Hello everyone! This week I will be working on the Level Design once again. The purpose is to reduce the size of the level as well as to add places which players can travel to and explore.
General
Whatever that is mention below is still in working in progress and thus is subjected to change. However, the workflow will change and hopefully prevent such redesigns of the entire level again. Till now, it has always been throwing whatever that comes to mind to create the level and realise that it isn't really "Level Design". So in the future, we plan to follow a set format and design our level as such.
Personal Thoughts
Through the development of the game, I realise that without a clear and concise background story, it is really difficult to create the level as there is no start and endpoint. Another point is that without a concept design of the level, the designer is not restricted when designing the level and thus mindlessly design it, which means that there are always major changes or overhauls as there is no reference or concept to stick to. These are all my personal opinions and I believe that there are more than one approach to "Level Design". As an aspiring game designer, I am still learning and therefore I make many mistakes and hope I can learn from these mistakes. Anyways back to game development! ^-^
Level Design
The reason as to why there is a revamp is mainly because of the abundance of empty space in the level that is not designed and requires many assets to construct and create a vibrant and realistic environment. Thus by reducing the scale, it is easier to picture and place together assets.
This is the current top-down map design (right), most of the deadlands has been cut off and scaled-down ( Yellow section ). The old map is on the left.
Due to the lack of time and resources, we are outsourcing assets online to use to populate the level. It is much easier and less time consuming, however, this is only applicable to environmental assets like structures and nature. NPCs are outsourced but don't worry the main character and the enemies are all original and I am amazed at the quality of the characters.
The Camp is the first place of interest where it accommodates shops and quests which are provided by the NPCs, players can interact with these NPCs. This will be a resting point or a goto place for players to gather information, exchange items and get stronger by completing quests.
Sean Ngo
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