My name is Markus Fors. My part in this project is Lead Level Designer and Texture Artist.
I thought I should start from the beginning and explain to you my workflow and ideas about the creation process.
I started off by drawing a very basic layout of the entire level in Photoshop. To get an idea of how it should look like, I searched on the internet for blueprints of real ships. Of course I also had a couple of conversations with our project leader, to really have an understanding of what kind of rooms and how many, that had to be in the game.
Generally I’ve been using my own thoughts and ideas about how everything should look like (as long as you get the feeling of being on a ship at sea). After the finalized layout of the level and the initial preparations, it was time to start working with UDK. Keep in mind when reading the rest of the blog, that it’s based on my own experiences working with level design.
I followed my own blueprint and started creating the level using only simple brush based blocks.
I’ve been creating levels for about four years using Valve’s world editor Hammer, so at this stage I was very familiar with the creation process of the level. At this point not a single model or texture was implemented, apart from the default checkerboard-like texture on all the brush based blocks.
This made the level very, very basic but at the same time this was necessary, so that we later on had an understanding of what kind of models the art creators had to create.
I decided that the rear end of the ship should work as a junction point, connecting all other parts of the ship. Therefore I started with that part and then worked my way until pretty much the entire ship was finished in brushes. Luckily, myself and four other team members went on a small study visit to a real ship during the early stages of this project. For me as a level designer, this was an awesome experience and opportunity to gain ideas.
Finally,when different kind of props started to get finished, like walls, etc. I could start implementing these and replace the brush based blocks with models. This kind of work was very fun but also a bit sad, since I had to start deleting the brushes which I’ve built the ship with.
However one goal with the entire level was to have as few brush based things as possible.
When creating all the rooms and corridors I always try to keep in mind to get everything to be symmetrical, but at the same time to give the player a feeling of things being asymmetrical. By this I mean, a simple corridor could just be walls, a floor and a ceiling but that doesn’t really look all too good. For example, just by slightly decreasing the width of the corridor halfway through, makes a huge impact on the overall look and feeling. Now everything doesn’t feel and look square and boring. Also the use of props really helps to give the player a feeling of the environment being natural (like the pipes in the picture below, going around the corner of the wall).
A corridor.
Here’s another example from our game. Notice how the walls divide the room into different sections and makes everything feel less linear.
The kitchen area.
During my years of creating all kinds of different levels, whether it’s been with Hammer or UDK, it has come to my understanding that the use of lighting can make a huge impact on the overall feeling of a level or a particular room.
Let’s take the engine room in our game as an example. When it comes to the lighting, I was aiming for a quite dim and brown-ish light. Both to give a spooky feeling and a feeling of the room being dirty and well-used. All the corners of the room are dark, just to intensify the feeling of ”something might be lurking in the darkness”. However, making rooms completely pitch black is a very bad idea, since generally players hate to wander around in completely dark areas (even though they have access to a light source, like a flashlight).
As was the case with our game, I had an excellent opportunity to make use of light sources which act like a guide for the player. The small lights illuminate the path, but don’t actually force the player to follow it. They only act like a hint for him/her, pointing at which way to go.
The engine room.
The choice of lighting can also help your level/levels to feel more dynamic and less repetitive.
I always try to keep a certain kind of color scheme and depending on the room or location, I make small variations. Like with the corridors in our game, they have a blue-ish/white color and in certain places there are quite bright and yellow light sources. Just to make everything to feel a bit more dynamic and to break up the repetitive lighting.
A corridor with stairs and different kinds of lighting.
When going further down the ship, the lighting changes to a more green-ish color. Both to act like a separator for the different kind of levels of the ship and to give more variation to the overall colors.
Also, the slight change in color indicates that the player has entered a new area of the ship. In other words, you can achieve a lot of things with your level design, just by changing the color of the lighting.
Alongside my level-design job, I’ve also been working with texture creation. My decisions when creating all the different kind of textures were based on whether I thought they looked good or not, and if they fit with the rest of the environment. (Take the above picture as an example.) The floor, walls and ceiling have the same color scheme. The only part that sticks out is the floor, but it still fits with everything else. The bottom spline on the wall works as a smooth transition from floor to wall. Also the white walls act like a more natural color, which works well with the generic corridors.
There is an expression that goes ”less is more”, which has come to be a sort of guide line for me. I always keep those words in mind when designing levels. And I guess it’s something you ”have to learn”, or get a feeling for, so to speak. Because who can say when you’ve placed too many props in a room or made the lights too bright. Well, it’s up to you as a level-designer and there is always something new to learn when it comes to designing levels.
Markus Fors
Lead Level Designer
