Dev Log 02: Game Design Update

Hello, I'm Tyler and I am in charge of level design alongside Raymond. I am here to go over the new changes since last week on my part and the other aspects of the level design. My portion was blocking out Floor 4, creating an emergency light and some signs to fill the walls, some basic lighting on floor 3 and 4, and placing enemies around floor 1 and 4.

Level Design Update

The first floor is fully modeled on it's structure and has placeholder blockouts for where some of the objects or obstacles will be. It has enemies placed in the correct locations. At the end of floor 1 there is a staircase that will lead the player to the next playable area. This is not a guaranteed way of getting to floor 3 for one of the paths and may change as we progress. Floor 3 and 4 are fully blocked out and are ready to be modeled. The enemies are placed into the floors too and the ending of of the game is reachable. 

Some lighting has been placed on the first floor, but will be updated at a later date when the textures for the models get implemented. There is a global light placed to help create the mood we are looking for as the player goes through the story. Lighting on floors 3 and 4 are still a work in progress and have minimal lighting in them.

Reasoning Behind Design   

The story behind the game is the player caught wind of a software device that can prolong the life of robots with the main character having a friend that is slowly dying. Having this idea, we chose to put the setting in a government hospital building where there would be security and a reason to be stealthy. With the mechanics/abilities in mind, it was both my job (Tyler) and Raymonds to create the look and paths of the levels that can utilize these features. Since this is a time period where there are no more humans, the building has fallen apart quite a bit so there is debris that we utilize to create paths or block off areas. We created holes in the ceilings, some in the floors so that the player can use the jetpack mechanic and maneuver around enemies at the risk of alerting the guards via sound. The placement of enemies is also important especially if the player wants to use the stealth mechanic more so we created spots where the player can hide and spots where they can use debris/rocks to throw and distract the robot guards. 

What's to Come

• Finishing up the lighting around the map to get the look of the game finished
• Texturing the rest of the floors and objects
• Some particle effects around the map and visual effects to the player's screen
• A more polished version of the UI