Second Landscape

For my second landscape I thought it would be a good thing to be able to see an environment when you exit. This could add to the narrative, depending on the environment I finally add.

At this point I decided to add a desert range which you can see from the outside of the exit door.

To create this I tried two programs.

First I tried World Machine, This automatically generates the world, but I found the heightmaps in the demo version were too low resolution at only 512X512.

The next program I tried was Scape, a relatively obscure program, but extremely powerful. Although it doesn't produce it's own landscapes, it allows direct sculpting using various brushes and produces 4k Heightmaps. The procedural noise is particularly realistic especially compared to Unreal's equivalent.

I originally wanted the user to be able to walk into the landscape, but I found I couldn't get the right effect, as I wanted the player to be intimidated by large vistas of sand dunes, which didn't work out from the characters point of view when on the same level as the Landscape.

To solve this I have temporarily stopped the player at the exit and used the Landscape at a tilted angle to get the effect I want.

Here's how it looks in game

From the top of the amphitheater

And fully zoomed out

It's kind of a shame how little you can see from the exit area, but I think I will fix that at a later time.

In the end I think I created a pretty high quality heightmap for this landscape. I think for further development I will work on getting the player closer to it while also keeping the desired dune effect.

Modpack creation

For this level, I concluded that I would need at least the following modpack parts to create a viable product for feedback:

Wall Section
Floor Section
Roof Section
Colosseum Section

These parts were created and UV mapped in Maya, then a material applied in Unreal Engine.

And here's how they look in game:

These objects are relatively low poly, with most of the detail coming from the textures. This is due to my focus on game performance over object detail, as I want gameplay to be forefront without being bogged down with high poly meshes, though there is a possibility they could be a little higher detail later down the line.

There's more scenery objects I could add to this basic set, which I will work on as part of future development.

Foliage

As the arena area is sand, there isn't going to be much Foliage.

As seen here, there is just a small amount of grass in loose sand of this type.

Which I have tried to emulate on the level by placing grass foliage in certain areas.

The foliage is part of the Infinity Blade Grasslands pack, and is being used currently as we have not created our own.

To add some extra embellishments, I have also began adding in some vines around the arena walls to show age, though not too many, as the environment is quite desert like, meaning not as many would grow in the hot climate.

Maybe this could suggest that it was at some point a more green place which became desert-like from some kind of disaster or natural phenomena.

First Landscape

The first landscape I am creating is the one for the central arena.

The arena is sand, so will be kind-of uneven, meaning I can use the unreal sculpting tools to create the desired effect.

I created a small terrain in the centre and applied a Sand material to it.

I used the noise brush to add a subtle unevenness to the whole area.

Then, to make it look like the sand had collected at the edges, I used the standard round brush at varying sizes to create piles at the corners and raise it slightly along the edges.

I think this technique was good enough for this effect, it would have been excessive to use a professional terrain generator for this small area of sand.

Technical/Ludic/Narrative/Aesthetic

Understanding Technical, Ludic, Narrative and Aesthetic considerations when creating a 3D environment is very important to the game as a whole.

Aesthetically, my environment consists of a dungeon-like internal environment consisting of stone walls and floors which is dimly lit by fire torches. This is to convey the fact the player has been captured against their will and compel them that the aim is to escape the environment. The final boss battle takes place in a dusty amphitheater, which is meant to be kind of intimidating to the player and convey that this is an important battle.

Wall mounted fire torch

To help with the aesthetics, I am using mainly the following textures: Stone paving slabs for the area outside the arena, large stone chunks for the wall sections, cobbles for the walls and ceiling as well as the arena, and Sand and rock for the arena floor and the external area.

Main aesthetic materials

In a Ludic sense, by definition, the word Ludic is meant to encourage play. My environment is purposefully maze-like to encourage the player to explore and contains many challenges, such as small enemies to attack and, in future developments will contain puzzle elements and world-based hazards. All of these features are present specifically to add to the play experience of the player.

The map for my level is a maze, with branching routes, as you can see below.

Level map maze

The players are invited to explore, but they are also guided. Each floor section will subtly glow green once they have visited an area, allowing the player to find areas they haven't been.

Green guide light

The minion enemies placed throughout the game compel the player to continue exploring.

Spawned minions in the level

The Narrative of the level is the player being trapped against their will in the environment and the experience of reaching the goal, which is to escape the maze-like hallways of the dungeon to reach the final showdown with the boss and escape. While this isn't much of a narrative, it is enough to allow the player to have a goal in mind. The style of the game is kind of like an action RPG dungeon crawl where the main narrative is to reach the end of the dungeon.

