A View From The Desert (2017)

My objectives this time around were the following: 

1. Create a desert landscape 
2. Have four main segments where the player can explore
3. Make sure that all segments have alternative routes

I wanted to focus the level design around a desert landscape because I've rarely ventured into building levels with a desert theme; so I took this opportunity to gear up and practice with the unreal engine foliage & terrain editor. The majority of my time was spent on the terrain creation; undergoing multiple iterations, towards the middle of my production time; I opted to introduce caves towards the starting segment so that players could find loot/rewards. In terms production, I reached the following stages:

1. Birds-eye paper design
2. Highlight of 4 zones (caves, military base, depot and residence area)
3. Connection of all four zones
4. BSP block in; using the brushes to make rough sculpts of the terrain
5. Substituted the sculpts with the actual terrain modifier
6. Fleshed out each area chronologically: starting with the beginning zone (caves)
7. Added static meshes for all zones
8. Placed cover and climbing points (blue prints)
9. Added AI and patrol paths
10. Performed another pass on secret/alternative paths
11. Lights, post processing and folliage
12. Helicopter animation
13. Ambient and other sounds
14. Polish

I did not mention testing because it is a practice that is done constantly throughout the whole creation process; as mentioned before, the final product varied from the original concept due to testing and numerous tweaks

The avatar template and AI behavior came from the unreal asset store: Third person shooter kit

The modular assets were created by myself in Maya

Platform: PC

Genre: Third Person

Engine: Unreal Engine 4

Time: 2 weeks

Sounds: https://freesound.org

Story

The beautiful pearl Mesa was a proud metropolitan city that did not shy away from: pleasure, wonder and pride; many souls would mingle and live their ordinary lives until a cataclysmic event occurred: "The Last Christmas". A deadly virus that left the city in ruins forcing people to flee the city and venture forth into the unknown regions of the planet to rekindle what little life they believed to possess. As a result, those that remained became scavengers which have now turned Mesa into a scavenging playground where people would hunt and fight for what little glory they could unearth from the wasted rubble.

However not all is lost; an organization rose to dominance to begin their contingency plans in restoring basic functions to the city such as: water and power; the organization goes by the name Calan. Due to the cities troubled past, not everyone agrees to what Calan are hoping to achieve, some of these rebellious individuals have formed clans and begun raiding Calan facilities to acquire additional supplies; hindering their humanitarian missions. One particular clan Left For Dead has caused a lot of nuances lately with constant raiding parties weakening Calan's supply lines that link to Mesa.

As a result, Calan have dispatched a seasoned veteran Diego to track down one of helicopters that had just raided a facility and stole precious charts which contain important mineral harvester coordinates. After 5 hours of tailing, Diego watches the helicopter descend to an unknown facility; perhaps there is a more to this facility then Calan knows, but first the charts need to be found and returned safely to headquarters.

Progression

After I created a silhouette rough grey box of all four areas; the connection and progression was underway. The start zone (caves) was always meant to contain a more laxed and straightforward tone to guide the player effortlessly into the military base segment which is more challenging. To make things more interesting; I opted to add caves with hidden loot to deviate the player slightly from the main route to encourage them to explore. Once the player reaches the military base, they will have multiple options to reach the helicopter perched on top of the building:

1. Main entrance (going in from the main door that is located slightly below ground level)
2. Side entrance (climbing up for the walls and entering the building from the terrace
3. Crane (climb up the crane and jump all the way down to the helipad)

After the player reaches the bridge area; they can chose to either: continue walking to the end or take a stealth approach. The stealth approach is located on the side of the bridge facing the cave segment, this will lead the player towards the residence area; while the former leads the player towards the depot. The depot helicopter can be accessed by:

1. Storming through the main entrance
2. Climbing on top of the stacked boxes outside to reach the upper floor
3. Through the garage which is located at the other side of the depot.

Finally the Residence area is a combat segment that requires the player to eliminate all threats to finally access the helicopter containing the important charts to end the level.

Flow

The flow took many iterations to work well; initially at the beginning of the level, there were more enemies that the player would encounter. I ended up reducing a lot, the reason being that it was too difficult to perform stealth kills without alerting other guards.

The military base was designed so that there were multiple ways in achieving the objective; if the player plays patientily, they can potentially reach the helicopter without eliminating anyone, guard patrol routes were established so that there were multiple objects to break the AI's line of sight, acting as natural cover for the player. The segment contains verticality pieces which can be used to the players advantage (players can climb on top of builds & access the crane)

The depot was has a similar structure to the military base due to its function; however the plan is bigger: facilitating more paths, cover and weapon pickups, you could say that is area is a combination of the previous two.

The final area is meant to be the climax, initially this area featured a stealth route which would enable the player to cross undetected around the cliff and end up behind the watch tower next to the helicopter. I decided to remove this route, to add more more tension. I alternated the geometry even further to make it more cylindrical so that the player would be fighting in a arena.

Production