Week 4: Initial Level Design

This week marked the start of the production for the level that will be used for the game. I started by migrating the asset packs that I planned to use from my pre-production work, into my main Unreal project. Once all of the environment packs were imported I began with having a brief overview of the assets again to familiarize myself with them before I started using them. I had a little play around with some of them in an asset jungle just to see how different things can fit together as well as the scale of the assets from the point of view of the player character.

My first task for the level was to establish the landscape. The Modular Lost Ruins Kit asset pack includes a demo level that uses a landscape that has different painting materials and instanced foliage actors. The landscape felt like a perfect fit for the level that I wanted to achieve for the game so I decided to start with this. To start with I stripped the demo level of all the building and ruin assets to make it a blank slate.

My next task was to blockout the areas of the level that would be actual playable space. During my pre-production, I had some initial ideas for what I wanted the level to include to ensure that it fit the theme as well as the gameplay elements. The picture below shows the different sections of the level based on the pre-production.

Once I had a basic idea of how I wanted to set up the level based on the landscape I started with blocking out the area with geometry. I used basic shapes with different colours for things like walls, floors, and game objects such as doors and interactables. Each main sector of the map has a different themed temple (Sun, Moon, and God) so I added those at this stage too so each area had some visual context when building it out.

High-Level Overview:

Spawn Area Overview:

Small Temple Interior Area:

Moon Temple:

Sun Temple:

God Temple:

These make up the main areas of the map however there is one last area which will be an underground tomb area however I have not started this portion of the level just yet. I'm happy with the overall layout as it is right now however it will require a large amount of playtesting with the AI to make sure that each area flows properly with the zombies. The actual play space will change once I start adding in assets which will also change the the flow of each area. As it stands the areas appear to be quite open and free to navigate however once there are more assets inside the play area it will start to constrict the play space to feel more confined which is the feel that I'm going for. With the main blockout complete in regards to the main layout I started with integrating some of the mechanics into the spawn area to start simulating some gameplay within the level. I also needed to do a full pass on the landscape to make sure that each area fit the blockout. I used the landscape tool in Unreal Engine to make amendments to the landscape. things like cutting out holes with a visibility mask to allow tunnels. I used the sculpting and painting tools to alter certain sections to make it feel like it all fits together.

Video Showcase of the initial blockout with gameplay:

Once I was happy with the initial blockout I moved on to rebuilding the spawn area using assets. This consisted of adding the walls and supporting props. I added 2 side buildings that will act as passageways that can be unlocked later in the game which will lead to the underground tomb area.

The spawn area leads to a small temple-type building that the player can enter. This area acts as a junction for the 3 main sectors of the map. This allows the player to decide on where they wish to go first. I haven't finished the entire building as of right now and the interior layout needs updating to fit the gameplay.

(I've blown the lighting up for the interior for visual demonstration)

Updated gameplay of the spawn area with assets:

This covers the main highlights of my work for week 4. For next week I plan to start working on the progress review ready for the week 6 deadline. I am also going to get my application for ExpoTees ready and submitted. For the project, I will continue to flesh out the level and also start working on refining my current mechanics and then begin with new mechanics to fit my design specifications. I find it easier to develop mechanics further once I have at least some level structure set up instead of a blank test level because I can start to visualize how things will play in that area. Hopefully, this will help the development of the mechanics moving forward.