Week 4 Journeyman Blog

During week 4 of Journeyman I started to plan on paper and block out my area of the Lab level. I started by thinking about how the design of my boss could interact with the level as a whole and how I could base and build my level around the boss. Early on into my development I decided that I would create my level to be heavily linear, so that it would be feasible to include the player choice that I want to make in my level.

However before I made this choice I created one full paper design and one half way which I chose to scrap after due to the fact that I did not like how it flowed.

The first drawing shown is just too small there is not enough going on here and the gameplay would be very basic.

On the second drawing, looking back I do like the design, it incorporates areas where the player would be able to choose where to go and would be easy to design events for, however it also could have been cut down due to its size as the current level I am working on has been.

Me deciding to scrap this idea however let me create a more scripted and easier to design and event script level which I believe will work a lot better in the long run. This level will allow me to show off and learn some more event scripting and will overall make me a better Level Designer.

The event scripted Level Design let me make the full use of the planned mechanics of the boss and so this week I created this...

The numbers that you can see are events that will occur in the level. however these are too messy and aren't understandable enough for other people and so I created this.

This details Path 'A' of the level and is much more understandable than the last image shown.

Events:

Event 1: The Player will get out of the lift and will look in-front of you where there will be two windows full of zombies trying to get at the player. There will be a huge bang come from the players left and one of the windows that the player is looking at will shatter and the player will be forced back into the lift to fight off the enemies.

Event 2: The player will hear noises from behind, the wall will erupt and a disgusting creature will appear and the player will get chased. The creature will not be killable at this moment in time and so the player MUST run.

Event 3: Once the player reaches event 3 they much choose to either carry on straight or turn left towards 'Path A' which is what we will be covering this week. However which ever way that the player chooses to go behind them will be blocked by zombies breaking the ceiling and falling down therefore rubble will fall behind the player prohibiting them of returning the way that they came.

Event 4: Once event 4 is reached Zombies will burst out of the small closet and attack the player once these have been killed by the player they will be able to move from this area until event 5 where...

Event 5: A disgusting creature will fall from a hole in the ceiling and chase the player, behind the creature will be a stun ability that will come into use later.

Event 6: The zombies from the other window at the start of this area will break out from the door and the player will have to finish them fast before the creature gets to them.

Event 7: But before the player can kill the zombies the creature will lunge through the walls and land at 'event 7' where he will block the player and begin to chase them.

Event 8: The creature will begin to chase the player until event 8 where the player will be able to see the flashing ability in front of them, they will run to the ability and be able to stun the creature and make their way past it.

Event 9: The creature will fall from the roof stopping the player from going forward and force them to event 10.

Event 10: There will be zombies in the room in front of the player and they will first run to the window and then burst out of the door and attack the player.

Event 11: Once the player has defeated these enemies the creature will chase the player and force them into entering the data centre.

From here I also needed to begin the production of my level and so I started to I needed to start blocking out and so I did using the 'Blocking Starter Pack'. Here is what I have so far.

Outside of this event planning I have also got ideas for more areas where zombies will spawn to really fulfil the madness of an arcade shooter.

By next week I will want to have finished all of my event plans for both paths and also finish the blocking out of my whole level.