Cliffside
A 3D, Third-Person cover shooter made to serve as an "intermediate-style" level. A peer of mine challenged me to make this style of level in one week so I took it and this is what I produced!
This level was inspired by the games Hitman and Uncharted with visual inspiration taken from the ancient Nabataean city of Petra.
This project was created in Unreal Engine 5 and utilizes a variety of art assets and the Locomotion System created by Jakub W (linked below). All other aspects of the level were created and design by me.
Step 1. Initial Design
Step number 1 for this project is getting an initial design and taking a look at some comparables. First I looked at levels from games the game Uncharted and Hitman. I used these games to get an idea of how the keep the flow of combat and deal with elevation in a stealth setting. Additionally, I decided on the setting being a slightly altered version of the ruins of Petra in Jordan with mine being placed at the top of a mountain. Next, I started sketching out vaguely what I wanted from the level and started to consider multiple paths and enemy/cover placement.
Step 2. Greybox
Next up was my Greybox. Because I only had one week for this project, the majority of my iteration happened during this stage, although some did come after during the Kitbash. My focus here was ensuring there were multiple paths to reach the end effectively, each with a different playstyle, and creating situations which provided the player ample cover to complete the encounter.
Top-down view, added more over to the first area and increased the size of the elevated path.
Step 3. Kitbash and Playtesting
The final steps of this project were to start kitbashing and playtesting! I assembled a variety of rocks, tents and trucks from the Unreal Asset Store and began replacing the greybox. Whenever I added art to a new section, I quickly hopped in-game to quickly test how it altered the intended gameplay. This resulted in A LOT of changes. The sightlines of things like trucks and tents were very different from the greybox walls I had previously. At this stag,e I also added the enemy AI, which drastically changed how the level needed to be laid out. I needed to create more cover and sharper angles to allow the player to get the drop on most enemies if they were being stealthy. Additionally, after I was done adding a pass of art, I gave the build to a peer to playtest and see how they reacted to situations. The results of these playtests were adding additional cover and making certain paths wider to accommodate the camera movements players were doing when panicking in combat.
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Below are images of the final product.
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