The closing doors of the encounter rooms, which only open when the challenge is defeated helps with the Narrative of the level.

Door seen to the right

In a technical sense, and how it relates to level design, I have considered that performance of the game is most important so as not to get in the way of the gameplay. In this sense, most of the environment objects are relatively low poly with most of the detail coming from the textures used. The small minion enemies have very simple AI so as to not burden the CPU.

Low poly floor piece with detail texture

Blockout navigation improvement

In response to some feedback I recieved during the creation process, I have decided to improve the navigation of the level.

The main concern is that players are getting lost because they don't know where they have been.

This probably wont be as much of a problem later down the line when I add set dressing and clutter, but I have created a solution to allow players to see where they have been.

I created a blueprint actor with a trigger box, a light and some code to turn the light on when the player has been in the area.

This shows a subtle green spot on the ground in grid refs the player has already visited.

I populated the map with these objects as shown below:

In the next screenshot you can see how a player has taken an alternative path and exits a corridor not knowing which way to go, but as you can see, the path they have already taken is highlighted, so they know to go the other way!

Refining blockout and materials

Up to now the walls have been large BSP brushes with a texture applied.

To aid editing down the line, I am going to replace these with mesh wall sections of a standardised size created in Maya so that I can convert them to modpack pieces at a later point.

The other advantage is that I can use one texture one these parts and it won't stretch once I've set the UV tiling correctly. This is not possible on the BSP brush parts as I have used different sized parts for each wall.

First test fit, needs more width.

After adjusting the model, I edited an existing material by making a new copy, then changing the UV parameters with a TexCoord node.

I then went ahead and converted the entire level over to the new wall system.

In the following two shots you can see a before and after of the textures using the BSP and the new mesh walls.

You can see I have also added a cobblestone floor texture to the ground to add to the effect.

This was also edited using the UV TexCoords node in the material editor.

Lighting feedback

I asked some peers for feedback on the level lighting

Original Questions

The lighting for this level is to depict a dungeon lit by mostly torches and a bit of outside light. Although not depicted in the blockout, in the final model there will be some cieling grilles to let in outside light.

I wanted it to be dingy, but not too dark as to not be able to see as that is annoying.

1. How well do you think I have depicted this lighting?

2. The number of torches. How do you feel about the spread? Should there be more/less?

3. How do you think I can improve the lighting in general?

Peer reply 1

1.A. It is hard to tell at this point, but what you have gotten so far is ok. The idea of what you have got for it is a perfect setting for a dungeon.

2.A. The torches you have put in the map are at a god distance between each other. Their lighting might effect the overall light in the level, so you may want to adjust them to the right setting.

3.A. One thing you could do to make the lighting a bit better is to add in some light rays for the grills. These can be made via the use of a spotlight and adding in some adjustments to its intensity etc.

Peer reply 2

I also answered this when discussing your mood board for task 3 but basically.

1 - Pretty decent.

2 - Spread feels fine, if you adjust the lighting as suggested below you may need more to keep it appropriately lit.

3 - Slightly darken the corridors and adjust the affect the torches have, little more vibrant and alive - may add to the atmosphere of your dungeon (appreciate this is just a block out so really it's spot on, but those are easy tweaks even for block out).

My response

I'm glad the right feel came through in my lighting blockout.

I agree with the feedback that it should be darker and have a bit more contrast. I have already added this to the list of improvements.

Mood Board Peer Feedback

I asked some peers how my mood board visual style translated to the level blockout.

Original question

Although there weren't any specific images to directly copy, I would like some feedback on how I have replicated the look and feel of the mood images vs the screenshots.

Peer reply 1

From what I can see from your images, you have done a good job getting the theme of your game into your level. The images that you have collected are suitable for you map and can even give you further idea of how to make it look better.

Peer reply 2

Yeah, there are obvious improvements to the shapes but this is a block out and as such absolutely spot on really. I mean to nit pick perhaps you could have 'slightly' darkened the corridors and made the torches a little more vibrant (might add to contrast).

My Response

I'm glad I did a good job of replicating the feel according to my peers.

I do agree it could do with being a little darker and contrasty. I'll put that on the list of improvements.

Gameplay Peer Feedback

I asked some peers for feedback on the gameplay aspects of my level blockout.

Original Questions

The narrative for the level is a dungeon crawl, defeating weaker enemies with a goal of reaching the boss

1. Using the placeholder floaty text and your imagination, how well do you think the enemy waves, encounter rooms, and bosses are spaced out?

2. The encounter, boss, puzzle and trap rooms lock the player in until a specific task is completed. What do you think of the room 'lock-in' game mechanic?

