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.

Modpack requirements

For my dungeon map, I will require the following pieces for my modpack, which will be created in the next unit:

Wall

Wall (with grate)

Floor

Floor (with grate)

Doorway

Door

Ceiling Edge

Ceiling Top

Ceiling Top (with grate)

Torch

Arena Gates

Arena Wall

Amphitheater seating

Pillar

Set dressing (various)

The variations 'with grate' are versions of the parts with a grating 'window' in to let light through and allow the player to see through various areas.

The 'Set dressing' will come in the form of smaller objects to fill out the scene such as tables, chairs, shelving, chests, bottles, etc.

Adding gameplay elements

In my level plan, I have various encounters in the level which require the player to be 'locked in' to complete an encounter with enemies or various tasks or challenges before being allowed to continue.

This is a good way to introduce tasks and narrative to a dungeon crawl type game, creating the need for the player to face challenges.

My setup for this is to create doors that trigger and close when the player enters one of these specific rooms, then have a placeholder switch to open them again, in preparation for being triggered by the real event completion when the level is developed further later in the year.

The door consists of a door mesh with a wood texture which animates open and closed, which is the part locking the player in the room.

After some playtesting, it was found that the player could exit the room by jumping over the door while it was raising up to close, causing a bug which stopped game progression.



A blocking volume had to be added to the door to block the player from exiting the room while the door animation is playing. This was a relatively simple fix, but effective in ensuring that the bug does not occur.

Map used to create blockout

After completing the improvements to the map, it's time to actually implement it in the engine.

I created an exactly square version of the map as follows:

I added this to a large square as a material in the engine and used it as a guide to building the map.

As you can see, this will be very helpful when creating the level.

I added a few walls and did a quick playtest to get a feel for the scale.

Feels a little small... The corridors are thinner than I would want.

OK, lets increase the scale to make it a bit larger.

The larger version feels much better and I didn't have to do major level re-building as I tested it out early in the build.

At this point, I'm going to just continue adding the walls as BSP blocks, as they are quick to work with. I will replace them later on.

Level map 3rd refinement

I have refined the map layout more, and placed the map itself into a grid system. This will help down the line with making the level in the engine.

The grid will make it so that I can use a custom modpack with standardised parts to create the level geometry after blockout without much trouble or extra work.

Here is the current iteration of the map:

As you can see I have refined the layout.

The mini boss is now situated about half way through the player's experience. I think this helps the pacing, as having two bosses directly after each-other could have felt exhausting.

As well as the enemy encounter rooms, I have added some gameplay mixup in the form of Puzzle rooms and Trap rooms.

The puzzle rooms will require the player to complete a specific non-combat task before continuing, for example a block puzzle or something to do with manipulating objects in the room. This changed the gameplay by providing a more mental challenge.

The trap rooms are kind of skill and control challenges, where the player must traverse or avoid specific obstacles. These could be thin platforms over a pit, or avoiding objects flying from the sides or cieling. This provides a more skill and dexterity based challenge.

Level Map - 2nd Refinement

For my second map iteration I tightened up the structure and used more defined lines so that I could get more of an idea about what I was doing.

I will use this version of the map to think about how the game will flow and how the encounters will affect the pacing of the level.

Here I will start to think about how the smaller enemies, such as stuff you meet in the corridors will play into the pacing and also maybe mixing up the gameplay with other elements. The game design rules say that something must be happening at least every 5-10 seconds to keep the player engaged.

I think possibly having only battles might get boring, so I'm going to explore what other elements I can add to the level to keep the player interested.

Level Map - 1st draft

The plan for my map was to create a dungeon crawl with a boss encounter at the end in a central large arena area.

While doing research into this, I found a place called Labirinto della Masone, which is a maze surrounding a central building.

Starting with this as a basis, I decided that a maze would be too complicated and intricate for the level we are creating, so I simplified it down into a more appropriate 'dungeon' format, adding in rooms and alternative paths.

This is the first draft of the map. As you can see it is quite roughly drawn with a very rough scale.

I have the player start at the bottom and several encounter rooms along the way, which would be groups or enemies which need to be defeated before continuing.

I have a mini boss room right before the main boss, it could be the bosses bodyguard or a group of more difficult than standard enemies.

The map is designed such that the player has a lot of stuff to do in the limited map size.

To reference design methodology, this map design has most in common with the 'Folded Origami' level design style, as the level path intertwines within a space, with a small amount of alternate path.

Mind Maps and Mood Board

To generate ideas for this unit, I first created a generic Mind Map outlining a selection of possible themes and game types to start the process off.

After this, I settled on a sort of medieval fantasy dungeon crawl type game, with a theme similar to something like Diablo.

I created another mind map to solidify the ideas that could go into this kind of game.

With this, I then collected together a mood board to get more of an idea of the look and feel of the game. This board can be found here: https://uk.pinterest.com/aconlan0468/unit-76-dungeon-mood-board/