Apocalypse University
Work in progress
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Level outline:
Gain access to the research labs in the university's science Building to use the information, equipment and supplies to create a cure/vaccine for zombie plague.
This work in progress blockout was created using Unreals BSP brushes and some models I created in Maya.
Playthrough of the level in its current state:
Atrium Building:
This is where the player starts having gained access into the building from the outside noted by the “Player Start” in green text. With the dark blue line showing the critical path mentioned in the level flow/pacing part of the document.
The orange rectangles are the positions for the signage indicating to the player where the bridge access is and what floor the security room is on, clearly in view after coming out of the corridor and defeating the enemies. The right side of the image purposefully has an additional enemy as an attempt to have the player facing this direction when defeating the last one, making them use this staircase (shown by the yellow squares) and see the pin terminal sooner. However if they go up the left set of stairs in the image and stop on the first floor the initial landing is essentially guiding lines towards the terminal and door way.
This initial area is purposefully large open area with furniture and the important signage to guide the player, easing them into the level without feeling too threatened initially with easy combat having a good distance between player and initial enemies.
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Once the player reaches the top floor they will be guided by a similar layout of the bottom floor, however this time turning left after the initial corridor. They will then enter the security room where they can jump over the counter and get the security pin (orange objective in the image) for the terminal. This is also the players best view at the exterior vista, which I hope to also use as foreshadowing by using this exterior as another level area in which the player will later escape the surrounding area.
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Science Building:
Once across the bridge the player will immediately meet more enemies, after this threat has been dealt with the player then needs to find out how to get down stairs to the Research Lab that houses the equipment they need.
The first part of gameplay requires the player to explore the environment in order to find a way around the blocked door in the corridor. Once they have got around the blocker they’ll find the stairwell (marked orange as far as the player is aware until this point the objective) is also blocked, meaning they have to do some further exploration. The aim of these two parts is to get the player in the mindset of exploration that will be further required for the next main objective.
In addition to an enemy at the bottom of the corridor a flickering Light will also be used to draw the players attention after engaging the enemies to the room at the end of the corridor, this is to draw them to the critical path after blocking the logical way they should have gone.
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After falling down the hole in the office floor and going into the corridor the player will find the security door is still active (shown in grey), however as this is a different building there is no security panel they can use similar to the previous door they encountered.
This will cause the player to do the final main piece of exploration and while doing so run into further enemies they will need to deal with in order to complete the current objective of finding all the required chemicals (marked in orange) in order to cause a reaction powerful enough to destroy the door lock. This will then give them access to the last major puzzle within the level, the pump room.
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The objective of this room is to interact with the pump controls (shown in orange) in order to make them all set in the lower position, enabling the player to climb onto the fallen equipment on the right side of the room as they enter and navigate around to the left side, on top of the pumps and through the ventilation gap (shown in light grey) leading to the next room.
I am particularly happy with how this turned out in the sense of framing the players objective in the doorway, showing the blocked vent gap by the pump in addition to using perspective to show the pipes above the door to draw the players interest and make them follow these environmental features to figure out they can use this in order to work their way around the room and through the gap. All while keeping a logical environment such as the pipes don't block the door at all.
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After going through the vent gap (shown in grey) the player will then have to fight a final horde of enemies. After they have completed this they can then travel into the research labs which would trigger a cutscene or event ending the current level.
Basic blockout 3D Models (created in Maya) used within the level:
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