3. For the explaration aspect of the dungeon crawl, do you think the dead end/alternate paths help? Do you think this aspect should be expanded on? (more paths/extra rooms)

Peer 1 reply

1.A. You have got a good amount of enemies and encounters in the map, but it feels like you have got too many in your game. The encounters you a have got are nicely spaced out, but you have added too many wave between them. I think one or two should be enough.

2.A. The lock-in game mechanic is a great idea to have in the game. It will force the player to complete this task, so they can move to the next part of the game.

3.A. From an exploration point of view there are a lot of paths the player can take and explore. Considering that is is based in a dungeon, there is not much to actually look at, but one thing you could do is to maybe add a sewage system. Like for example adding in some water at places. This will help with the visual appearance of the map.

Peer 2 reply

1 - Corridors are reasonably spaced out and sized especially based on the current speed of the character (no need for toggle etc, specially when you combine this with AI to fight)

2 - Good idea, how do you intend to use these properly? Quick idea is that some tiles on the floor are loose and / or slightly raised. Stepping on these traps you in. Perhaps you start the dungeon with so many throwing daggers (bow/arrow etc) and if you get trapped you throw them at a lever on the wall which frees you? Failure to have any daggers is part of the challenge and renders you aging very quickly (kinda like our character blueprints!)

3 - Seems absolutely fine, as mentioned in other areas though lots of potential in a dungeon crawler!

Good luck!

My Response

I think personally that the number of minion waves is quite balanced, as I intend these to be relatively weak enemies that the player just cuts through to reach the next major encounter.

I'm glad the lock-ins have been well received, and I like the ideas generated in the second set of replies. These can go on the potential additions list.

For this blockout I haven't added in the set dressing or clutter, as I am just getting the main flow of the map down. This is going on the list though to add at a later point.

Blockout Peer Feedback

Here I asked for some peer feedback on my blockout.

Original Questions

My map is a dungeon crawl style map with set piece rooms where encounters or other things like puzzles can occur. I know it's quite difficult to imagine without any enemies or things actually occurring, but please try to answer the following questions!

1. Map size - How do you feel about the general size of the map after running through it? Use the floating text to help imagine!

2. Separate to the general map size, what do you feel about the scale with regards to the envinronment itself, i.e. corridors, ceiling height, encounter room sizes, main boss arena, etc?

3. What do you think of the flow of the map? I have a couple of dead ends and alternative paths which have the player taking different routes, what should I do with these areas? additional rewards? secrets?

Peer reply 1

1.A. For your dungeon crawl game you have done a great job making use of the whole map. There are a lot of enemy waves in the map meaning you will always have something to do.

2.A. The overall scale of the map is ok, but it may need a slight adjustment. The corridor walls need to be a bit smaller in the height axis and the corridor floor needs its width adjusted. It is not too much of a big problem however.

3.A. First impressions of the flow of the map is that you can get easily lost. I could not even find the centre of the map on my first run. If you are intending on making the player go to dead ends then what you can do is add in some helpful pointers on the navigation of the map. If possible you could create a map of the dungeon and set it as a HUD. When a player hits a dead end a section of the map will be reveled.

Peer reply 2

1 - The map size seems relatively good. This might need tweaking but that would be dependent on how long the dungeon takes to go through once you actually can test with AI. But at a glance it's good.

2 - Environment:

Ceiling height is pretty much spot on. If you wanted to drop in some ceiling spike traps in it feels like the roof height wouldn't need much altering either.
Corridors are reasonably spaced out and sized especially based on the current speed of the character (no need for toggle etc, specially when you combine this with AI to fight)
Room sizes seem - same as the above basically for now.
Didn't find the main boss room.

3 - Some of your offset rooms could contain small treasure chests, this would very much suit a dungeon crawler that's paced well. In order to suggest these areas rather than having everything looking the same this might come through later via some sort of treasure cove / aladdins cave vibe i.e. gold / silver sparkling through the wall textures to suggest if the user pays attention that this route may be more rewarding (it can also of course be a false positive and kill the player).

My response

In general it seems that people are happy with the size and scale of the map, but it appears that there needs to be some work done on guiding the player as both appeared to get lost while playing.

I'll add this issue to the list of improvements to do.

Adding Lighting/Map 4

I updated the map with a lighting guide to show where I plan on putting the torches in the level for lighting.

I feel these are well spaced and will provide enough light for the player to enjoy the level.

I made a square version of the map to place in the engine to help with my level design.

I created a simple placeholder torch object to place into the map using a small cylinder and a fire particle effect.

Then I placed them around the map.