Engaging Level Design for Combat - Pt 3

Hey everyone, it has been too long and I am sorry about that, I meant to finish up this final section of the topic last month but got distracted. Regardless, I am here now to give you my final article of the year, and thank all of you for reading my articles and wishing you all a Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays. 

Now what could be more Jolly and Christmasy than that of how best to defeat your enemies in ranged combat.

If you have not read my previous entries in the series I do recommend that you check Part 1 and Part 2 out before continuing with the finale. 

Recap

In previous entries, we spoke about how important it is that you understand your metrics for the weapons, cover, avatar and much more. We next discussed the importance of 2d maps and research. With all of that in motion, I can now go forward and show you my blockout. 

To give some context as well, as I mentioned in the previous articles the layout we will be looking at today was from my time on the CGMA Course I took part in earlier this year. This challenge was to create a combat layout of a certain size (30m x 30m). There was no theme, no story, etc, just pure focus on making a great combat layout. We were given a set of LD Kits that we could use as well for these blockouts.

Now with this in mind lets see the magic.

Level

This was the 2d map of the level, a 30x30 map:​

Here is a top down shot of the blockout:

I wanted to share these just because I have seen people talk online about not doing a 2d plan or google sketch up before starting a level as they “do not want to constrain themselves”. I am writing to say that is not true, they are tools to help you plan your level. When you look at the two images you can see that there are differences, as I needed to make some to help the level improve. 

Just showing you how planning does not restrict you, these planning tools are there to help you, then you can go to adjust accordingly. A 2d map helps you create a footprint of your level, it can not and will not represent how it will feel with the overall camera, mechanics etc. 

Changes

With me mentioning how it is important for you to make changes from your plan to your blockout, let us talk about some of my changes. The biggest one for sure is my mix up with the height. 

I have raised the back section of the level. In the previous article I mentioned that I wanted to section off my level, and I divided it into quarters like so: 

With having some combat take place within interiors and other combat areas take place out in exterior areas. Yet when I was running through my level I noticed that although you can feel differences in sections they do not feel so different, so by raising up parts of the level you would feel a difference, a transition. Not only this but it would help divide the space up even more, one half would be raised while the other would be lowered, one half is in an interior space while another would be exterior, again helping the space feel memorable and helping players build a mental map.  This was not the only reason I wanted to raise up the space, it was to put players at a disadvantage, to increase the challenge. 

Something to memorize “It is easier to shoot down, than up” so by dividing the space and having players start on the lower section, it would make them feel as if they were charging into enemy territory.

The second biggest change you can see between the map and the top-down shot was that of the cover placement. That one for sure is always going to change, as you can plan but for sure that is always subject to change, as until you understand how the enemies will move, which archetype of enemy you will use, etc., these are always ideas at best. 

I did not get functioning enemies in this level working, but I did place down placeholders and routes for the enemies to still help me shape the encounter. 

From this, I was able to help picture the cover and plan the combat fronts for my level. 

Now, these are some of the changes, I do not wish to go into too much detail here as there is still so much to talk about and we are almost 1000 words into this blog. As mentioned previously it is okay to make changes, as iteration is how we as level designers make better levels. We do not accomplish it in the planning stage. We do not ace it in our first blockout. We make it slowly with each iteration. 

Walkthrough

After discussing these changes, let’s break down the level step by step to show you my design choices and why I made them. 

First up, is the players starting position:

As you can see in the blue circle, the player starts in the bottom right corner, in almost a corridor-like space. So there are a few things to break down in why I chose this starting position:

I wanted to slowly give information to players. You can see this slowly happen so that players can tackle certain challenges one at a time, and it is also a way to encourage exploration. With the fact that players do not know the whole space, nor can they see it, they will want to go and explore.

The space opens up more and more, so the player can start to see more and take in more information. 

Something to remember is “How we interact with the world, comes from how we see it” If you want players to plan and stick to more of one area, show more of the level, if however you want players to go and explore, then slowly feed them information.

4. Presenting the player with knowledge and options.

From this position the first thing players can see are windows, this informs the player that there is an interior space in front of them. This is crucial for a later choice, as it is foreshadowing how the space is divided. (These windows would be blocked by glass as well, hinting to my second point)

Next is the opening on the left, by having that negative space as well as the cover there as well it peaks the players curiosity, and with the fact that in the west we read left to right it is the first thing players can possibly help pull players in that direction. 

As players turn the corner, we move on to their next view: 

(Before we break this next step down, I just want a huge shout out to a truly amazing Dev Miriam Bellard, Miriam has such a phenomenal mind for design. In her superb talk Environmental Design in Spacial Cinematography Miriam talks about how each view of the level should contain vital info for the player. I really enjoyed that and tried to think of it as I blocked out this level, anyway side note over, do check out Miriam’s talk and follow her on twitter if you have it)

In this shot I wanted players to have a decision point, this space allows players to See the Challenge and then allows them to Plan for said Challenge. In this shot we would be able to see one enemy:

From here players can decide if they should engage in combat, or move closer. To help pull in the player I have done a few things. 

Number one is having the enemy have a patrol path, so the enemy won’t be static so the lineup for the perfect shot is there, but only for a limited window. 

Number two is through cover placement, if we look at the cover it is a stepped position to help players move through the space.

By staggering the cover like this it still allows the player to feel safe as they move through. giving them an advantage. Now I do this because this is the first enemy encounter, so I want players to feel safe and still decide as they move through the space. 

Another choice that will be noticed from earlier is that there are more windows hinting to the player that there is still an interior space to be explored. As the player gets closer they see an option to enter the building.

Now, this entrance not only works because it is an extra option for the player so that the player can strategize, but also it helps to add loops to the combat.  

(With combat loops, the aim is to make sure that players or enemies do not run into dead-ends, or out of choices (oversimplified explanation))

From this position players can possibly see the other enemy as well, alerting them that they are outnumbered. 

If players chose to enter the interior space, one of things is that I wanted it to feel different than the exterior space. I did this in two ways.

First is with the ceiling, it instantly feels a lot more claustrophobic as well as feels limiting in where to shoot, as now players will only aim on the X & Y axis vs that of when outside where they have more freedom to aim higher. 

Secondly is through lack of cover, compared to where we were, there was a lot more cover close by, while here there is a lot less. Most of the cover comes from the architecture itself. 

Once the player has picked their path they can then start to engage the enemies in combat. In order to make sure that space helps players know best how to tackle this encounter is by making sure that the Fronts are clear to the player. 

(Fr