Parasitic Sprint 3 Blog Post

Parasitic Level Design Post#3

For our third sprint, I focused on finishing the one big card from Sprint 2 about populating my level with assets and the two Sprint 3 cards I was assigned to, and those cards are: 

• "As a level designer, I need to create clear boundaries for the player to restrict going off path."
• "As a level designer, I need to set up the lighting of the level so the atmosphere of the level matches the theme."

This sprint was really about further "fleshing out the level" and waiting for enemies and other assets to be done so we could add them to our level. The first card of this sprint and technically, the card I was already working on since the last sprint was "As a level designer, I need to populate my level with current assets to get the tone of the level established." I worked on this card and the "As a level designer, I need to create clear boundaries for the player to restrict going off path" card at the same time because they coincided. I needed a terrain to visually layout the story and pathing of the level and I needed assets to get a feel of where the terrain elevates and comes in and out of the level. My first version was okay but from the feedback I got, the level would look much better with more color and shading, some height added to the level so that the level isn't completely flat, and assets spread out into the terrain and not just the area where the player moves in. 

Version 1

I did not really have any problems with adding assets in the level itself and populating the level. Adding height to the level itself was sort of a problem, however. Because the terrain would be decimated in blender so it would be low-poly, adding height within the level area (blue grid) would cause the terrain/ground to be uneven. There was a height difference, meaning some areas of the level were higher than others and this was sort of noticeable in-game because in those areas the map's grid would go into the terrain and come out. This would have been okay if it was at least around the small elevation pieces added into the area but it was in large portions of the level. While the elevation isn't tall, at most it's a 0 to 0.2 difference on the y-axis, the player movement does not detect elevation so it would be weird to see the player's feet go into the terrain as they move into some areas of the map. 

Terrain not flat, some areas slightly goes above the map grid 

The solution I had for this problem was done in two parts. First, in blender, I used a very low ratio of the decimate tool so the poly level was flattened as much as possible, and then I resculpted the terrain using blender's modeling tools to flatten it further by smoothening the vertices, this also meant the height added into the level would be shortened considerably. The picture below shows that the mounds with the mountains are much smaller and shorter.

Solution in blender

Then finally, in Unity, I moved the terrain down by -0.08 on the y-axis so most of the elevation would be below the map grid and I used the assets to hide the grid lines that go into any uneven terrain. This meant shifting a lot of assets around and adding more unmovable tiles into my level. Regardless since the camera is from a slight top-down perspective the slight de-elevation of the terrain from the map grid might not even be too noticeable. In the end, I feel like my level is a lot more natural with the height added and a rework of the level's assets. I'm proud of what it came to be and it feels like my hard work paid off. 

Most current version

With this, both the "As a level designer, I need to populate my level with current assets to get the tone of the level established." card and the "As a level designer, I need to create clear boundaries for the player to restrict going off path" card are verified and completed. My remaining cards are "As a level designer, I need to set up the lighting of the level so the atmosphere of the level matches the theme." and "As a level designer, I need to playtest my level to check for discrepancies so the level flows smoothly." I'm currently in-progress with the card about lighting and the latter card is more of a continuous card that goes beyond just 1 sprint. So overall, I feel like I got a lot done this sprint. And now that all our levels are moved into the main Unity project, we'll be able to add assets as they are added into the project and keep up with the rest of the team. I can't wait to fully furnish my level with enemies and player characters so that the level is playable and has clear objectives. Until the next one, cheers!