Level Design
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Starting a new Adventure in a familiar environment
Crafting environments for a third game in a trilogy provided me with immediate challenges. The story would be taking the player to locations originally introduced in the first game while opening new areas to explore. The gameplay was much different than the first two games because of the added shooter element. This time I would be focusing on less vertical platforming and more vistas separating action sequences from stretches with puzzles.
My primary objective was to answer questions left by the first two games and introduce a new overarching conspiracy that I knew the players would find shocking. As there are no scripted sequences driven by code, I had to rely entirely on building the story visually with the environment and reinforce contextual plots with prerecorded audio logs (similar to Bioshock). Since the levels were my storytellers, I had to carefully craft where the player was guided to and what they would learn as they traversed from one location to another. And of course to players familiar with the series, the main antagonist in this story is the dam itself. I had to find a way to make the dam motivate the player even though it is not a sentient being.
Since the levels were being constructed in a newer game engine with different assets, I had to recreate all of the locations that would return. This included various miniatures such as the Riverdam-Dam model (TOP LEFT) constructed from pallets in the first game as it was a very iconic structure.
My primary objective was to answer questions left by the first two games and introduce a new overarching conspiracy that I knew the players would find shocking. As there are no scripted sequences driven by code, I had to rely entirely on building the story visually with the environment and reinforce contextual plots with prerecorded audio logs (similar to Bioshock). Since the levels were my storytellers, I had to carefully craft where the player was guided to and what they would learn as they traversed from one location to another. And of course to players familiar with the series, the main antagonist in this story is the dam itself. I had to find a way to make the dam motivate the player even though it is not a sentient being.
Since the levels were being constructed in a newer game engine with different assets, I had to recreate all of the locations that would return. This included various miniatures such as the Riverdam-Dam model (TOP LEFT) constructed from pallets in the first game as it was a very iconic structure.
Additionally, Farcry 3 Editor does not support exporting groups of assets, so any created structures using the limited assets in the editor could not be copied from one map to another. This meant that I had to carefully plan the order I built the levels as structures appearing in multiple maps needed to be built first so that the file could be duplicated for each map it was present in.
A perfect example is the player's home which is in the first level following the introduction. The map is called 02_Inspiration. The player's home is visited much later in the game where it is being raided by enemies in 11_Infestation. The player's home is seen once more near the end of the game after being transported to a science lab via mysterious means in 17_Inconnection which also features a crashed version of the iconic blimp, Damnation, which was boarded in the previous level, 16_Inconvincible. All four of these maps were originally created from one map as they shared complicated constructions. This was a massive obstacle I was able to overcome with careful planning and organization of the twenty-one levels in the game. (The maps share a similar name starting with 'in'. The names directly correlate to the level.) |
Capturing the Familiar Vertigo Thrills that made Riverdam-Dam fun
Riverdam-Dam III is story driven and the environments are built to support it. The game area is constrained to a layout similar to the previous titles, but the player lineally progresses through them in a way that makes the experience entirely original. There were several elements that were expected to reappear, but the timing and situation were a complete mystery, giving the player plenty of motivation to see what was around the next corner. I used this as a way to feed the plot and character development via audio logs left on unavoidable laptop computers.
Balancing shooting, platforming, and Inspiring Scenery
Riverdam-Dam III is jam packed with exciting action, hilarious character development, and stunning visuals. I found it important to build a pacing throughout the entire game to keep the player engaged without being tired out. My game cycles through an inconsistent formula of environmental puzzles, platforming, vehicle commuting, conflict zones, and an occasional observation point to catch up on the player's role as a dam inspector. My greatest inspirations for this were games like Portal 2, Bioshock Infinite, and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.
Creating a Sense of Progression
"My most memorable moment while playing through Riverdam-Dam III has to be when the Dam Inspector's grandson discovers just how literal President Perkins' words were in his recording where he declares the fishing boat production must never stop. Within the fishing boat storage bay my mind was blown as I looked out into a sea of fishing boat containers piled high within the giant room. To make things even more ridiculous, this storage bay was designated a number so you just knew there must be even more fishing boats out there and stored away!"
-Anthony Birge, play-tester
-Anthony Birge, play-tester