Project Overview: 

For this major project. I will be designing and creating a level blockout for the FPS game Prodeus and documenting the full process. 

Throughout this blog, I will be showcasing the research and development of my level design project. Starting with my rationale for the approach I will be taking for my artefact. I intend for the finished artefact to be used as a portfolio piece to demonstrate the design process, skills, and principles of FPS level design. I will be following an 8-week development cycle split up into a mixture of 1- and 2-week sprints for certain aspects of the development process. The cycle will be as shown below. 

This development cycle was suggested by industry level designer (Kellman 2024). As an ideal time frame for a level design portfolio piece. Although this time frame is designed for a blockout and not a finished level, I intend to continue working on this project after the module is concluded.

Rationale: 

My rationale will explain the approach I have decided to take for this project and why I chose this. Backed up by research from industry professionals and examples of successful level design portfolio pieces from former students.  

I decided to take the approach of using an already existing FPS game to build my level around as it has the benefit of having readily available mechanics to use. Level design is all about creating spaces that are designed for the specific set of mechanics within a game. By doing this, it will help me to demonstrate that I can take a set of mechanics and create a level for which they can work within, rather than using a game engine to create an empty theoretical level that cannot be play tested to ascertain its functionality. An industry level designer stated that ‘Including some level editor work is great because it shows you focusing solely on the gameplay experience since art and systems are already implemented.’ (Kellman 2024) Another industry level designer Steve Lee has similar views on the best approach for level design portfolio pieces. ‘One of the main things you should aim to do as a level designer is to create fully playable levels. If you can't play your levels, then you have no idea if they are actually good. You are not doing the nitty gritty level design work.’ (Steve Lee 2022) Lee also did an interview with other lead level designers in the industry. He asked them the question, ‘Do you have any advice or preferences regarding which engines or tools people use for level design portfolio pieces?’ To which Jason Mojica responds, ‘if you want to become a level designer then start making levels for existing games.’ (Mojica 2024) However, this does limit you to certain games as not all games have level editors, most editors are within FPS games which is perfect for me as it aligns with my career aspirations.

Week 1 - Learning the toolset:  

During the first week of this project. I set myself the goal of becoming familiar with the level editor within Prodeus. I found the tools fairly simple to use after reading the official documentation and started to practice with them in preparation for the level's development. I did find some cons to the toolset that I will keep in mind for the future. The main issue I found was object snapping. There is no option to turn this off which reduces the freedom of movement and rotation of objects. apart from that it is a very functional and practical toolset with a simplistic and versatile visual scripting system which is going to save me a lot of time.

During this week. I also spent time playing the game to better understand the mechanics and how the levels are designed around them. Some key common occurrences I found were a mix of tight corridors and open spaces, lots of verticality, almost always enemies to fight and lots of opportunity for exploration. After studying multiple levels, I believe that these elements contribute to good pacing and flow throughout the maps. This gave me an idea for how I intend to set the pace for my level. It is important that the player does not get bored so I will have a constant flow of enemies to fight, whilst leaving some gaps in combat to encourage exploration and reward it with more powerful weapons. My theory behind this is that when the player isn't being swarmed by enemies, they are more likely to pay more attention to their surroundings and start to explore different areas of the level.

Week 2 - Pre-production:

This week gave me the opportunity to start planning the theme of my level and how I wanted it to play. My idea for the theme was to have the player attack a base that as been overrun by enemies. I initially took to pencil and paper to sketch out a layout idea and the first area of the map.

Having a week for this phase of development allowed time for me to reflect on my designs. Through experience I have learned that my first design usually isn't my best. Through reflecting on my design, and comparing it to research on FPS level design, started to notice flaws. Through my research, I found some key design principals that were missing from my design. These principals also directly relate as important factors in the game Prodeus. Verticality, elevated spaces used to create variety and cover in combat encounters. 'Circular navigability, This goes back to the "as little like a hallway as possible" point. A good encounter space gives the actors options, and encourages variability each time an encounter plays out there.' (Gaynor 2009) 'Observability, As the player approaches an encounter space, he should be able to observe its major features and devise an initial plan of attack. (Gaynor 2009) I hadn't taken these principals into account when designing my level so I decided to redesign it completely. Although it is difficult to show these elements of design through a 2D layout, I had a more clear vision of how my level should play.

