käty
olup
clock
of
Death
Quake map
Clock of Death is a Quake map inspired by the typical Quake theme of hell and death as well as the series Stranger Things. As a level designer, this project was my first time following a proper level design pipeline and diving deep into level design theory and practice.
individual
Level design
Trench-broom
8 weeks
UNIVERSITY PROJECT
Community release
overview
my responsibilities
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Designed and implemented environmental challenges, enemy encounters, scripted events, and sequences with the tools provided by the modding community and Trenchbroom
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Researched Quake player experience, level structure, and design logic
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Gathered references for the architecture and the theme of the level based on real-life castles and fictional settings
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Sketched, white-boxed, and set-dressed the level
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Performed quality assurance through Conditions of Satisfaction, playtesting, and iterating the level
project timeline
concepting
level proposal
pre-production
production
release
Playing the reference game
Researching the chosen location
Gameplay ideation sketches
Gameplay dynamics investigation
Level layout sketches
Level pillars and one-liners
Player experience
Amosphere and location
General level flow, key locations and events
Level sketches
Gameplay sketches
Level one-pager and documentation
Modular kit creation
QA, playtesting and iterations
Iterated white-box block-out
Gameplay implementation
Set-dressing
QA and playtesting
Minor iterations
Lighting
level design
level showcase
Level one-pager
Level vision
As a Level Designer, I wanted to make a memorable level that gives players overall a thrilling and fun experience through clever usage of enemy encounters, medieval castle architecture, shape language, colors, and lighting. I wanted the level to start from the dungeons and the player has to make his way to the highest floor of the tower where he will encounter a boss enemy in a very dramatic red-lit environment.
Level pillars
Eerie atmosphere, anticipation, and tension
The eerie atmosphere and unexpected enemy encounters increase the tension and dreadful feel of the level and increase the player's emotional immersion in the game.
Environment interaction
The environment provides the player with different interactable objects, such as buttons, pressure plates, moving platforms, and collectible keys. The player interacts with the environment to progress in the level as well as to discover secret areas and receive handsome rewards.
Exploration
The level in itself is a medieval-style castle that always makes people curious to explore, with added secrets, the player is motivated even further to explore all the nooks and crannies.
Level sections
My plan from early on was to have in total 4 different sections: dungeons, castle, tower, and the clock room. While they changed in shape and intended gameplay throughout the development, the overall structure of the level remained the same.
Level play-through
player experience breakdown
In the dungeon section, I gave the player a nailgun as the first weapon they received. As the first beat of the level, I introduced the element I used throughout the whole level, which is the door behind which enemies emerge. I also added a small jump-scare moment to make players feel unease and to hone in on the anticipation pillar of the level, however, this encounter could be very safe for them if they remain calm.
In the second section of the dungeon, I let the player fight the fiends they had been introduced to in the first part of the dungeon, but now they are in very real danger. However, to balance the difficulty I gave a lot of room to the player to take care of them. The section has multiple waves of enemies that come after beating the previous wave. As a reward for completing this section, the player receives a key that allows them to access the next area.
In the castle, the player is greeted by some more interesting challenges that aren't very difficult or demanding and allow the player a short breather. In the game beat with zombies, I tried to be more creative and give the player something unusual. However, I don't fully believe it matches the rest of the level. When they reach the courtyard they must be ready for another arena fight with multiple waves of enemies, similar to the one in the dungeon, however, this time they don't have as much space to evade the fiend attacks.
After completing the courtyard game beat, they head to the tower. In this section, I limited the player's movement room a lot and made it challenging through that. These challenges are a bit easier, however, not as easy as the challenges in the castle corridors, so, while it gives the player some rest, it doesn't let them become careless.
The final door room is as I would describe it, a silence before a storm. The player is very close to the end, but they might sense that it seems all too easy. In addition, they still must get the key. When entering the boss room, the player finds themselves in an eerie red light coming from a giant clock, and as a lot of players confirmed during testing, it's the most memorable location in the whole level. In this room, in very cramped conditions, they must survive a few waves of enemies and a schambler.
workflow breakdown
research
A big part of the research included playing Quake and understanding its design. I replayed the levels many times and created a breakdown of these levels, their player experience, layout, flow, etc. Based on that I constructed guidelines for my level creation to make sure that my level would feel like Quake level. On top of that, I worked with reference images, mostly of places that I have visited.
sketching
As this project was my first fully level-design-focused project, I had some time to experiment with different sketching methods. I tried isometric, perspective, and freehand sketching. All of these I found useful in their own way and my sketching skills improved as a result.
gym level
Although this wasn't my first time using a gym in my level development, I struggled to find a good way to use it. I didn't fully understand the purpose of a gym back then, and thus, I didn't utilize it as much as I could have.
modular kit
Modelling in Trenchbroom was a challenge, however, once I got used to it, it became an enjoyable process. I was familiar with modelling in Blender and switching to Trenchbroom was difficult at first, however, it improved my capability to adapt to different 3D modelling tools.
block-out
The most important skill I learned while blocking out the level and gameplay, was working with systems made by others. In previous projects, I could mostly work with the systems I created myself, however, in this project, I had to learn how to use the systems provided to me by other people, which I consider one of the most important skills for a level designer.
testing and iterations
For quality assurance, I used the Conditions of Satisfaction (CoS) document, where I described the intended outcome of each level section and recorded their progress by assigning missing, functional, playable or presentable tags to them.
To record the progress of my level, I kept a design and a development log. In the design log, I recorded each section and their design progress separately, recording their current state, playtest data, possible iteration and iterations made on those sections. In the development log, I recorded more high-level progress of the level. I included the CoS document, screenshots, gameplay video and playtest data for each version of the level in my development log for a better overview of the progress of the level.
Design log
Development log
I based all my iterations on the feedback from the players and my teachers. I conducted playtests regularly with new and recurring playtesters. During the playtest I observed players' reactions and actions without interacting with the players. After they played my level I asked them a few questions about my level, trying to avoid guiding their opinion too much. During iterating, I focused mostly on iterating the layout, flow, balancing, enemy encounter, intended player experience, and player guidance.
Conclusion
Positive take-aways
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This project established the beginning of my level design journey. During the project, I was very insecure about my knowledge and abilities as a level designer, however, thanks to the project I learned enough to make me be able to call myself a level designer for the first time.
Improvement points
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My skills were still far from sufficient and I had many things I wished I had done better in this project. For example, there are a few scale issues in the level and a few instances where gameplay is out of place or doesn't flow well.
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The rooms aren't optimized for certain types of gameplay which is why often the gameplay and space design feel disconnected. To fix that in the future, I would utilize the gym to figure out the best gameplay space design rules for each enemy and then implement the level accordingly.