Immersive Sim

Summary

A dishonored inspired level made using self scripted gameplay.

Time spent: 9 weeks half-time, 3 spent on scripting, 6 on level design.

Asset Packs used: FPP Melee Animset - Blockout Tools Plugin

Project Goals

Focus: Technical & Level Design
Prototype gameplay features from Dishonored
To push the stealth assassin powerfantasy
Create an environment that feels engaging to traverse

Level Playthrough

Mechanics

Blink

One of the mechanics that makes dishonored leveldesign so unique.

When playing you're always looking for shapes that stand out and gauging the distance if you can blink.

Animation Blending

I used animation blending to differentiate between the left and right arm, making dual wielding possible.

Combo Attacks

Being able to spam left click and keep swinging uninterupted felt like an important feature to add.

Sounds simple on paper, not so much in reality.

Parry/Execute

When you start blocking, there's a small window to parry the opponent. When parried, you can instantly execute the opponent!

Guard AI

I use a behavior tree for the guards;

If the player is not seen, they walk along the points of a spline.

If the player is seen, they run towards the player and attempt to attack.

There's also a simple report system in place where linked guards tell eachother where the player is when spotted and go investigate.

Top Down

Section Overview

Design Techniques

Presenting the Environment

I wanted to make an environment that feels cool to infiltrate, so I decided to introduce the landmark straight away; setting the tone and inviting the player to explore. I also made sure that the more perceptive player gets a foreshadow of their mid-term goal.

Leading the Player

The main thing the player hides behind, i've made sure to only put boxes in good hiding spots, and areas that are reachable. The boxes are placed in compositions to lead the player; i also found out during playtesting that players plan their routes along the box placements.

Impactful Reveals

Crawling through vents can be a good way to build suspense, and is great to funnel the player before making a dramatic reveal.

This lets area transitions feel a lot more impactful!

Pre-Production

My plan for this piece was to rebuild a former assignment's systems based on Dark Messiah of Might and Magic and transform it into Dishonored, so starting out I already had a lot of things in place:

Guards with behavior trees
Melee combat system with animation blueprints

I started out by playing a lot of dishonored. I chose some level sections that stood out for gameplay references, I also made sure to take a lot of pictures for the moodboard.

Level Design Process

First Iteration

When i'm finished with an iteration of a layout, I take a break and write a list of things i need to figure out.

Notes

The landmark is hidden by a fence, not enough impact on the initial reveal
Too much empty space

Second Iteration

I opened up the area more, and turned the bridge into a dam.

Notes

Better initial impact
The starting section is too linear
There's too many stairs, I need to figure out verticality
The level is too big, I need to rescope

Third Iteration

I removed a big chunk of the level, and moved the dock closer to the dam. I made a warehouse to serve as a connector.

Notes

The lack of elevation between the start and goal lessened the impact
I want to tie everything together thematically

Final Iteration

I visualized the path a box of supplies take from arriving at the docks into the building at the end.

I restructured the level design into three paths:

-The path a guard takes

-The path a box of supplies take

-The path only the player can take

This gave me the idea for a cargo elevator, which solved the elevation problem.

So I incorporated the warehouse into the dam structure, lowered it and added the cargo elevator.

Area Showcase

Reflections

Things that went well:

Having playtesters find the alternate paths and going 'wait i can go here??' was the best part of the piece.
I'm very proud of how it looks visually.
How thorough i was building the template i worked on top of saved a lot of time.

Things that went less well and what I learned from it

With the time restraints I had, I could have put more time into polish over iteration. The lighting and scale was deprioritized because of it.
- In the future I'm going to plan my work better and set deadlines for iteration so i stay on better on track and have that important polish time.
For an immersive sim piece, it's not very immersive.
- If i would do a similiar piece again, i would make worldbuilding/narrative beats and build the level more around them. Guards talking about things happening in the level, visual storytelling etc.
The lack of incentives to spare the guards made getting playtest data difficult.
- Dishonored's chaos system gives a dilemma if you should kill or not, and I had no such thing; I believe due to this, a majority of playtesters ignored the alternate routes and just brute forced the level. In hindsight I think I could've done something about this, like spawn more guards towards the end depending on your kill count, but I'd need a way to explain this to the player and unfortunately it all boils down to time and hindsight being 20/20.

Closing Thoughts

I'm very happy with how the project turned out; i achieved my initial goals, improved my blockout and working with immersive sim design made me learn a lot!

Thank you for reading!