In my new design, the theme of the level had changed. It was now take place in a mining facility set on an asteroid. I believe having a good theme that you can still present through a level blockout makes it more immersive and readable for the player.

With this new layout, I added more ways of playing in vertical positions, more open and looping areas for circular navigability and I deliberately put the player in positions where they devise a plan to traverse a certain area of the level. I also aimed to make the level feel les linear by using the illusion of choice, 'Player choice is an important thing to consider when creating a level even when the destination or objective is predetermined and will always be the same. Even when you have a linear experience or sequence of events it’s still possible to offer players the illusion of choice. This is most commonly achieved by presenting players with multiple ways to accomplish something so the destination may always be the same but the decision is up to them.' (Wilson 2018) This is especially important in boomer shooter games such as Prodeus and Doom for example. Both games reward exploration by allowing the player to choose different paths, finding key cards or weapons to progress to different areas. This is another principal I intended for in my design.

Week 3/4 - First pass level blockout:

This was a very intensive 2 week period. I spent it in engine piecing together my level whilst trying to stick to my plan, and iterating where I saw fit. I started with the first main area of the level.

This image shows the first main area of the level that I have blocked out. I deliberately made the player enter this area at an angle where they are able to observe all key features of the area, using the principal of observability. Doing this allowed me to show the player how this area can be traversed, and the logical path to open the red door on the left (shown by the red line). Experienced players will know that at this current point, their choices are to follow the blue or red line, depending on if they want to explore to unlock the red doors, which I intend to reward them for with a weapon. To help the player better understand this at a first glance, I utilised an affordance for the player by placing windows in the skybridge to confirm to them that it is a playable area. I intend to make this affordance more prominent by using lights when I get to that stage of development.

I blocked out the rest of the level, keeping in mind the principals I planned to stick to making one major iteration at the top of the level.

This is the second area of the level, showing the entrance to the vehicle holding bay. I designed this area to descend in height. I did this throughout the level to show the player that they are progressing, as the lower they go, the harder the level will become. I also ensured enough space for a combat encounter here that will open the gate to the next section, preventing the player from just running straight through the level without fighting.

In the blockout of the vehicle holding bay, I gave the player 3 options to choose from to progress, giving the illusion of choice as they all lead to the same area eventually. However they will have different combat encounters and rewards depending on the route the player takes. The middle blue line shown above will be a secret passage way. Secrets are a mechanic in Prodeus that affect your score when completing a level. I intend to use more of these around the level. The room itself is very open and will act as a large combat space. I designed it this way as I want the player to clear out this room, then a counter attack will happen from the gate they entered through. This is why I placed cover on the elevated level, so that they could defend the attack.

This room was the next stage of the blockout process. This is where the 3 paths from the vehicle bay room lead, just at different points of this room. My intention with the design of this room was to apply circular navigation to make it a maze like area with different doors and ways to explore it whilst fighting enemies. The central section of the room is designed to stand out, this is the elevator that will take the player to the final room. Again, I used windows to show that this is a playable space, having lights in their too will improve this affordance for the player. I also added plenty of vertical play spaces in this area to add variety to the combat encounters here, the player has different choices on how they want to attack this room. Again, I made sure the player has all the necessary information they need when they enter the room.

With the final room layout, I designed it in a way that the player can loop around the edges. I did this because this encounter is going to involve a new enemy type that the player wont of seen yet, that moves very fast and deals a lot of damage. The player will need to use the space and cover to successfully complete this encounter. Completing this will lead the player to the level's exit.

Week 5 - Second pass level blockout:

Week 5 was a week of many iterations and a lot of basic testing. After spending time running through the level, imagining how the combat encounters were going to play out, and reflecting on my designs, I came to the conclusion that areas of my level felt bare and too empty. I decided to iterate on the vehicle holding bay. The current state felt to open and lacked cover. Open rooms tend to be boring to play and don't provide for interest combat. I decided to redesign the room, with a lot more cover as there would be a large amount of enemies in this area. I also decided to create a whole new area that would act as another path to the next room, along with the 3 that already exist. Sticking to the theme of my level, I designed this area as an out door mining zone, with a large drill and trucks that can be used as cover. I designed the drill in a way that the player could use it as a vertical advantage to kill enemies from. This is shown in image 2.

Image 1

Redesign of vehicle holding bay with new mining area through the gate.

Image 2

Mining area with vertical play and alternative route to the next area of the level.

