LEVEL DESIGNER
SICARIA
3RD PERSON STEALTH | 2024
In this stealth game I was responsible for the onboarding level that was focused on linearity with narrative exposition.
Collaboration was mostly focused with environment artists, other level designers, and scripted events team.​
32
WEEKS
38
PERSONS
UNREAL
5
STEAM
RELEASE
MY RESPONSIBILTIES
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As a lead, I helped the team diverge and converge in concepting phase to get to a cohesive idea
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As a level designer, I concepted, prototyped and implemented the onboarding experience and focused on a linear experience with focus on UX design
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As a level designer, I collaborated with other level designers to plan out the level beats for the whole game
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As a level designer, I collaborated with environment artists to define the space and create emphasis on the player paths as well as communicate guidance for the player
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As a level designer, I collaborated with the scripted events team to establish gameplay moments that were narrative driven.
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As a designer, I playtested the onboarding level as well as the whole game to get accurate feedback to improve the product
PRE-PRODUCTION PLANNING
ONE-PAGER
As the narrative is explicit and the onboarding needs to be linear, I focused on symmetry in the interior space where the player starts so that navigation between floors would be easier for the player and they'd solely focus on learning the mechanics.
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For the exterior, the map was focused on inner courtyards resembling those from Antwerp in the 16th century. But to make the world less linear, traversel would be also done indoors to give the illusion of a bigger world.
Click on the image to enlarge
MISSION STRUCTURE
Based on research to other stealth games, I build up a structure of which mechanics need to be onboarded and how that would tie in the missions. The structure for the onboarding would first be focused on navigational onboarding, core loop onboarding and then develop it with an introduction to easy gadgets. From there I made a proposal for the mission that would fit within the narrative and collaborate further with the narrative team to make a cohesive experience.
NODE-MAP
To communicate my ideas to the other level designers, scripted events team, narrative team and AI team, I made a nodemap. The nodemap would discuss the rooms that would be needed, what gets onboarded in each room, what the scripted events need to be able to do and what AI should be able to do as well as extra information such as the location of the beat and the estimated time. From this nodemap, I also discussed the rooms with environment artists but as they were still creating assets, the room type did not matter much as it would be very modular.
BLOCKOUT
First blockout
My focus for this level was the geometry, the timing of the scripted event moments, the guidance as well as the setup for the UX design of the onboarding.
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I had back and forth communication with the scripted event team and environment team. For scripted events team I communicated what the moments need to be able to do as well in the process what could still be added.
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For environment collaboration, I went over the metrics for the interior and tested the pieces through each iteration and focused on making sure that the custom pieces would be communicated so it could be added to the modular kit.
BLOCKOUT ITERATIONS
VERSION BLOCKOUT 1
The first version was used to get the feeling of the interior spaces right, as this was not investigated yet.
The main action point was to make the spaces smaller/cut off for making set dressing easier.
VERSION BLOCKOUT 3
The second version of the iteration was focused on finding the right timing for the scripted events. Most iterations within this version were constant tweaks through playtesting because of this.
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The main action point was to put more emphasis on player guidance as well as player UX for the mechanics onboarding
VERSION BLOCKOUT 5
The last current version was where I gotten more resources such as a programmer to help me with setting up button prompts for onboarding mechanics as well as feedback from other level designers and environment artists to get lighting/spaces right.
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From here on, playtests are being done and one of the biggest upcoming chance is to create a secondary path and give the player more freedom in a tense situation.
BLOCKOUT COLLABORATION
INTERIOR - LIVING SPACE
As this space was one of the larger areas that would also later need to be destructed once the building is on fire. I needed to make sure that collaboration between environment and level went smoothly.
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For this we did multiple handovers between room intent, collisions, cleanup and overall look.
INTERIOR - WORKSPACE
This area's collaboration was focused on affordances. Making sure the tables looked too big to vault/jump over with iterations done with adding more candles and miscelanneous accesoires.
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It also had a lot of collaboration with the scripted events team as three scripted events happened in this room. Two for AI and one for foreshadowing the house burning up.
EXTERIOR HAND OVER
As we had more level design resources to spent but not environment resources. A teammate of mine took over the exterior parts of the onboarding. I handed over the pre-production planning and the blockout. This way she would be able to implement the encounters and iterate based on playtests. The images above are my initial blockout and the final product.
DESIGN TECHNIQUES
GUIDANCE - AI
As the interior part of the level is linear, the level wouldn't require as much guidance. However due to the mental space the player would create of a house they would think to immediately escape through the front door as you would normally do.
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By pushing the AI in with more dominance the player gets more cautious and gets guided to the right path of the design intent.
GUIDANCE - NOPE ZONES
To change the level design intent to surprise as well as create tension that would fit in the narrative, I focused on creating 'nope-zones'.
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These 'nope-zones' would look visually dangerous and organically push the player away from these zones. This way I would be able to easily guide the player unto paths.
GUIDANCE - AFFORDANCES
For the affordances, I collaborated with the environment artists to put some extra emphasis on the paths that I would like the player to pick.
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Doors: for the doors we decided to make the direct paths always open frames and not putting an open door frame in it as it would be too distracting for the player. The closed paths would then have door frames with closed doors.
Climbing: for the climbing there would be some dirt under the ledges that needed to be followed in order to communicate 'climbable' and 'not climable' ledges.
Fire: in the second part of the interior level section, fire and rubble would communicate to the player about dangerous paths and pushing them away from those areas.
ONBOARDING FIRST PHASE - FIRST FLOOR
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There are two paths in this area. One that is the main path and one that is used as a speedrun strat for players who would like to skip the onboarding section. This is done by delaying the AIs when they go up so the player could make a run for it if they are familiar with the mechanics. For new players, they would be slower and AI would push them back on the main path.
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One of the AI stays behind and while the player walks behind them they see them walk towards a door. This is to make the door more familiar as the player will need to escape through it later in the level.
ONBOARDING FIRST PHASE - SECOND FLOOR
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To add some more tension to a linear level, I would give the player a choice that would test their skills in the meanwhile.
The player from the start can see the initial route and knows the way they would need to go. But they get challenged when the AI comes towards the player, blocking the initial path. This would push them into the secondary path where there would be a surprise AI. The player would need to quickly react and choose a way to either go around the initial AI or the secondary AI.
ONBOARDING EXTERIOR - ENTRANCE
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To add areas that could be used for secrets, I guide the player with flow around the corner so they first go off the main path. Once they find the secret they can then go back to the main route.
But because it is still an onboarding level, I make the player see the secret once they go over the bridge between the windows so they can still backtrack their way to the secret.
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It both gives the more experienced players to find secrets but also give newbies opportunities to understand where secrets can be hidden.
ONBOARDING EXTERIOR - SQUARE
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From the inside of the house (picture on the left) it is foreshadowing the location you will visit later. This way you can already see the amount of enemies in the square as well as receiving some narrative exposition.
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Once you reach the place, you will also start from a vantage point to make it easier for the player. They have two windows to drop from in order to give them more choices and pratice their strategies.
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From the ground the player can then choose to get to a riskier route and train the mechanics more with pickups as rewards or jump over the fence to the direct main path. This way it is skill friendly for experienced players and newbies.
FULL VIDEO OF LEVEL
Video only showcases the interior parts of the onboarding level as I was responsible for that from start to finish while for the exterior part it was handed over in production.