Generic Level Design Based On Checklist and Clichés

The way this game will be created will be similar to a batman/metal gear sort of game play with a lot more futuristic twist in it. It will have Neo Japan type of art work that will be similar the animation Ghost in a Shell. The way the team will correspond will be work that will be shown in the bullet points and will be done according to that order in the requirements section. It will only take 6 weeks for the team of 12 to finish the game, so there will be a lot of times where we would have to push work through in order to meet our deadline.

1.      Time: The design team would have about 6 weeks to work on this assignment since it is one level. The level will have clichés in order to convey ideas more clearly to the gamers with a positive feed back.

2.      Tech: The game engine will most likely be used. MAYA and PHOTOSHOP will be used in order to create the models for the game. The Unreal engine will be one of the fundamental tools used for the game production as well. Logic will be used for the audio of the game as well as many other programs including Midi files.

3.      Limitations: We would have to contribute 12 new assets for the level in order to make the work flow much better and less confusion on the art style and how it is going to be launched. There would have to be crunch time for those assets, which will be held 2 days to complete 3 different ones. The main character and environment layout will have to be completed first in order to get a good visual on the level. Then the enemy models will have to be finished in the end as well. Audio will have to be made as well during the programming of the game in the last week. There will be 12 people working on this project.

4.      Requirements: The main character is an important asset to the game so that is always a must have. There also need to be a good environmental layout in order to get all of the assets placed well (shouldn’t take that long to make).  There has to be props and buildings for this environment, including 5 different enemies for the player to counteract with. The game has to be programed in the Unreal Engine and the game play has to be spot on with the description as well.

5.      Purpose: The level will be a single player story mode level that will be consisting of a retired vet (35 yr old) trying to rescue a hostage that can lead her to a Mob Boss from the city who seems to be connected with a weird drug that can let a person experience time in a slower pace.  It will be placed in a suburban city slum with a rainy type of weather. The main character will have tights on with spy gear and assassination gear as well. The level will be about half way in game time so it will be a challenging level to play through and the main character will need to find an enemy to get info from the level (hints).

6.      GamePlay: The game play will have to start with the character on a rooftop of a cheesecake factory patrolling the area. She will glance at the other factory that seems closed down and she will find guards taking the hostage inside (scene will have a lot of lights flashing with circular spots). The main character is able to change weaponry with the directional buttons and move with an analog (including moving the camera with another analog). She will be able to sneak attack with a range of different weapons. Hand to hand combat will be one of her specialty and will be used a lot during gameplay, as well as shooting fights. The game will have a lot of secret passageways for the character to infiltrate the place in different places (making gameplay unique once in a while) and will be able to do certain take downs with different styles in undetected. Once inside the building, she will head towards a door that is electronically locked and with a key as well. The electronic lock is located to the left of the building in the basement, guarded by one guard. As soon as the guard is killed or knocked out, a guard 3 times the size will start fighting the main character. The key will be located in the opposite of the building in the cellar. It will be booby-trapped and will have alarm triggers that will end the level in failure. If 3 guards sound a call in a wooky takie it will end the level in failure as well. As soon as the main character opens the main door, she will be encountered with the hostage and a Mob Leader she’s been tracking down as well. You will be placed in a situation that will have to base your instincts to the test. The player will have 2 different choices, either shoots the leader including the hostage, or scare off the leader with an electric current destroying the lights in the building created by you right hand’s glove. If the player chooses the first one, he/she will find it more lengthy and difficult to find the Mob Boss. The second choice will let you find more detail from the hostage from their central point of operations and an idea for their plan for the city, but the Mob Leader you let escape will confront you again, with more tricks up in his sleeve that the player will find more challenging than the last confrontation.

7.      Theme: It will be a cheesecake factory located in Neo Tokyo Japan. It will be futuristic, but it will still have that lingering past in the slums since people are still poor and can’t really afford the luxury of modern technology. There will be many different tall buildings in the back ground with a lot of color lights coloring the main ground the player will be located in.

 

I strongly believe that the design team will be able to finish the project in time. It will be a simple task to get it all done in 6 weeks since we will have about 12 people working on the project and they will be evenly distributed when it comes to skill in what they can and should do. The only issue I came across is the tech that they are going to use and if they are able to make it in time. There seems to be a lot of crunch time when it comes to assets and how they will make them will be a concern. The only thing that I believe will be fine is the quality of the work. Since it doesn’t have to be modern type of work (high definition work form modern counsels), the art shouldn’t be that much of a hassle.

Level Creation Based on Check List + Floor Plan

Joseph Garabaldi

6/20/13

Level Design

HW

Generic Level Design Based On Checklist

1.      Time: The design team would have about 2 weeks to work on this assignment since it is one level that does have a lot to do but one main goal, and it contributes to the overall idea of the storyline.

