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THE PURSUIT
SUMMARY
After the events of The Escape, a security guard within the facility is compelled to hunt down the service robot that has just stolen a reactor core. But not before encountering the very people who contacted the robot in the first place.
With this piece, I wanted to focus on both level design and combat design to deliver an action-filled chase through varied spaces.
BREAKDOWN
Time
4 Weeks Half-Time
Team Size
Focus Areas
Solo
Level Design
Combat Design
Software
Unreal Engine
Miro
Assets Used
Audio sourced from Soundsnap
LEVEL DESIGN
Overview
Level Flowchart
1. Intruder alert.
4. Suspicious communication.
7. The shortcut.
2. Chase through the cave.
5. The ambush.
8. Behind the waterfall.
3. The outdoors.
6. Bot spotted.
9. The last stand.
10. Left behind.
Tension Graph
Level Design Techniques
Bait and switch is used twice in the level; the first one is after seeing the robot escape through a hole in the cave, and then the player turns left to see the path towards the exit. The reveal after exiting the cave has a bait and switch that shows the player the way towards the tent. I also used funnel before reveal twice over the course of the level. The first was in the caves after moving out of the facility. The second one is near the end, where the player navigates through a narrow cave that leads out of a waterfall.
A landmark in the form of a fire lookout tower that is brightly colored red. This was to provide better guidance for the player as to where exactly the robot might be headed. When the player goes inside the tent, there is some environmental storytelling in the form of radio equipment on a table. This is a reference to The Escape, where one of these mercenaries was in contact with the robot while it was inside the facility. I wanted to create a sense that they have been there for a while.
Showcase of the level design techniques.
COMBAT DESIGN
Metrics and Enemy Placement
Using the First Person Shooter Kit, I started out by first testing out the pack's various test levels that came with it. This was a good way of familiarizing myself with pre-existing metrics and allowed me to experiment with designing the combat area even further. It was also challenging to adjust the smaller openings that required either a prone or a crouch, since I had planned to use those a few times during the experience.
In terms of the enemy placement, I designed it so that they would be static. This static placement of the enemies did not change the overall goal I had, which was that the combat sections were supposed to be ambushes and that the player would have to navigate through the areas to reach the next points where the robot is headed towards.
Covers and Sightlines
I designed the covers to encourage the player to move forward and to limit the view. The first combat area saw the most refinement, as I could tweak the placement of covers or simply block the player's view of enemies that are farther away after feedback from other players. My goal was to make sure that the player could have a maximum of two enemies in the sightline, and could quickly switch to the other side of a cover and continue to engage the next enemy. The reason for this is that I wanted the experience to be balanced for the player and maintain a fast pacing throughout.
Showcase of the combat design.
DESIGN PROCESS
Pre-Production
The process started with pre-production, in which I wrote down a brief story synopsis as well as some game and visual references in Miro. I wanted the experience to complement my first piece in terms of having a continuation of the story where the perspective is changed, similar to that of Half-Life: Blue Shift. Another goal was to first start out inside the very same facility that took place in The Escape, but then open up to an outdoor environment where the combat will take place.
I initially sketched a top-down that had a rather open area at the end where multiple enemies are placed at different elevations. It didn't take very long for me to change this since it would have a significant impact on the scope to design such a large and wide open area.
Blockout
I opted to block out the remainder of the level's design to get a better sense of the space and flow, and to keep roughly half of what was accomplished in the top-down sketch, where the outdoor environment would be revealed to the player. I then focused on the combat design of the level.
Playtesting
The first combat area was playtested extensively by my colleagues, who gave me valuable feedback, such as the start of the combat section up in the tent. I initially didn't have the tent elevated, which caused playtesters to just stand inside the tent instead of moving towards the enemies and taking the nearby cover, which is, of course, the door problem. After placing the tent higher up, I also added a hole in the tent that the player would discover through bait and switch, also to mitigate the door problem, and would force the player to jump down from a ledge outside the tent.
Scripting
I needed scripted events for when the robot appears throughout the level. The easiest way for me to do this was to first migrate the assets from the previous piece, such as the robot's meshes, the robot's Blueprint, and the accompanying audio files. Then I created a script to only move the robot on a spline and play the audio cues when the player triggers them through an overlap. The script did its job, but I think I could have tweaked the timeline in the script since the robot accelerates quite rapidly when it reaches the end of the spline.
DEVELOPMENT SCREENSHOTS
These images showcase my production pipeline that covers pre-production and iterations of the blockout.
REFLECTIONS
This project was very fun to work on at first, especially when it came to playtesting the combat design and adjusting certain design choices for the combat after getting feedback from players. I am also satisfied with how the experience is connected to my previous personal project, where you are now chasing after the player character that you have played previously.
One of the biggest challenges I had during the project was the AI. Whilst the asset pack was very good in terms of allowing me to focus on the level and combat designs respectively, it ultimately led to some frustrating periods where I had a poor framerate while playtesting. It turns out that the AI had a Groom plugin that significantly slowed down performance. This had an effect on the last section, where I wanted to end the game with a more elaborate combat design due to the hourglass design of the level. It also impacted the visual fidelity, since I wanted cohesion between both The Escape and this one, due to them being set in the same universe.
In conclusion, this was truly a learning experience in designing a first-person shooter game, and despite the setbacks during the project, I am eager to make another one and use what I have learned from working on this piece.
FULL PLAYTHROUGH
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