Level Design
White Boxed Level
Technical Summary:
The first element I developed for the project was outlining the layout of the level and putting everything in the places we wanted them to go so we could gauge a scale as to how big the level was and how much space we would be taking up. For this White Box, I used several basic cubes and scaled them into different shapes to help differentiate everything from each other. One of the other factors I took into account when developing this was the levels scale in comparison to the player, to ensure I had the scale done correctly, I included a default Mannequin helping me see the scale of the world. I also used a cylinder to create the circular base for the town centre, which we weren't totally sure about what we were putting here, but outlining where it could go definitely helped us remember the location was something we needed to develop in the future. The hardest shape to create for the level was the ring shaped spaceport, since we aren't provided with one as a default in Unreal Engine. So to help with this, I utilised the Brush Tools to allow for me to start with a basic cylinder, then create a duplicate that would subtract the interior section, and finally use both brushes to create a single static mesh to allow for us to drag and drop the complete model.
Reflection:
I think for a very basic level layout, this works well, it is very flat and linear which makes the development of the alpha production easier in making all the moving parts stand out individually rather than being hidden behind the environment. However, the very bland and flat layout of the level makes it difficult to prompt the player to move around and explore, and makes it difficult for the player to remember the location they started from. When we eventually turn from mechanics and features to focusing heavily on the design and flare to make the project stand out, leaning further into the futuristic style we want to go for, we will keep the layout in mind, pushing the player to be interested in specific locations and drawing them in.
Item Spawners
Technical Summary:
For the item spawners, I divided them up into two separate arrays, one for crafting items and the other for the consumables, which allows for us to swap around the different spawners so that the player never knows if they will come across a consumable or item. These item spawners use arrays that have a specific amount of an item in the list to effect the chance that they will be spawned, we made sure that the more useful item would be more likely to be picked by the random array block rather than the Metal Gauntlet since it can only be used by one Key Item. They are both in with a chance of spawning nothing, which will hopefully makes continued play a little more fresh and allows for the game to be less predictable, even forcing the player to risk being captured in order to find the specific item they need. As the levels become more populated, we will look for areas the player would commonly visit and place some spawners around, but other in less usual places so that the player doesn't waste time exploring empty locations. With the Redcoats also having several locations filled with items, we will place a significant amount around the area to aid the player, but add the risk of more enemies.
Reflection:
I believe the spawners will work well with the random aspect of the player not always finding the item they want, but at this stage, including more items to help alter the chances that the spawner has the item the player needs would improve the game more. One feature missing from these is the ability for them to respawn a different item a couple of minutes after an item is taken, this should be something we test, because having the spawner a one off doesn't allow for a player to find a secluded spawner and wait for items they want to spawn in front of them and cut out the need for them to explore the level.
Updated Level
Technical Summary:
As we continued through Alpha, I used one of the materials from Substance Painter to act as a temporary floor material for the surface of Mars. I added the material to a flat plane to see what the texture looked like before exporting it. For this material, I had to modify the colours to fit the colour of Mars. After importing the Material and assigning it to the ground, I noticed that the material was heavily tiled, so I looked into how I could mask the repeating tiles instead of leaving it as it was. My first thought was to use the LandscapeCoords Block to scale up the materials, but this looked wrong and made the dirt look less detailed. So instead, I found a way to use a black and white noise map that I could overlay on top of this material to cover the tiling. Alongside these additions, I began adding some 3D models to help develop the level and build the feeling that this is a real lived in place, as well as humanising the aliens by giving them similar real world assets that brings us closer to the message of our game, which the inclusion of Fences and Gardens help to achieve.
Reflection:
The temporary landscape material that I created worked really well with breaking the basic design of the level, although the material was ultimately replaced by a much better one, I don't think it worked well with the style, being too realistic. The inclusion of some very simple models to help humanise the Martians is also a great improvement over the empty level with simple mechanics. We should continue to look into different ways we can provide a similar feeling about the alien civilisation to enhance the level even more.
Coin Boxes
Technical Summary:
The Coin Boxes were the result of a what if between the three of us which we wanted to create to add some more collectibles to the level. The Coin Boxes are intended to allow the player to find extra credits as a reward for exploration, rather than forcing them to go all in on one specific element of the game. The coin boxes use another array to pick between nothing and a coin box at the different locations they are being spawned at, with the option for them to spawn nothing, it allows for the player to not repeatedly abuse this mechanic and go to the same places every time to buy everything in the day phase. The Coin Boxes have a collision box around them which once the player collides with, runs a loop to determine how many coins the player will receive. These are broken down into a small, medium, and large bundle of coins which could be chosen a random amount of times. Having this specific element be such a random mechanic allows for it to not be totally overpowered for the player.
Reflection:
This was a great way to add some more playability to the game, prompting players to look in all sorts of different locations to find the extra bundles of coins, which can not only familiarise them with the whole level, but also open up more options to play throughout the game. However, the design of the coin box doesn't look the best, I based it off of a Camtono which doesn't really shine through with this design, I created this in my learning period of Blender as well as not following the flat colour process that we started around this time as well, so when you compare this to other elements around the level it is significantly lacking in design.