2.      Tech: The game engine will most likely be used in UDK and of course MAYA and PHOTOSHOP will be used in order to create the models for the game.

3.      Limitations: Everything can be made in order to make the level flow out as it was written accordingly since we would have the people with the necessary skills to accomplish it. We would separate modelers with texture designers and lighting. Sound and software writers would be important for the game level as well.

4.      Requirements: There would need to be visual styles that go back to being relevant were queens are in time (like the medieval ages). Buildings will all have a gothic type of look to them and they all have a unified gothic choice to them as well, but it will be a modern type of setting so everything looks modern on the inside of the castle. Horse wagons would be used for a chase as well and they will be used in order to carry the player out of the castle in order to escape from guards with the queens jewels (the end of the level).

5.      Purpose: The level will be a single player story mode level that will be consisting of a theft from the queens jewels (player will have to do sneaking around the guards) only for the queen to find out they are missing later on (regardless).

6.      GamePlay: The gameplay will be relaxed at first with certain elements complementing that feeling when the character is sneaking around, but then it will become intense with the horse cart/wagon chase that will follow (enemies will use cars). During the level you will be able to steal more treasures from the castle in order for you to get more credits that earn you experience, weapons, armor, and tools for mission use. The level will be a 3^rd person movement level for the sneaking part of the level and then the car chase will be a shooting type of game play. There will not be enough room in order to create a boss level in this one. It wont have that many enemies in the beginning of the level but later on there will be since you are getting chased by the majority of the castle guards on foot then horse wagon.

7.      Theme: The castle will be located on a big hill that will be surrounded by a city during the modern age with a medieval sort of gothic style. The story will have to do with a lot of poverty in the city and the queen is taking all of the country side riches for herself.

The floor plan was made successfully but it was sort of difficult to figure out where the character will start up in the level first. Since the player will be shown the character climbing the castle from an edge then go to a courtyard that allows him to infiltrate the castle close to the queen from the dining room will be key to give out a message to the player which is the fact that the game is a sneaky mission type of game.

            It was a little hard creating the floor plan since the location isn’t really similar to all of us. All I was talking about during the whole process is that I am creating a castle interior.

Finalized Levels

           The first level design I was going to explain has to do with the main character, a skilled hacker of the galaxy, that has to become the best in order to save his family from starvation and later become a member of “The Champions,” which happen to be an elite force of soldiers under galactic law. You can also choose to side up with the enemy as well and make a lot of different story lines, which ultimately leads you to your goal to control the whole galaxy. The fact that he is a hacker is also a very important feature to the game play since the main character defends and attacks using different tactics with technology.

            He can be able to shot electric magnetic pulses from his fists in order to scramble technology and fry it, leaving it trashed and can hurt other organic foes that are using weapons. It is also possible to make cybernetic bi-pads or qua-pads into your allies since they are machinery. You can make other machinery go overload so they wont work functionally until a certain amount of time has passed, so it will have to take a while for a gun, vehicle, or bi-pad shield to work. The main character can collect minerals, gases, and soil samples to get credits (money) and unlock gallery options for the game.

            The level will be located in a volcanic planet that happens to be a big mining facility. The main character lands on a platform at the end of the mining facility. The main mission the main character has to achieve will be making sure he/she gets the data from the computers main frame in order to frame a guy and earn his stolen profits, then you have to destroy the core of the mining facility to make it hard for them to recover the station and force them to abandon it. There will be a lot of enemies that have synthetic parts to them or are completely biotic beings.

            The next game has to do with a world that is literally engulfed in water, and the human race was all forced to go gills and webbing feet/hands during millenniums in order to accommodate to the rapid sudden change in the ecosystem. The main character who happens to be an important scientist finds out that it was not meant for chance that decided our fate, it was a core reaction that was triggered by something or someone. Eventually you find out it was aliens, and you alone have the goal to stop these aliens from taking over the world and change the eco system again.

            The game will be a plat former type of game so it will travel along with the main character from the left of the screen to the right and beyond. The main character will be able to collect certain specimens from the ocean that mutated as well and try to mimic their structure in order to make a weapon out of their organic design. Some enemies can only be hurt with specific weapons that you can obtain during the game. Others can be hurt with all of them but some of them are more effective. You start out with a normal spear launcher. There is also bonus stages when you uncover hidden passages that leads you to old civilization ruins that derived from once used land and not ocean.

            The level will start with the main character in a building that belonged to a group that tried to find out the reason why the world started to be engulfed in the ocean water so many years ago. Not surprising, alien troops show up in the area since they never left to keep it in check and you have to find the source that is caused all of this. The platform level will be a lot like a maze that goes up and down (since the enemies and main character swims, maneuverability wont be a problem). There will be booby traps and the main character will have to avoid or disarm them.

