London's Darkest Hour
In this project, I have used the 'Advanced Locomotion System' to re-create an environment that highly represents the structure of Westminster and embeds the player into the immersive flow of Westminster London being under attack by terrorists.
External Sources
All audio files - YouTube/ FreeSounds.org
Helicopter Model - SketchFab
Big Ben Clock Face (Image) - Google
Character Models - Mixamo
Police Car - SketchFab
News Photos - BBC News
Narration Files - Replica
Blockout Plug-in - UE4 Marketplace
Pre-Production
I used Google maps as a vital reference source during the pre-production when planning out my maps. This didn't change when it came to blocking out, as the goal was to try and recreate Westminster London as likely as possible to immerse the player into the flow state.
Nevertheless, focusing on this amount of detail had its drawbacks. It took up a tremendous amount of development time that could have been spent creating a better user experience, which I will be discussing throughout this blog.
Metrics
Before starting to block out the level, I wanted to better understand the player restrictions within the project. This was when I set up a matrics gym to gain a better insight into positive and negative values.
One of the most common components in any city is doors and windows, which must be consistent throughout the project. For the doors, I found that playtester felt comfortable going under doors that had a height of 250cm as this felt more to the scale of the character without having any camera clipping while walking under. Nevertheless, working out the width of the doors became challenging as they had to look visually scaling but to allow enough affordance for the camera to fit through without glitching. After, many interactions I soon discovered the width of:
Single door = 200 cm
Double door = 290 cm
I needed to have a way to let the player know the difference between what jumpable height objects should be and what height should always be impossible. With that said:
Jump over height = 70 cm
vault over minimum height = 150 cm
Vault over maximum height = 200 cm
None jumpable objects should have a clear buffer zone of 100 cm, and fences that are going to be non-jumpable should all share the same material and be 125 cm off the ground. The issue here was when I was playtesting; the player could still jump over. To counter this, I was able to go into the blueprints and add a tag of 'NonJumpable' objects allowing us as designers to have more control of guiding the player.
Combat is essential for level design to get right as if it's too easy, the player may lose interest, and the same can be said if it is too hard. This is down to how the cover for the enemy and that player is placed.
When setting up half cover height for the enemy, I found that players responded well to 85cm as it still exposed the enemies head and shoulders, allowing them to be still engaged from long range.
With the positive feedback I got from the half cover height, I took it on board when setting the full cover height values as you still need to see the player's head/ arm to ensure they are always in the player view but may be out of grasp.
From the level design document, one of the scenes introduced into the project is an intense combat situation on Westminster bridge that would involve a car pile you. After setting the vehicles out, I noticed how it could be extremely hard to see the enemies at some points. With this in mind, I will need to consider having an overview/ vantage point to give them that player advantage.
Development Iteration
When developing this project, I was using white box testing throughout, which allowed me to gain a fresh perspective from others on different iteration and feedback on how to make my level more engaging.
Before
One of the pieces of feedback I received was how well my starting area scale was and how realistic it felt to its users. However, someone did suggest just cause it's realistic doesn't make it enjoyable. This was when I decided to decrease the bridge's width as there was too much negative space for the player, and I felt that the player was drawing in that negative space.
After
Before
One of the critical issues with the combat area was that the players didn't feel filtered up on top of the vans. As a result, the player would permanently get damaged before seeing the AI, making it an unfair fight.
Therefore, I was able to rework this entire section by removing the walk paths on their side, stopping the player from flanking, and using the truck and car lights to guide the player on top of the bus.
After
Before
After reworking this combat scene, I wanted to get feedback from my peers, and one of the things they had mentioned was how the lights didn't feel like they were pushing them on top of the bus. Instead, I moved the morning to the front car, making it shine on the climbable objects in the player's view.
After
Before
Having a lift button on every floor of big ben was giving the player a false affordance of being able to open other lifts doors besides the first one that they enter. This was an easy fix as I removed all the unused lift buttons without the player having any knowledge during playtesting.
After
Before
During a playtesting session, a player suggested that the stairs make it repetitive for the player and daze for them to walk up that many stairs. After the player expressed their view, I agreed with them and understood that this section needed to be changed immediately. After changing the layout, the path still felt it was lacking player engagement, and because of this, I was able to add in a helicopter attack sequence that changed the environment of the scaffolding
After
Before
The second scripted event that the player comes across is a falling window to hint at the idea that Westminster is unstable. But the issue was that the player wouldn't always see the window fall as it would be in the corner of their eye, which can cause discomfort to some users. Inside, I wanted this window to fall straight in front of the player when they leave the waterloo pier causing some players to pause and take in their surrounding atmosphere.
After
Level Flow
Design Techniques
FRAMING THE OBJECTIVE
I wanted to highlight the objective for the player without using widgets. This is something I frequently do throughout the level, but it can be seen strongly on the bridge when a helicopter sequence is used to draw the player towards Big Ben
I also placed spotlights at the side of the bridge to help draw the player in creating a more explorational frame,
WORKING WITH SEQUECERS
One of the events I wanted to happen was that the helicopter would shoot the oil tanker on the bridge, changing the combat layout. Sequencers allowed this to happen by setting up timed overlap events on the helicopter.
FUNNEL BEFORE REVEAL
I introduced the funnel before the reveal to enhance the player's atmosphere before stepping out onto Westminster bridge.
However, I tried to approach this in an instructional way, from your typical tight, enclosed caves to the inside of the Aquarium being a dark, broken, gloomy place with no windows until you reach the restaurant and get overwhelmed with these buildings towering over the character.
AFFORDANCE
I wanted to find a way always to provide a positive affordance to the player to help ensure they are travelling in the right direction. This has been carried out by yellow bars and flashing materials to help encourage the player's paths.
LURE TO MECHANICS OF CRITICAL AFFORDANCE & INCENTIVES
The project implements a shooting mechanic, so I needed to find how the player could incorporate this mechanic within the level. This is done by shooting a boat to kill enemies underneath.
Things that got left out
Due to how unrealistic my scope was, there was a lot of features I wanted to add that I never got time to do, such as;
Stree Christmas Lights
Security Cameras
Controllable Torrent
Final Helicopter Fight Scene
I was able to start implementing the torrent mechanic, but I was firmly to make it follow the player's direction once it was passed, so I had to see it aside for the good of the project to ensure that I had a playable game.
What Went Well
After a couple of playtest sessions, I asked for feedback from my peers on what went well about the project, and this was what I received:
Environment to scale and create an atmosphere of London during a terror attack.
Lighting is embedded well to help guide the player and force that terror atmosphere.
The use of dialogue pushes the story further with comedy and valuable information to help engage the player.
Scripted sequences are balanced out with player engagement and aren't overused.
Opening and ending cutscene help drive the narration even more than the sequences can.
Closing Thoughts
If I were to do this project again, I would take a step back and look at my scope with fresh eyes and see how to manage my time better. This may be down to trying to focus too much time on detail rather than player enjoyment, which I feel I need to better understand for future modules.
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