Containment Escape Level Design

Taking part in the into games level design course with the amazingly talanted Peter Field, this blockout was a result of my experiances learned during the course.

Some of the final shots from the end of the project.

Throughout the course, I learnt a great deal of new skills and improved my exisiting ones. looking through the project from start to finish and seeing how my perception of level design has changed and how my future projects will be influenced by the lessons learnt from a range of talented industry profesionals

Planning the level design by getting ideas from similar enviroments using pinterest.

Creating the metrics i would use to help set the style of the level deisgn. Going for a horror theme meant keeping the celing low to help create tenison for the player.

Some of the early walkthough of the blockout, this design was changed to provide a more linear approach to the level rather than going for an open world style design with players being able to go in any direction they choose. Keeping players on a linear path while giving them the occasional optional route proved to be a better approch to the games setting. Taking inspiration from other games such as Alien Isolation and Outlast.

A grid based material was used to keep the levels scale in check while using the Blockout Tools plugin to get some quick prototypes down. With the short timeframe for the project it was important to ensure consistancy with all aspects of the levels deisgn. This meant that although the level is a short one, the thought process behind each step the player takes has been planned for, from providing cover from AI enemies to secret passages for those players wanting to take a stealth approach.

The use of the level design theory elements in this blockout are used to ensure the player can be guided along their path without the need to step in and tell them exactly where to go. From broken pipes pointing in direcitons to vista view points from windows showing the next location at different points means the player always has a clear sense of direciton. This is important in an interior space due to the fact that landmarks are hard to implement with such small indoor spaces. You don't have the option to place that Lighthouse off in the distance as you would with a traditional open world game or similar.

Once the design was final for the areas created, the grid material was removed to provide a better visual feel for the blockout, the flat colours allow for the blockout to be read alot easier than with the grid lines on the screen.

Overall I have a lot to take away from this course. Looking back at things I would change would deffinetly be adding more elevation options for the player. Having them move between floors more often would provide a better gameplay experiance and this is something I will be looking to work on as I continue work on the blockout.