LEVEL SUMMARY
A newly assigned sheriff investigates a murder on a salt-mining planet.
STYLE: Open World/Mystery
DESIGN PROCESS
REFERENCES & PREPRODUCTION
Project Reference Board
INSPIRATIONS
In this level, I wanted to use an inspiration of 90% Brutalist architecture with a sci-fi twist. My special element is that this location is on a salt mining planet. I was inspired by sulfuric deserts sceneries and Blade Runner 2049.
A BIT OF GEEKYNESS
Alkali is a basic, an ionic salt that is soluble in water. I thought this would sound pretty cool as the name of the place we are visiting in that project.
ASKING QUESTIONS
Something I like to do when preparing my ideas is to ask me some simple questions that I answer with concepts that will guide me through making my levels:
WHO◽WHEN◽WHERE◽WHAT◽WHY◽HOW
Here are the answers I gave myself to guide me:
WHO: A Sheriff
WHEN: Future
WHERE: On a Salt Mining Planet
WHAT: Investigating a murder
WHY: It's your job. It's the first murder in this community, let's not make it a habit.
HOW: Explore the space, find clues, investigate the crime scene and talk to NPCs to gather information
I used Miro to make a rough idea of the different links in the story. In the end, it was not all implemented in the level but this would be the idea.
A rough pen sketch to think about the map.
ONE PAGER
One pager
GAMEPLAY INGREDIENTS & LEVEL HIGHLIGHTS
CUES◽LANDMARKS◽PICKUPS◽NPCS
CLUES: Follow clues in the environment to discover informations useful to your investigation.
LANDMARKS: The radio tower is an important landmark from which you can see the whole level.
PICKUPS: Pickup important evidences for your investigation.
NPCS: Talk to NPCs to know more about what happened
guiding the player
Here are some strategies I used to hint the player with visual cues.
☢️ RED: Red is used on things related to the investigation. The crime scene is lighten in red, but also cues are little red cubes you can find in the level.
☢️VARIATIONS OF COLORS: I used variations in color in some spaces to differentiate areas.
TOOL USED
UNREAL ENGINE 5◽PUREREF ◽BLENDER ◽PHOTOSHOP◽ALS V4 ◽SKETCHFAB◽MIRO
