Noel Grünbaum – Game Designer

This was a group project, made up of 5 designers making a boss encounter prototype for an already existing made up game of our choice. We chose to create one inspired by Resident Evil. I along with one other designer created the Level Design.

Design Intent

These are the core pillars for the level:

• Set an environment for the player to find opportunities to progress forward in the encounter
• Provide a shift in the sense of balance towards the player’s favour as the encounter progresses

I wanted to have a natural flow in the level, for the player to follow as they went around it, leading up to the finale in the central room. The biggest inspiration for this level was Resident Evil, that has had multiple bosses that are bigger than you, locked in a space together. To accommodate for this, the roof was made high and the rooms wide. This also had the added bonus of making navigation with a 3rd person perspective easier since you had more space for the camera.

It was important to me to make sure that my part and the other designers’ part felt like one. To accomplish this we followed specific metrics when building rooms and used the same asset pack.

Lab Boss Area

Before we had fully decided on the layout of the general level, I tried out this level to be where the boss started with 2 levels and a lot of visibility. This was not used in the final project though as it did not fit with the final vision for the game.

Central Arena

The first thing I made once we had decided on the final vision (a sort of resident evil inspired boss with rock paper scissors systems of elements) was the area around the arena. I made a big room in the middle for the final fight, an elevated area you start in, where you can see down into the room with the boss and a staircase leading down to the left toward the rest of the level.

You see this central arena at the start with the boss breaking out and you end up in it in the end once you have completed the outside part to finally fight the boss. Later in the project I added a connector by the start to another area to stop it from being a dead end where you could get caught.

Upper Lab

I then made a split off room from the area directly after the arena which would contain one of the three elements in the game. I made it with water in mind and had small walk-in rooms in the area to let you out maneuver the boss while getting ammo.

The final version had rooms to the left, one having an element pickup so that you have one visible if you come from the center. I also moved the cylinder to the end of the room so you can see toward the new pickup. The room originally had just the one way in and out so to fix this I added a connector between here and the start.

Connector

In the picture below, the arena is to the right and the upper lab is to the left. I started by making just a simple corridor between them and wanted to add a break off room to it but decided against it when I hopped in engine as there was not enough room to do it well. I did however make it wider at the end and added some decorations.

Conclusion

I think the core pillars for the level were followed as you roam through the facility, feeling weak at first gathering ammunition and then getting to defeat the boss in a final showdown.

What made the level so good was the collaboration between the other Level designer and I. We had constant conversations about what we were both doing and trying to make both parts fit together seamlessly. Another successful aspect was being thorough in making design documents.