Forever Hunted Update
The last couple of weeks I've been working on level design. The main challenge while working on level layouts was: How do you get that feeling of " I know where I'm going" and 2-3 minutes later your like, "trust me I know where I'm going honey". The kind of stuff that happens when your wife tells you to stop and ask for directions.
Top Down View from level 1.
And from my experience, this happens more often when I THINK I know where I am vs. having no clue. So-- in my layout I have the sewer tunnels broken up with large rooms. There are two main areas that are very similar, and 4 side rooms that are also very similar. What this does is give the player some orientation to their whereabouts in relation to these rooms. However, in the tunnels It's very difficult to tell where you are.
Door to Sewers
The premise for the game is-- the thrill of bring chased or hunted. So running better be fun and movement on point. This last week Matt Anderson and I sat down and talk about some features we wanted to start testing in the game. And one cool experience that has stuck with me is from Mirror's Edge-- As your running you bust through doors! Its really cool and satisfying. Busting the door really give you a sense of momentum and weight. I wanted to test this with a little twist. The player can bust through doors and keep running, or turn around and close the door. By shutting the door, the player is able the slow the monster some. When the monster comes to the door, it's delayed by "X" and then the door busts of the frame and becomes nonfunctional. Anyways, this was my real first deep dive into kismet. As before most my kismet stuff was fairly simple.
Door kismet sequence by Ryan Bown and Matt Anderson
At the end of the maze is a unique room that has a hanging cargo crate and sun light beaming down. This give the player a visual reward. They know they must be close to the end. And then comes the crate jump. You found the exit, and don't want to miss it.... because you might not find this room again.
As I'm focusing on learning kismet, I can now implement and test ideas on the fly and get immediate feedback on them. Of course all these things are subject to change, tweaking and or omission from the final product. The cool thing is, the reaction that we have got from people playing and other people watching other people play. I really feel that our team is on something fun and special.
Extra Notes: Other things that the rooms and doors do.
1. They give the player a chance to interact with the environment.
2. Give the player a better sense of scale.
3. Let the player decided how they want to play
4. Let player toy with monster
5. Give player some control of pacing with in the game (besides the safe rooms).
Lastly, during art class we had a guess artist from Disney come and talk to us. We had a great conversation, and as a result of our discussion, I wrote down the following question.
Where is the sewers located?
What's above it?
What time frame was it made in?
What time frame is it now?
What is the story?
How to convey foreshadowing in an unknown place?
My plan for this weekend is to be able to answer these questions, and come up with a modeling and textural style that supports this vision.
