The mirage
Introduction
This level is built around level and combat design, where the player needs to handle intense gunfight while having limited view from the sandstorm
The goal was to create a striking contrast in game flow. Ranging from low intensity to high.
To achieve this, I have collaborated with a technical artist, to create a sandstorm, giving more suprise attacks and forcing quicker choices.
Specification
-
Developed in 3 weeks half time
-
Software used: Unreal Engine 5
-
Made using Jacubs template by...
-
Assets modelling made by me
-
Sandstorm and Post Process effect by Liam Lindell
-
Inspired by Uncharted and Mad Max
Overview
Start
End
stone
Wall
Cover
Sand
ground
Main
path
(Floor 2)
Stone
Ground
Change
floor
Main path
(Floor 1)
Zipline
Act 1
Initial reveal
The player starts at a low intensity, entering the base. learning the enemies behavior in a safe environment. They also get introduced to the main objective from a vantage point, where there is high prospect but low refuge.
Since the player is unarmed, they can not act, this space purpose is simply for the player to locate their objective and map out the space to remember.
Act 2
fear factor
When the player gets outside they have a wide view of a large open space, where there are a large number of patrolling enemies, the distance between covers creates a big no mans land, which leaves a high risk of running over to reach the treasure hall. This forces the player to look for another path.
The purpose here is to introduce the main combat area to the player and reinforce the feeling of inferiority, being unarmed.
Act 3
lookout point
The player is guided up to an elevated vantage point where they get a clear overview of the main combat zone.
At this scene the sandstorm blows over the environment in, raising sand dunes form the ground, turning the no mans land into a cover dense combat space. Shifting to a very reduced vision and a new game flow.
Combat transition
Right more the descent into the combat zone, the player aquires a firearm. With the new reduced vision and covers it suddenly gives the player an even ground to fight off enemies.
The enemies have changed positions, giving the player suprising moments. Encouraging strategic movement through the newly formed covers.
Act 4
Summary
This style of progression really ensures that the player has a clear view of their main objectives which get reinforced through the experience. Aswell as getting an evolving game flow with gradual increasing tension, that balances discovery and action.
Player guidance
One of my main goals was to find a natural way to lead the player through stealth, exploration and combat while reinforcing their main objective (the treasure). I have done this in a 4 act structure.
Combat space breakdown
Combat
Prospect VS Refuge
The key principles to consider when designing a combat space is the players prospect and refuge. Meaning how much protection/cover the player has at a certain position (refuge), but also how much information/vision they can gather from said position (prospect). There are many ways to maintain a good balance between these two. Making the player never being able to stay safe at a certain cover for too long, nor being able to have the same advantage for too long. So instead we force the player to reposition every now and then to obtain a new advantage and regain their lost prospect or refuge.
The main goal with my combat spaces was to use the sandstorm as a tool to encourage strategic positioning for the player.
In this space, the player encounters 4 enemies and needs to use the closest cover in order to gain the required refuge to stay safe from bullet fire. Initially this spot also offers great prospect, as they get clear vision of the targets and can easily map out their positions.
After the first few enemies, they start appearing further away into the sandstorm, which shifts the incomming bullets to be fired from unknown targets that are out of sight. This means that the player has lost their prospect, which encourages them to stay mobile and not rely on a single cover.
Sandstorm
The main system that I received from my partner in this project, namely the sandstorm niagara system, has been a very effective tool to make the world seem dynamic and lively. Which has a large impact, not only on the visual environment, but also on the the gameplay in its whole. I wanted the shifting in gameplay and enviornment to function together seemlesly.
Controlled
Atmosphere
Hostile
At the start of the experience I bring out the feeling of the player facing a large scale open environment, being both unarmed and outnumbered, the goal was to bring out an underdog spirit, emphasizing their vulnerability, giving the feeling of needing to stay out of sight in a structured and controlled manner.
After the sandstorm blows in, the player is now armed, the view is reduced and the information about positioning is uncertain, not knowing when they will encounter enemies. Now the player needs to shift and adapt their playstyle from slow paced and proactive to fast paced and reactive. This sudden shift creates high tension and a dynamic gameplay flow just like the environment.
Environment
Key features
A big part of this project has been my collaboration with the technical artist Liam Lindell. It has been my first 2 person collaboration game project, which tought me alot and introduced several challenges but mostly great opportunities. The goal was to create a sandstorm niagara effect that would have a fine balance between fitting aesthetics for the environment and functionality for the player.
When working with thick fog, the main problem is that it sacrifices alot of clear visibility to map out the environment and potential threats. Which is why we both sat down at an early stage and wrote down key features that should be modular and easy for me to edit and iterate upon. This mainly being: opacity, color and distance
Problem
In the main combat zone we initially had the problem of the sandstorm being too thick and reducing too much view, to the point were I could not place the enemies at my desired positions. It creates a large hurdle for the balancing of enemies as the player needs to walk up to very close range in order to see them, which proves to be a far bigger risk than the potential reward, as they can easily get overwhelmed.
Solution
In order to fix this issue, our parameter values for the niagara storm was the perfect tool. Now we could change the color and opacity to something lighter, as well as increase the start distance, which made the clear vision area around the player larger and pushed back the most dense part further away.
This opens up the vision and makes it far more manageable for me to map out enemy positions and for the player to be able to use covers effectively.
Collaboration
process
Pre-prod
Structures
Since I chose to use a previous project to use as a base for the current one, this gave me a pre existing blockout to iterate upon. This was a new challenge for me, as my goal was not to build something from scratch, but rather to pinpoint key important features and look to improve them.
I thought about how I could improve the dessert theme, give it more identity, a feeling that would feel more engaging for the player. Instead of only ruins, I wanted the player to picture an old civilization. I achieved this through a clear style within the architecture. Depicting buildings rather than stone.
Gameplay
Originally this experience was a pure stealth experience. But in order raise the game tempo, my goal was to design a main area that would function as a stealth zone, which later transformed into a combat zone. This alligned perfectly with the dynamic and chaotic feel of the sandstorm.
Before
After
Having a main player path from the start made it quite straight forward to lay out iterations on covers and whitebox the environment based on playtesting and getting external feedback.
Closing thoughts
This project has been tought me alot. The process of working together with a technical artist and designing my environment with the sandstorm in mind has been a new kind of challenge. Learning the fine line between aestetics and functionality, aswell as finding a clear way to communicate this to my colleague to have a well structured project. To take an old project and redesign it in order to find a new playstyle made me need to think in several different ways, "what keeps a high tension?" "what makes a combat space engaging?" and "how do I reinforce player objectives?" are questions Ive been made to ask myself, which ended up with crcuial for the final product.
OBS: I am part of The Game Assembly’s internship program. As per the agreement between the Games Industry and The Game Assembly, neither student nor company may be in contact with one another regarding internships before April 23rd. Any internship offers can be made on May 5th, at the earliest