Parasitic Sprint 6 Blog Post

Parasitic Level Design Post#6

I prioritized finalizing the level I was working on Sprint 6. So most of the cards assigned to me this sprint are the final pieces I need to add to my level as well as the rollover playtesting cards. Since I was almost done with all my cards near the end of the sprint I was also assigned to look for audio. The cards assigned to me are: 

• "As a level designer, I need to hook up the unique win condition in each of my levels. (1)"
• "As a level designer, I need to play through my level to test for discrepancies or errors. (1)" [Sprint 4]
• "As a level designer, I need to populate the Dead Forest level with current assets to get the tone of the level established. (1)"
• "As a level designer, I need to set up the lighting in the level to match the theme. (1)"
• "As a level designer, I need to playtest my level to check for discrepancies so the level flows smoothly. (1)" [Sprint 5]
• "As a player, I want to hear a swoosh and glass shatter as I throw a health potion to one of my teammates as an archer. (1) (Ability 2) (3 Different Clips)"
• "As a player, I want to hear flames as my bow lights up to show my upgraded attack. (1) (Ability 1) (3 Different Clips)"
• "As a player, I want to hear the swift pullback and let go of a bow and arrow when I attack as the archer. (1) (Attack) (3 Different Clips)"

The two cards I worked on coincidently during the beginning of this Sprint were populating my level and added mood-fitting lighting to the level. Populating my level took a while since I wanted to make sure the trees were not too big compared to the player models which would break immersion and I also had to make sure the branches weren't too close to each other so the players can actually see what was going on on the ground level. I also used the small leaf assets to make piles of levels that cover the floor of the level. There were three types of leaf piles. The yellow Ginko leaves would do a better job at drawing the player's attention and I used them to hint at secret locations or branching pathways that might or might not reward the player. 

Ginko Leaf Piles (Treasure/Secret Area Indicators)

The next piles are maple leaves that were used to cover empty space between trees, they indicate areas that players could not move towards/enter. 

Maple Leaf Piles (No Entry/Off-Limit Indicators)

The last and biggest piles are normal, plain leaves. These are not very visible but they path the way for the player. The reason I used this was to hint where the paths are in the level but since they are not obviously visible, the player would need to look closer and pay attention to find this "cheat". 

Normal Leaf Pile (Outline of paths)

These details took pretty long since I also had to move other assets around them. The whole scene probably has a total tri count of 10+M considering one camera frame is 1-2M tris. I was a bit scared of this since I wasn't sure if having this many assets would lag the level or not. Luckily Alex said that as long as the frames didn't drop below 60 or when playtesting things don't lag, it would be okay. While the assets took a while, I'm really happy with how the level turned out. There's a lot of details in the level that probably isn't even noticeable or many players would just brush off but I'd be very happy if someone were to notice the leaves placed gently on the rocks and the crates in the level. 

Tris of the starting area in the level

I also tweaked the lighting for this level. My first "draft" was a grey-blue that seemed like a bright evening or a foggy sunrise for the level. 

But it was a bit too bright for a "dead forest" level most likely set in the evening or late at night. So I went back and changed the key light intensity from 1 to .3 as advised. The dark lighting does really give a scary and unsettling vibe to the level since the player would feel cramped and lost. 

After finishing these cards, I did playtesting for the level to make sure the assets do not block the player or hinder the flow of the level. Since this was before adding the level's objectives/win-conditions, the level was pretty difficult. Since this is Level 4, more enemies were of a more advanced and higher tier, meaning they do more damage and had more HP. Players also took a bit longer to level up and get points to unlock abilities. It would take a couple of plays to defeat all the 45 total enemies in the level and win. The player characters had a better chance of survival if they stayed together since the level was more maze-like. Unlike my first level with plenty of open space, if the players split up in this level, it would be difficult to regroup. 

After making sure the player can actually win the level and that the flow and difficulty felt smooth, I added the win-condition to the level. For my level, I made the win-condition for the player was to defeat the boss at the end of the maze, the brood enemy. This was really easy thanks to our amazing programmers, Chase explained it to the level designers in a quick and easy-to-understand way as well. I'm really grateful that we have an amazing team. 

Win-condition/Objective feature added

At this time, my only card left was to playtest so I asked the leads to give me more cards to work on. Dylan asked me to do some of the audio, specifically the sound effects for the Archer abilities. I finished up a few more playtests which made me feel that my level was at a great level of flow and difficulty after some tweaks. I'm currently looking for audio clips that best fit the Archer's abilities. 

So the cards that will roll over from this sprint are: 

• "As a player, I want to hear a swoosh and glass shatter as I throw a health potion to one of my teammates as an archer. (1) (Ability 2) (3 Different Clips)"
• "As a player, I want to hear flames as my bow lights up to show my upgraded attack. (1) (Ability 1) (3 Different Clips)"
• "As a player, I want to hear the swift pullback and let go of a bow and arrow when I attack as the archer. (1) (Attack) (3 Different Clips)"

We have almost reached the finish line! The next sprint is our seventh and last sprint. I'm amazed at how awesome our game has become and at all the people who worked very hard on it. I can't wait to see how it will be finalized. So until then!