Echoes of the Fallen

The Last of Us inspired combat level

THE GOAL

The goal was to create a combat experience with an alternating tempo. My inspirations was 'The Last of Us' and 'Days Gone', which offer very different pacing. This level demonstrates my skills as a level designer and i aimed for reaching a rough Whitebox.

TIME

5 weeks (half time)

SOFTWARE

Unreal engine 5

IWALS Template

Enemy AI

Player and weapons

Summary

A third person action combat level with multiple goals, alternating environments, environmental storytelling and scripted events.

Narrative Pitch

As a spy during world war 2, you set out to gather intel and destroy the enemy's base of operations.

INSPIRATION AND PRE-PROD

Miro

Link:

Pureref

Link:

COMBAT DESIGN

Combat Techniques I have used:

Flanking positions
Both stealth and open combat
Dwelling and roaming spaces

Iterative process

I spent the first two weeks focusing on exploring different layouts. I made a blockout level specifically to test the flow and modularity of a WWII trench system.

At the start, the trench layout felt too linear. Instead I leaned towards a more open level design.

By choosing a hard reference I was able to break the "corridor" feel and introduce more player agency. From the first iteration to the second I made the space more open to better fit in my landmark and end goal, being the theatre. I kept the building to the right as an alternate sneak route.

Reference

First iteration

Second iteration

I had originally intended for the level having a snow storm mechanic that would damage the player, forcing them to seek shelter. Because of time constraints i eventually decided to cut the mechanic, as the level became more of a linear combat experience.

Overview

Level walkthrough

Tension and Gameplay Graph

Three Act Structure

Act 1

Setting the scene

The level starts with onboarding the player with the current setting and reveals short, mid and long term goals

Act one offers a 'show don't tell' scripted event, a stealth encounter and a traversing part

Itterations

Originally I planned the level to have a bridge but I was uncertain where its placement should be.

After building the village it became clear that the bridge should be at the start of the level as a traversal part.

The bridge also reveals the long term goal as the player climbs the outer part of the bridge.

Act 2

Act two encourages the player to use the verticality in the area to build better sight lines towards enemies.

Once the player completes their secondary goal finding the intel, a new objective is revealed.

At the end of the act the player get their first glimpse of the zombie threat attacking survivors in the streets.

Itterations

At the start the purpose of this area was to research of 'the last of us' level design and find a smooth workflow that worked for me.

After placing enemy patrol paths and playtesting i found something that worked. I could then iterate on the space even further and make it my own.

After several iterations exploring verticality, I implemented a 'rabbit hole effect'

By forcing a sudden drop that disrupts the player’s mental map, I created an sense of entrapment and heightened tension.

Senses

I scripted a see through shader for the player, because this make it easier to spot enemies on their patrolling paths. Also makes it easier for the player to control the encounter to their advantage.

Funnel before reveal

I designed the end of Act 2 to feel increasingly claustrophobic, using that tension to make the Act 3 reveal feel even bigger.

It funnels the player toward a vantage point that frames the entire next area.

Decompression zone

I built in a 'decompression zone' before combat encounters to give the player some breathing space before the encounter.

It’s designed to give them a clear line of sight and plenty of cover so they can scout the arena and plan their approach before the first shot is fired.

Act 3

Act three introduces a plot twist with a new enemy which increases the combat pacing. This required more player movement and a larger area.

I expanded the combat arenas to provide more breathing room. Since the zombies are attacking the other enemies the player faces a choice to either engage in combat or sneak past the chaos

Iterations

In the first iterations i planned the encounter to have a large building to serve a clear long term goal for the player.

I had ideas of it being a naval base with a submarine, connected to the river nearby. I ended up with a theatre drawing strong inspiration from the call of duty zombies map 'Kino Der Toten'

The theatre became a strong end scene for the player to defend an objective with high intensity combat.

I made the theater in a separate level to focus on the interior design.

Later I imported the theatre in the main level, refined the layout to better support the combat.

It was important to me that i invited player movement in this area. It was important to give the player enough space to run away from zombies.

Player Agency

Combat aproach

To avoid linear combat, I added multiple paths, supporting cover-to-cover combat and vantage points to manipulate the encounter.

To avoid the combat spaces becoming to linear i designed multiple paths where the player can find more verticality and cover.

If the player would get overwhelmed they could always find 'high refuge' areas to recover their advantage against the enemy.

Stealth aproach

The player can choose a stealth approach, allowing players to stalk targets for silent takedowns.

In case of the player being detected, they could always find 'high refuge' areas to reset the encounter and return to a hidden state.

Scripted events

Show dont tell

Showing soldiers working on something and an accident happens, killing both the soldiers. This creates an opportunity for the player to stealth kill the remaining soldier and teaches them about the trap for the future encounters.

Using what you learned

Later I'm showing the same object to the player creating another opportunity for the player to kill some enemies

Defend the bomb

At the end of the level I wanted the gameplay to shift to a more aggressive play style.

When the player plants the bomb enemies will spawn and rush the towards player. The player now has to use what they learned through the level and use the environment to their advantage.

Closing thoughts

All and all i am happy with the turn out of this level, it shows a lot of different pacing, combat variations and level design techniques. If I where to remake this level I would make some areas bigger and divert even further from linear experience by adding more exploration in the level and more environmental story telling moments. I would also find ways to integrate the snow mechanic into the level, making the combat encounters stand out even more.

Full playthrough

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