective room. The final results of the fleshing out can be seen in order below:
Nightclub (Dance Floor)
Img 1:
For this section of the room I chose to elevate it to the same level as the dance floor to break up the main floor into a lane that would guide the player towards the intended spot to initiate the first cutscene hat would allow the player to continue on with the level. Additionally I added seating twith tables as areas like this are common in nightclubs for people that just want to sit instead of dancing/ standing. I additionally chose to add some blue strip lights to the walls and edges of the platform to both add some light pollution and add to the subliminal hinting technique which is discussed in further detail below.
Img 2:
In this image I've provided an overall look at the dance floor and the props used to fit the theme of a nightclub dance floor more accurately. I modeled some simple overhead spot lights and added them to the support beams around the floor. Additionally I added some in engine cable component actors to act as the power cables that connect all the lights together. These actors fitted best as they simulate physics between two points which allowed me to adjust the length and slack of the cables to give a more realistic aesthetic instead of just having the lights be on their own. Finally I continued to use dancing actors to create a lane to guide the player similarly to how I did with the seating area.
Img 3:
This next image shows the gap between the dance floor and the bar. There wasn't much added to this area as I was short for time and I had planned to add a fire escape to the back wall at the end of the bar but I unfortunately never got around to adding it into the project. What this image does show is the support beams I added to the ceiling to flesh out the top of the room instead of leaving it open as that would have lead to too much negative space which would have made the room look more empty.
Img 4:
This final image shows the bar that I added to the room. This was the key area of set dressing I used to guide the player towards their intended destination and because of this I added as much details as I could in my limited time-scale however I did not put the most detail into this as the player was only going to see it for a short period of time. Additionally I added a window to an office that I added last minute as suggested to me during my playtest. In terms of props I modeled some beer taps to put on the bar top along with some blocked out cash registers. Finally I blocked out a unit for the back of the bar which I had intended to populate with some different alcoholic beverages however I had forgotten to import them into the scene. I did however model the unit to look similar to the bar back in the reference image you can see on the right side.
Additional Notes: I added a number of additional characters so to speak to act as place holders for crowds to populate the dance floor. This was to add some life to the room sense it is a dance floor and it wouldn't make sense to have an empty nightclub, especially on the dance floor. I also used the crowds to create a lane to filter the player around the level.
Nightclub (Lobby)
Use of level design techniques
Contrast is used a few times throughout the level to guide the player through the level whilst also showing the player other routes at their disposal.
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