BioShock – Level design project – Update #1

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Hi everyone,

Just a quick video update which updates my progress so far.

Update Video #01

Jump and crouch

To address the design goal of introducing the player to crouching and jumping, I wanted to create a pump/machine room which had sustained damage to the interior, resulting in some of the support pillars falling to create natural obstacles (fig.1).

Fig.1a – Damaged pump room
Fig.1b – Damaged pump room – obstacles highlighted

As fig.1a shows, after taking a moment to familiarize themselves with the room, players will recognize that that to proceed, they will have to reach the door at the other end of the room as the door ahead is damaged. To guide the player, I used negative space to the left of the obstacles combined with the light from the window on the right to highlight the broken pillars. The first broken pillar (1) requires the player to jump over it. The next two pillars (2) have fallen in such as way as to create a space which is only accessible through crouching.

Iteration

Off to the side of the pump room, I wanted to create a flooded admin room as a point of visual interest and reinforce the fact that you are stuck in a crumbling underwater city and everything has gone to hell! You can see the room at 1:43 in the video. Originally I had opted for a small window which felt right in the space, however on testing the room it really didn’t work at all and blocked out the intended idea.

Fig 2a – Small window
Fig 2b – Players actual view

So, it needed to change! I looked at various concepts art for BioShock and some screen grabs I had taken of windows (I know) and decided to increase the size of them. This allowed the player to see the floating objects in the drowned room while creating some dramatic lighting in the pump room.

Fig 2c – Larger windows implemented
Fig 2d- Players view of changed window

Blueprints & Sequencer

The following shows some of the various gameplay blueprints I’ve scripted e.g actor blueprints for the Secruis doors so I can reuse them throughout the level, the teleport blueprint contained in the Level Blueprint and the sequence which plays the lighting event as the player enters the lighthouse.

Fig 3a – Actor Blueprint for Secruis Door
Fig 3b – Level Blueprint to teleport player
Fig. 3c – Main door & Lighting sequence

That wraps up this post but I will continue to post further updates. As always, I’m trying to get better so any feedback is always appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

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