Week 8 – Blog Post

Building on the Large Atrium room and the paths the players can traverse, adding explosive barrels, and a nifty cutscene for mission design.

Work Done (Weeks 7-8)

Following my intensity chart I’ve done last week, I continued on building up the final area for my map and mission: the Large Atrium. I have done a lot of progress this week, in preparation for the video that I will work on the following weeks!

Intensity Chart (Again for reference)

Initially I felt a little overwhelmed with the large space I carved out for the final room. Then I decided to take what I did for the first courtyard area and split this final area into two parts as well. When designing this part of the map, I took great inspiration from an area in a game called Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty where the character enters a large lavish 2-storey atrium.

Reference to the Cyberpunk 2077 map

I planned this area out on a tool called Excalidraw.

These were my first drafts when laying out the area.

This is the current layout for this area.

In the third screenshot above, you can see an indoor mezzanine above the boss enemy where more enemies are placed. Players are not able to climb onto this platform and will be forced to shoot them from below, giving added challenge to the already challenging boss fight. This can also be scaled with difficulty level.

After defeating all enemies in these 2 areas of the atrium, the door at the end (the yellow door) will unlock for the player to exit.

I have also designed 2 routes the player(s) can take, either the stealth route or the direct route, following what I did in the courtyard area but on a much larger scale.

Routes

  1. In the first screenshot, the players are able to choose between the open path following an exposed red wire on the floor (it leads to a mounted turret), or head on straight where they will use a series of ladders to descend.
  2. In the second, the players can still choose between the two routes. However, they will have to face more enemies.
  3. Lastly, this is where the two routes will differ greatly. The direct route will face a mounted turret on top of a climbable crate with minimal cover, while players are able to sneak past the turret with the stealth route.

Explosive Barrels

I have also added an Explosive Barrel prop to the final area. These are just props at the minute and will likely not be animated or scripted.

Animated Door

I have created a simple door opening animation to make the level more immersive. It is scripted like this without the E to interact so that I can focus on other relevant level design elements rather than scripting.

Cutscene

Cutscene at the start when player enters the area to mimic the area overview flyover in the Division game.

In game:

There is a text at the centre right showing the name of the location. It is usually at an angle to blend in with the environment. Here, I have adapted the same style into my cutscene.

Goals for Next Week (MoSCoW Method)

Must Have

  • Refine the existing levels.
  • Finalise mission design with the plugin Ant gave in a lecture.
  • Video draft.
  • Add more explosive barrels to the other rooms and areas.

Could Have

  • Basic AI enemy movements with level sequences.