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Level Design Blog 6

 Blog 6: 10/16-10/22

This week, I completed my real-world blockout and then began work on my level design document for the FPS level. I thought that my real-world blockout turned out well, but I might have been too ambitious with my project. I wanted to block out the Leu Botanical Gardens, because I think the grounds are very pretty, but working on a somewhat-open outdoor level was very challenging. I spent more time than I maybe should have on modeling the main house, and I think the grounds around it suffered as a result.

I did enjoy working with Houdini's built-in tree modeler to create trees for the grounds, though, and building simple assets in Maya and the Unreal modeling toolkit was very good practice. If I were to redo this project, I would probably move the entire project to model the interior of the house, instead of the exterior.

Starting work on my FPS level design document was somewhat of a challenge, because I have never enjoyed FPS games very much and don't have much experience with them as a result. After consulting with some of my more-knowledgeable friends, I settled on working on a level for Borderlands 3, which I chose for the aesthetic and the more lighthearted tone.

When I began playing the game and looking into the various environments in the game, I was immediately attracted to the aesthetic of the planet Athenas, which has one of the smallest maps in the game. I decided to create a level riffing off of the ruins found on Athenas and created a map of a level involving navigating ruins to rescue a group of trapped monks.


I'm excited to see whether my plans hold up once I actually start building the level. Since I've never worked this deliberately on a large-scale level before, I imagine that some of the things that seemed feasible or interesting when I was creating the document will end up not working in the final level. I enjoyed getting to think through the experience of the level, and in the future I would be a bit more deliberate with my mapping to try to include more of the miscellaneous thoughts I had while I was creating it.

Finally, I began work on my next RPP. Our game involves a lizard solving small physics puzzles as it moves through a house on its way to find its tail, so I began sketching out a map of the house and the locations of the various puzzles.

Since the game is supposed to be mainly focused on story, the level and the overall progression of the game are more closely entwined than previous projects have been. One of the big focuses of the game is supposed to be the kitchen at the end of the hall, so I tried to keep the kitchen as a focal point, with some puzzles branching away before looping back to the main hall.


I'm looking forward to beginning the blockout for this level, but it's hard to tell whether the project will be in scope. Although the level is larger than my previous RPP levels have been, we'll be able to use asset packs, which should make some of the design simpler. I'm also looking forward to working on integrating puzzle elements into the level as a whole.

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