            The last game level will take place in a world with a society that forces everyone to pay tribute for the gods and make everyone take drugs in order to not feel emotion so you wont disobey the law and of the gods. The main character will be an operative from the Special Forces that can make different types of battle techniques to his/her disposal by copying others by just watching them. The game will be both RPG and shooting type of game play. One aspect that will make the game play interesting is the customization of armor and weaponry.

            The main character goes rouge and stops obeying the law as soon as he/she stops taking the drugs, then he goes to find a place to start an underground civilization. After that he/she goes to find people and force them to stop taking the drug in order for them to wake up from their world of deception.

            The level will start with the main character in a government drug factory that was used in order to produce the drugs used to deceit people.  You have to reach the center core of the factory and over heat the main energy source for the machines in order to blow up the whole place.

5 Level ideas Brain Strom

              For my first level design idea I was thinking of mapping out a desert type of environment with many different aspects affecting the main characters footing and pace for walking/running. Some sand will be thicker than the other represented in different colors. It will have ruins in the environment in order to make it more esthetically interesting and fun for the player. The ruins will have a yellow feel color wise since the sun and sand will be intervening between the character and the ruins. Some interior parts of the ruins will have their own color scheme since it is blocked off from the outside. The player will get out from a bigger part of the ruins in order  to hide the dessert half of the level.

            The level will also have insects and animals going around the level, both poisonous and dangerous. Some parts of the ruins will have booby-traps and will kill or stun/hurt the player if they are not found and avoided (some will have obscure indentations in walls or floors and others will have slightly different color differences). The main character in this part is basically finding missing treasure from a capital of thieves before they actually get their hands on it.

            Another level would consist of an environment that looks like a aquatic tank since it is all artificial, but it is actually a real ocean that was altered by a group of evil machines. Collecting new species of fish will get you points and level up your characters knowledge stat. It will have different platforms for the enemy robots in order for them to be able to drive vehicles under water. Your character will enter the level from one of these platforms as he/she is trying to escape.

            Some aquatic plants will be useful in order for your character to hide instead of being chased by the enemy for the duration of the whole level, but only if the player is very far off of the enemies sights. There will be synthetic robot parts for your character to be able to use them and change appearance and stats alike. A mini-game can be triggered if you find the glowing fish and catch it during the level.

            The other level will contain an environment that has a tropical feel to it. It will be in a forest type of setting mixed in with a beach shore. The main character will basically start on the shore of the beach and will have to get through the forest undetected as a stealth mission. There will be many different types of enemies, one being the regular troop inside the forest. Others will be automated turrets, robot bird spies, natural animal threats, and traps. The main character will have a stamina bar and will have to grow it eating food. It will have some rations to begin with, but will run out fairly quickly the longer you will play the level, so he/she will have to eat fruit or kill animals and eat them for the stamina, but they will have to be careful since some can be poisonous to eat or just unhealthy.

            Many different crawl spaces will be in the forest trees and bushes, so it will have a twist in certain places that might get the player lost or the enemy AI confused on the players location if he/she was once spotted already. Throughout levels there will be materials for the player to be able to collect in order to make new items for themselves. The player only starts with a small pistol and silencer, so it is only inevitable to get a new weapon if the player so desires. Creating a bow will be possible in the forest if the player finds the right materials for it (wood, strong elastic string, and metal plating).

            Another level will consist of an environment that will be located in a suburban city landscape. It will mainly consist of huge building or skyscrapers, where the main character will first be located in his/her apartment in the 2^nd or 3^rd floor. The character will have to get his/her superhero outfit and then fly off in order to start the mission and save a building from being boomed from the inside and out. The level will have other different side quest (like returning a cat to an old woman, separate fighting neighbors, or stop someone who was robbing a purse) that will give you experience points aside from the main quest.

            There will be mainly different ways to get into the building in order to defeat the people taking hostages and planting bombs in the building, like using the sewage system or the roof of the building. There will also be different places to get new powers for the main character, like a high voltage line will get the main character a shock ability in order to stun his/her opponents and be able to fry electrical equipment.

            The last level will consist of a harsh volcanic planet environment that will also have a big mining facility for this planet. The main character will start on this mining facility since he/she lands right on it to begin the level. The level will have spewing lava all over the exterior of the facility so the player will have to avoid it if he/she doesn’t want to get the character hurt or killed in the proses. Collecting rare rocks and minerals will get you credits from you galactic command in order to level up your equipment and/or get you new ones. Some turrets will be located in the level and you may be able to use them if the player desires.

            The interior of the level will have some computers for the main character to hack and download certain files that will be part of the mission. Some of them will have to be destroyed after the proses and will have to get the main character running out of the facility since he/she called in an air strike in order to destroy the facility. At that point, the interior of the facility will have lava spewing and destroying it from instability and the player will have to use other methods of escape, like air vents and unauthorized areas.