Level Dev Blog #17

 This past week, the biggest thing I worked on aside from finishing my level was reworking my portfolio and creating a web page for my level.

Before that, I made a final push to complete the horde encounter that serves as the climax of my level. Getting the enemy AI to behave the way I wanted was a challenge. It was mostly about staging the encounter to work visually rather than having fully functional AI. Since the enemies were aggressive and difficult to fight, and I didn’t have a proper checkpoint system in place, I ended up setting their damage to 0. This way, playtesters could get through the level with the right amount of friction without constantly dying.

For the portfolio, I focused on production value while keeping the styling consistent with both TLOU2 and my own portfolio’s style guide. I took inspiration from TLOU2's Seattle map and designed my level’s top-down map to resemble a physical tourist map of San Francisco, then placed it on a mock-up of a creased piece of paper. I also included a gallery showing different stages of the blockout and added an interactive before-and-after slider to highlight the blockout’s progression.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Level Dev Blog #20

Image
 This week, I’ve mainly been reworking the interior of the foyer area in the cathedral for Crimson Knight . Originally, we were using an asset pack based on St. Paul’s Cathedral in the UK, but now our environment artist has been cranking out more pieces for the custom modular kit we’re using. I’ve been reconstructing my blockouts using his updated kit. For anything we don’t have yet, we get it approved for the asset list and create a proxy in the level to serve as a reference for the artists. Even though this modular workflow was introduced to us pretty late in production, it’s been a game changer. Blocking out with a properly scaled, consistent kit makes a huge difference in how everything fits together and communicates across the team.
Read more

Level Dev Blog #10

Image
This week, I’ve been continuing to block out more of my Far Cry 5 level. I’ve made adjustments to the scale and layout to improve the overall flow. I also added a climbable tower at the starting point, serving as a vantage point for the player. In Far Cry 5, bird's nests or towers near strongholds are often used to scope out the area and plan your approach, so I incorporated that mechanic into my level. The way the level is designed, players can even choose to complete it in reverse. One thing I’ve noticed while building this level is that the golden path isn’t always the path of least resistance, in this instance it’s just the most straightforward route through the level. In fact, it might even lead to the most direct and head on encounters. This adds another layer of choice for the player, depending on their playstyle.
Read more