THE FACILITY

INTRODUCTION

SUMMARY

In this project you venture inside a paranormal containment facility, exploring, fighting, and discovering entities out of this world. 

  • Third person shooter

  • Telekinesis 

  • Puzzles

  • Narrative driven

LEVEL OVERVIEW

PREPRODUCTION

PRODUCTION

  • The base for this project was made with Game Dev Pantry Control – Telekinesis tutorial video. Where they set up the Launch mechanic from control.

    -With this project set up as a base I modified blueprints and elements to suit my gameplay needs.-

    I added a “power core” system to the project, then I created an interaction system with interfaces and meshed them together to have a “power” connected door.

  • I made the enemy’s AI using Unreal’s Query system.

    This was a fun experience that took many hours and double the line traces.

    It casts a ray to the player’s position from one of 9 points around the enemy and sends it to the closest position, triggering a black bord event to change the behavior on it.

    And as I said it was really fun, but it took a long time to set up and I ended up losing level design progress that would have been a lot more relevant for this project.

BLOCKOUT

I had great consideration about symmetry and repetition, setting up establishing shots and places that would force the players to position themselves in these shots to frame the area as I intended.

I iterated a lot on this process, and if something is not feeling quite right, I tend to look for feedback and show the level to other designers to get some ideas.

Even though this is a solo project I tend to show and have people playtest it when I can.  

ACT 1: INTRODUCTION

THE GAS STATION

I wanted to let the player explore and get used to the mechanics, have them find some objects to interact and spark curiosity to find collectibles, ultimately funneling them into the start of the main level.

I tend to not add many environment or specific props to facilitate changes but when I am set on the metrics and area, I do add some simple elements to sell the idea and communicate easier the purpose of the area.  

Here I presented the puzzle and let the player connect the dots between the power core and the receiver. Presenting first the keyhole and then the key.

AWE EXPOSITION AREA

Aside from presenting the main goal of the level I wanted this area to reflect the narrative, thinking that this was a successful branch of the bureau. So, I made this an exposition area inspired by museums presenting some long lost artifact, plus adding a little of self-flattery from the branch director with pictures and elements that would sustain that idea.

The last elements in this area are a couple of toilets and a safe area/Control point for the player to save. Since the next area contains a combat encounter: also serves as a buffer for the player not to get frustrated in case, they need to repeat the next encounter.

Here was a great opportunity for placing a control point/safe area, the player can take a break from the previous encounter or save progress, they could also re-visit this area of the game in case they wanted to resume exploration after the main story.

When the player approaches the fish it will ask the player to find a tv and place it near him since no foundation personnel has given him his daily tv time.

For the TV I just placed it for the player to see when they turn around, so they don’t see the solution before the challenge is presented.

CONTRIBUTION

This project was part of Future Games' Unreal C++ course. It was a technical project where I added some level design elements and I wanted to recreate Control's telekinesis and environmental features.

Key points.

  • Having working systems and gameplay.

  • Learn more about a game engine and play with its elements.

  • Layout a level in a quick way and short period

  • Familiarize the player with controls, mechanics, and introduce the narrative.

  • Grow on what the player already knows, presenting more complex challenges and a new twist on mechanics. Expand on the narrative and conclude at a high-intensity point.

  • The highest-intensity combat and narrative-wise. The player reaches the main goal but is presented with a new challenge.

  • A post climax that progressively lower the intensity and drives the pace to a conclusion narrative conclusive point.

  • Even though enemy Ai is a bit rough, I hope it helps communicate what I did when thinking about combat.

    I wanted to keep the player moving by either pinching them with enemies or presenting them with better "action" points, with a clear view or more cover.

    In the case of flying enemies, the area has a double height where players can get to their level and deal with them more efficiently. And with ground enemies presenting a constant flow was important to prevent the player from "camping" a specific location.

ACT 2: DEVELOPMENT

CONTAINMENT HUB

While I had a bigger idea for this area when I started to work on it, I realized something was not fitting quite right. I ended up going with my gut and remade the area from scratch, changing a couple of ideas at the end and adapting it to the project's needs, even though I really liked my previous idea.

  • I went back to the narrative and underlined some elements. If the AWE can generate almost anything on command, how would the Bureau exploit this for its own advantage? I listed elements they would need like a creative sector, archives, and a containment facility. And just like that I started selecting things that would suit the level better.

    Once I had an idea of what this elements were, I jumped back to references and decided how the blockout would work. I was heavily inspired by the Archive sector in Control, because of elements it contains and by how condensed the offices are and the way the space is presented.

[REDACTED] CONTAINMENT

I decided to have some fun on this part and came up with an element (A singing Bass) that this area would be built around.

ACT 3: TWIST

AWE CONTAINMENT FACILITY

The last part of the level was actually done quite early because it’s positioning on the level . I left some buffer space for iterations but since I wanted the player to see it early I had to set the location quite soon in the blockout process.

The astral plane connection was done by loading and unloading the levels I restrained myself from adding a lot of content in these areas since I did not want the level to be too long and felt like keeping them on the shorter side would add a feeling of mystery.

THE COLLECTIBLES

I scattered them on key locations of the map to give the player some extra information on what the environment is and a bit of background on the elements of the narrative.

ACT 4: ENDING

Closing thoughts and Post mortem

This ended up being quite a dense level, with a lot of smaller interconnected rooms, and I really like that that comes from looking for the functionality of the spaces. 

I am proud of the compositions I created and the overall feelings I transmit through the principal areas and the impact some of these elements can have on the player.

There are still some points I have to work on, so:

WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY TODAY,

Starting by polishing combat design and focusing a lot more on that aspect, from presenting enemies to creating better spaces for combat. 

Some smaller areas are missing a sense of identity and definition, so I would definitely rework them. 

And finally the end and resolution to the level, there are technical aspects that I would change like the shift between planes, but I would ramp up the pacing a bit more since even though I wanted it to go down a bit it falls a lot more than what I would expect. 

Control has always been a huge influence on my work as a level designer and finally exploring a level directly tied to that world has been an incredible experience.

Thank you for reading!