This week so far has been a constant process of iterating and testing. Iterative design is a process used across all areas of design, not just in games. It has been proved to be useful in prototyping phases of development to quickly test and evaluate a design, until one works. 'The design process is just that—a process. It’s rare for an initial product design to work perfectly the very first time you prototype it. Usually, you need to come up with multiple design iterations before you land on the right one. With iterative design and prototyping, you can go through this entire process quickly and smoothly without racking up excessive costs. It’s one of the best ways to finalize your design so you can get your new product into your customers’ hands.' (2020) More iterations are likely to come once enemy scripting is in place, as I have no means to test that yet.

Lighting was the next task of this week. This is important for multiple reasons. One reason being that the level needs to be readable as an environment even though it's a blockout. Every environment has some sort of lighting. Another reason being that employers want to see how potential level design employees using lighting in their designs. 'I wouldn't recommend showing a level without any lighting on your portfolio' (Lee 2024) I wanted my scene to be set at night, with flood lights lighting up the outdoor areas, and normal roof lights for the indoor areas, this will create a nice colour contrast in my level.

Image 1

Image 2

Image 3

Image 4

Image 1 shows a finished lighting pass of how the outdoor areas will look. I placed lights in areas that I want to attract the players attention to, such as the doors and the skybridge. Image 2 shows an indoor areas lighting setup, with a cold white/blue colour that contrasts the warm coloured outdoor areas, signifying the change in environment. It also shows how I used lighting to subtlety attract the player to the secret passageway, without making it too obvious as it is a secret. Image 3 shows another indoor environment, I used the red lights to point out where the player needs to go, and convey that it is a dangerous area. I also used this technique in image 4, where a heavy enemy with a minigun spawns, which is also a dangerous encounter. 'Red is also used to convey danger in a non-literal way. Some examples include using the phrase "in the red" to describe financial loss or "red flag" to indicate when something is wrong with a person or situation. People tend to associate red with negative, danger-bearing emotions. This could be because it is the colour of fire, blood, and sometimes poisonous or dangerous animals.' (Cherry 2023)

Biological, cultural, and personal associations with the colour red all symbolise the relation with blood and danger. Making the red areas of my level easily recognizable as dangerous encounters.

Week 6&7 - Level Scripting

Scripting the enemies the the final major task for this level. For this design process I found that it is vital to understand and apply flow state theory.

The theory of Flow is integral to the study of human cognition while performing tasks. It provides reasoning to the brief states of focus that take over people; colloquially referred to as ‘The Zone’. (Dwivedi 2022) I intend to use this theory when designing my combat encounters, meaning the difficulty should gradually go increase to keep the player in the flow zone whilst taking user capability into account. Dwivedi also states that 'For a player to be optimally engrossed in the game, obstacles are presented at a level similar to or slightly higher than their current skill. If the challenge is too easy, it would cause them to become disinterested, while too hard a challenge might induce negative feelings prompting them to quit. Challenges are therefore, correspondingly increased in relation to player skill. Game designers must also be aware that sudden changes in challenge might cause decline in player engagement.

Reference Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFNqkPfZMCQ&t=38s

After finishing the level scripting, I created this video to show my process in reverse, as it is difficult to show combat in images. at 0:14 in this video, you see the first main encounter. The player has plenty of space to manoeuvre around with health and ammo pickups, making it an easy encounter. I also leave a gap in combat to give the player time to explore without being harassed by enemies. I made sure that the difficulty increase as the player descends through the level. I did this by increasing the amount of enemies, introducing new enemy types and making the player fight and explore at the same time. An example of this would be at 4:48 in the reference video. The player has a lot of route options to choose from so they are forced to explore, with large amounts of enemies attacking them. I ensured that the build up to this area slowly increased in difficulty to prepare the player for it, maintaining a state of flow.

I also spent time placing ammunition and health around the map in areas where the player will need it the most. In some cases, these are rewards for exploration as I could mostly rely on enemies to drop ammunition for the player anyway. It was important that after every encounter, the player has enough resources to carry on and they aren't running around searching for it. This would greatly impact the pace and flow state of the player in a negative way.

Some iterations were also made during the scripting phase. The outdoor mining area saw a new secret introduced, seen at 3:26. This allows the player to unlock a new powerful weapon, along with fighting a secret boss. This allows the player to see the power of their new weapon, whilst fighting in a fun encounter. Another iteration made was to the elevator room. Feedback told me that it should be more loopy and maze like to encourage fast paced gameplay and exploration.

