Level Design Blockout

Hello, my name is Ian Stoops, and I am working on the Level Design, UI Design, and Animation for this project. This post showcases my blockout and overall level design ideology for our game, Beta Breakers. The gameplay is a rougelite action RPG with a time limit in each level, forcing the player to play fast and act smart before the timer runs out. In each level, there are multiple enemy types spawning in which the player must fight to reach their increasing number of objectives in each level. Our theme to go with the game is abandonware, so we plan for our game to have intentional bugs and for certain aspects to look broken or unfinished to better push the theme.

Starting off, the overall level design was to make the levels progressively more cohesive. I chose a city settings because I can utilize a city's design to create a maze of pathways that have enough space for other features and mechanics as the game continues. With our abandonware theme, I wanted the level to look as if they were broken and incomplete, but as you move from level to level, the world begins to fix itself and appear like a more finished and complete game. To accomplish this, I started with the final level and a finished design and worked backwards, breaking the level down and deleting aspects of it so that it was an unfinished version of the level as compared to the final. 

With level 1 (images 1-3),  I wanted it to appear as though some of the objects' textures were still missing and have large boxes (in vain of a white box) in place of where more buildings and assets would be. I did this because i wanted to convey to the player that the world was broken and that something was wrong. Design-wise, I cropped out some areas of the whole map so that the player doesn't have the ability to check out those areas, because that would waste time when trying to beat the level after just starting.

In level 2 (images 4-6), I wanted the main design to be there, but have it look as if some bug or glitch caused some of the assets to be put out of place, but near the final design. This was done so that parts of the level could be blocked off and force the player to move to parts they haven't been to before, and surprise the player with the bizarre look of the level.

For level 3 (images 7-9), my goal was to have a finished map.  This level is meant to work as the culmination of the past 2 levels and be the last level of the game. The first 2 levels were used to block off certain areas and force the player to gradually understand the city's layout as they play, so that when the player gets to the final level, they would already know most of the layout from playing the earlier stages. This helps act as a counterbalance for the gameplay, as the objectives increase and reach their maximum in the final level, collecting them at random would take more time, but because they are being taught the layout, they will know the best ways to reach their objectives without wasting too much time. 

For visuals, I worked on the shaders and visual style in Unity (images 10-11). My team and I wanted our game to pop out with interesting and noticeable shaders, which also fit our theme. So I worked on making hologram/scanline shaders, object distortion shaders, outlines, dither, and a screen glitch effect. The outlines are present in every image and help create a nice effect over every object, helping each thing stand out more. The holograms, dither, and screen glitch were made to help continue pushing the earlier stages' broken appearance, best seen in the level 1 images. The object distortion was also applied to some of our objects and is used to create an appearance that the item is broken, with the objects' vertices moving out in random directions.

Lastly, focusing on the actual gameplay, the city setting is effective in creating danger and also giving the player a chance to use their skills. Having alleys helps create tension and forces the player to be more alert, so if enemies were to start following them or appear in front of them in the alley, the player would be more inclined to look for a way around or use their skills and abilities to stay safe. This can help force the player to learn more combinations in their skills and perform better as they learn how to deal with the enemy.