LEVEL DESIGN
This section covers the entire level design process for End of the Line, from initial design intention to the full process of creating the game's world, from start to finish
INITIAL IDEA AND REFINING
The initial level design of the game was intended to have the player be able to get on and off the train, and contained multiple different subway-like stations, with a cyberpunk-like aesthetic. Upon initial review with our supervisor, this was determined to be too large of a scope for us to be able to do, and so we downsized to having the player limited to only playing on a train, being able to move between the different train cars.
We decided on having two different tiers for the train, with the upper level containing fancier, rich cars, filled with extravagant decoration and items, and with the lower level being grittier, dirtier and poorer. We chose this to highlight the extreme class disparity and social commentary often used in cyberpunk media.
Once again however, the scope was deemed too large, and we ended up with a single train level, using the bottom level as our final overall game world. We then decided what train carts we would want to include, refining down the ones we felt were not necessary to overall gameplay.
STAGE 1: MOCKUPS
Once we made a list of all of the rooms we needed (Garbage Room, where the player would start, Bar, Seating Area, Reactor Room and Driver's Area), we designers began making 2D layouts of each room. The layout would showcase the overall layout of the props in the room, both for decoration and items the player would interact with to progress a questline.
We'd then bring the layout to the team for review, to see if things were too cramped, spaced out correctly, or if the flow of the room did/didn't make sense in regards to gameplay. Once we had made any necessary changes, I would then move on to make the 3D layouts of the rooms.
STAGE 2: 3D LAYOUTS/WHITEBOXING
With the 2D layouts done, I initially started making the 3D layouts using Minecraft, following the mockup as closely as I could, trying to build things as accurately as possible, and then sent them to the team, to check if we now needed to change the layout further based on how it looked in 3D. Once things were okayed, I handed them to the programmers to build in Unity using the Probuilder tool, for final assessment and make sure everything roughly fit, which then allowed our 3D artists to start building the background props and decorate the scene.
The issue with this method was that it felt somewhat redundant and took up a lot of time, as the programmers still needed to import the layout into Unity, which had to be eyeballed and presented some inaccuracies and adjustments as a result.
I followed this method for the first two rooms, before our lead programmer set aside some time for me to learn how to use Probuilder, and for the subsequent rooms I made the 3D layouts from the mockups directly into Unity, which streamlined the process, allowing us to immediately put the level in the build, and make direct adjustments from there, removing the need for an extra step.
STAGE 3: REFINEMENT AND DECORATION
Once the layouts were done, we tested them in builds, to gather feedback from the team and use in gameplay and testing, to ensure that the sizing was accurate, and the flow of gameplay worked as intended, and wasn't a hindrance to players. As we had numerous testing sessions throughout development, the decoration of the level only began after we were very sure that the level wasn't going to be changed.
The main reason we had to be very sure on the level layout before decoration was due to the time loop. Since players had a very limited time to complete objectives, we wanted to ensure that the size of the level and the distance between objectives and items was enough to be able to obtain/complete them, but not too much to the point where they could complete too much within a single loop. It was one of the factors we used to adjust the loop length and total gameplay experience as a result, going through multiple minor iterations before it was finalised.
GALLERY
Pictures of the documents from the level design process, including 2D mockups and 3D layouts, as well as some early iterations of the rooms
