While development is full steam ahead, we wanted to share some insights on how we work with environment in our upcoming game SKYHILL: Black Mist! We spend a lot of time thinking through the whole architecture of locations and how they are connected, so you will have a great time exploring and finding interesting places inside this huge condominium called “SKYHILL”.
What a modern person need today to not ever put a step outside? Sleep, food, entertainment? Internet - someone will say. Well, we increased this list to more realistic one and created a small city within a city. Here is size and diversity playing along to create better experience. Big halls, small corridors, dark rooms and boring office spaces: type of location actually directly influence on gameplay and possible tactics available to player! In some places it’s easier to go guns blazing, in other better to look for cover and sneak your way out. To deliver the best possible quality for experience from locations we are going through certain workflow and many steps.
It’s all starts from reference search and looking for that three main key points that speak for location type: has it to be spacy, cozy or otherwise be small cranky and claustrophobic?
Here is a small part of a document that we create for each location type.
After that we go further and look not only for visual, but architectural references, it’s hard to say out of head what the difference between cinema and trade center base architecture or office from living space. If you think briefly, it’s just floor and walls. But it’s more complicated. It was a blessing for us to find 3D tours and panoramic photos of many different locations over the Internet. We virtually visited hospitals of Vancouver, restaurants of London, but a 5 store toy warehouse blew our minds by it’s scale!
During creating base blueprints for each location we decide what kind of a location it is. From small storing rooms to huge trade halls from fire exits to back doors and technical pathways: everywhere we tried to imagine, how real people walking around this space, where they stop for a rest and where they are going to get through the day as fast as possible.
To keep everything in balance between locations, and also to create a secret passages and shortcuts, we created a bunch of huge schemes(in a level designers head they look much more appealing, and mostly understood by them).
When type of location and architecture plan are set in, it’s time to start working on the most interesting part creating gameplay scenarios, adjusting location slightly adding required furniture and other objects, enemies and traps
Each created level design pattern is tested by four ways of playing:
Stealth, open fight, using only environments and traps and simply ignoring enemies. In different situations different approaches are much more likely to be more effective, and they can not much with selected player play style selected by player and also his supplies in inventory, so the challenge is always there for everyone.
Each pattern consists of the following ingredients thrown into the mix:
- space, that dictated by location type and previously established plan;
- amount and type of enemies;
- distribution of objects, from some that simply block path or give cover;
- interactive objects that can both help or be a nuisance in a fight;
Playing with this ingredients we can create a completely different scenarios in the same space. For example, let’s take this small green corner on a rooftop, with some monsters, sofas and tasty loot.
One not very observant enemy won't be a big challenge for the main protagonist, it’s an easy pick with any method.
Let’s add second one so they will look for each other.
Now, if a stealth kill wont result in a success, in open fight you would have to fight with two enemies that can result in our death or resources loss such as medkits. Maybe it’s easier to shoot them from afar and keep your distance instead of finding a perfect moment for a stealth strike? Or maybe throw a molotov and finish them with a couple of shots?
Also this sofa standing there, that blocks us from getting to first enemy faster and stay hidden while doing so! If with one enemy you could approach this situation from any side, now it’s much more efficient to go from the left one rather than the right one: kill closest enemy and hide behind a fence.
But what will happen if we add a third one, who will patrol nearby?
Now the central one will be covered by his monster friends from both sides, and approaching from the left(where the patrolling guy walking) will be completely non efficient, because keeping up with them in stealth is a much harder feat to perform, rather than just kill the guy on the left.
Now this sofa that was a nuisance before become a perfect cover from patrolling monster and will help easily take out the central monster - you just need to get there!
Good approach will be to lure them one by one in a more accurate methodical stealth tactics.
Well we just have to add one mine! Bam, and patrol is an easy prey for us!
While two of his other colleges are looking in other way, we just lure the patrolling one to walk into the mine. It’s not a big deal since all this is happening on a rooftop location where one of the distinct effects are raging winds that cover all sound effects and making strategies not available in other locations possible. Minus one enemy and now we are back to our previously dissected scenario with just two enemies. In any case that precious loot that they guarding will be ours!
Here is just one of the examples on how playing with parameters and adjusting them can create an interesting gameplay, as for us, on this nothing ends, it’s just one of the stages of work and after first iteration of this part is done next stages are coming in, visual dressing of environment, lighting, testing, fixes, but this is a completely different story.
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