This image shows the updated version of this area. The player is forced to explore it in order to find the yellow key, whilst fighting groups of enemies that can respawn. I allowed them to respawn to keep the player in flow state should they kill all the enemies in the area. Otherwise it would be empty and player engagement might decrease.

Another way I managed difficulty is with the flow of my layout design.

'Flow is about designing movement. A lot of factors affect how movement feels:

• Speed. Does it feel slow or fast to move along a path?

• Direction. Is the path smooth / continuous, or disjointed / abrupt with sharp turns?

• Wayfinding. Is the path obvious? What info helps the player plan a route?

• Metrics. What are the player's movement mechanics? How are distances tuned?

In the starting areas of the level, the speed of movement is quite fast with lots of freedom for movement, the paths to the next area are obvious and mostly smooth. However, when the player gets further through the level, it becomes a lot tighter with sharper corners, more vertical spaces and no clear way to the next objective. This increase difficulty as the play style has changed and the player might feel more anxious, but their capability has been built up through the earlier encounters in the level. I designed it this why to maintain flow state for the player, and ensuring the difficulty was correctly scaled to the players capability.

Week 8 - Polishing and testing

The final week was all about the finishing touches. I made small changes to clean up areas of the level where meshes were poking through walls and enemies were altered or changed. I also used this time to play through the level multiple times to ensure there were no issues. I made some minor changes to the scale of some areas as it looked too large for the player. I also added in various 3D assets to enhance the them of my level and provide cover for the player.

Reflection

Overall, I think this project met my goals. I have successfully created a level design portfolio piece that I am proud of and have had good feedback on. However, looking back, there are things that went wrong. One major thing was a performance issue. Instead of using a tool called flip faces, which transforms a 6 sided cube in to an interior room, I used 6 cubes to make a room, totalling in 36 faces per room. Had my level been any bigger, I would have surpassed the recommended amount faces for an optimized Prodeus level. This has taught me that in future I need to pay attention to the technicality when using in-house editors or engines, and that I should be using the best practices when possible. Throughout this project I also learned how vital time management is. If it wasn't for the 8-week plan that I had in place, I believe I wouldn't have been as successful in this project. The final thing that I learned is that level design is a constant process of iteration and new versions of something usually end up being better than the old version.

Bibliography

Gaynor, S. (2009) Basics of effective FPS encounter design (via F.E.A.R. and F.E.A.R. 2), Fullbright. Available at: http://www.fullbrightdesign.com/2009/02/basics-of-effective-fps-encounter.html (Accessed: 01 September 2024).

Level 2: Game design / iteration and Rapid Prototyping (2009) Game Design Concepts. Available at: https://gamedesignconcepts.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/level-2-game-design-iteration-and-rapid-prototyping/ (Accessed: 19 August 2024).

Cherry, K. (2023) How does the color red impact your mood and behaviour?, Verywell Mind. Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-red-2795821#:~:text=Red%20is%20also%20used%20to,negative%2C%20danger%2Dbearing%20emotions. (Accessed: 28 August 2024).

Engineering Department. (2020) 5 Advantages of Iterative Design and Prototyping. Pacific Research Labs. Available at: https://www.pacific-research.com/5-advantages-of-iterative-design-and-prototyping-prl/ (Accessed 29 August 2024)

What is color symbolism?  (2024) The Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/color-symbolism (Accessed: 01 September 2024).

Dwivedi, A. (2022) The influence of flow state in Game Design, Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@aniketisg/the-influence-of-flow-state-in-game-design-2b26a0408da0 (Accessed: 01 September 2024).

Flow (no date) The Level Design Book. Available at: https://book.leveldesignbook.com/process/layout/flow (Accessed: 01 September 2024).

Kellman, N. (2024) How to make a level design portfolio that will get you hired, Game Design Skills. Available at: https://gamedesignskills.com/game-design/level-design-portfolio/ (Accessed: 01 September 2024).

Steve Lee. (2022) Struggling to practice level design? This is why. 21/07/2022, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-T73pq9YcOE&t=173s (Accessed 04 August 2024)

Steve Lee. (2024) Great portfolio advice from 6 lead level designers. 08/05/2022, Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6BpSNkXFWg&t=575s (Accessed 04 August 2024)