Pazifik Watertown - modular level design
polycounter lvl 2
Hello all, this is my first post here and it features a level I designed for Uebergame called Pazifik Watertown.
It is inspired by an old custom map I made for the game FarCry 1, where I piled a lot of wood cabins on poles on the water, which turned out to be a nice small deathmatch map. I chose to do it as a contrast to my other levels which are mostly terrains and vegetation and because it is relatively easy to build since it does not require that many assets for the basics, since I'm quite lazy. I did chose a modular design, because I want players in my game to be able to quickly build their own custom made maps and for that it is good to have as much re-usable content as possible.
Asset breakdown:
Pier modules I build, these will be our foundation, a small one, a long one and a big one. All planks are modeled out so you can look through them and see the water or eventually players swimming below you, which is quite a nice feature and the polycount budget allows for that, since they are all low polycount anyway. These will give quite a lot variation, since they can be combined, scaled and rotated so they look a bit different every time.
House modules. I chose a set of simple wooden huts, with a very basic inner layout so players can hide in them. One set with straw roofes and one set a little more modern with metal roofs. The metal roofed versions I created variations on their color using vertex paint, so I can re-use the same textures, but they have a different color. The houses also can be scaled slightly to offer some variation.
Frontal preview shot of the final level, as you can see I also build a big lighthouse, since it fits the scenery and I needed some kind of landmark, to break the repetitiveness of the rest of the level and to offer some vertical gameplay. The lighthouse may look out of proportion, but that is because it has to be that big, since it has a staircase and rooms inside and both need to be big enough to at least allow two players pass each other ( 2x1 meters) so players do not block each other inside the building all the time. So it is a compromise between realism and deathmatch level.
This is an aerial view of the whole map, you can see that it offers some round courses, since deathmatch levels should not have too many dead ends, since it interrupts the gameplay flow. What you cannot see here that good is that there are also some connection between the round courses that go through buildings, some go underwater and some go over the roofs, so gameplay can take place on multiple levels, which adds a nice variation.
An inside shot from the lighthouse, where you can see the spiral staircase and the room in the middle, pretty basic interiors, mostly empty.
And here an ingame screenshot how it looks inside the game, it is also on one of multiple ways you can exit the water, so you can actually swim under water to a different entrance where you can get out again. Additionally there are many spots on the map, which allow you to climp on the roofs, so you can quickly go from middle, to top, to down into the water and up again.
As other levels this is also playable at different daytimes like dawn:
Day:
Night:
And in rain:
This offers some nice variation with little efford as I just have to change weather conditions like sun, lighting, clouds, fog, rain and some post effects.
Overall my experience with modular game design is, that it is not that practical, as it took me quite a long time to assemble the level, while modeling the invidual assets is quite quick, so if I would combine the time I spend modeling the modular assets and combining them into a level, then I could have made much more unique geometry in the same time, which then would not be very modular. But this way I can re-use the assets eventually later and add them also into other levels and of course so users can make their own levels with them, so it is always a compromise and depending on the situation, so if I would have to make one individual level only I would not chose a modular design.
My modeling skills may not that impressive compared to some others here, but my goal was to get a level designed as fast as possible, since I planned to create 3 new levels for my new version of Uebergame, so I had to be quick and only a maximum time of 1 month per level, however this turned out much faster. I don't really know how long it took me to build, since it is just a hobby project and I do not work fulltime, but the lighthouse took me roughly 2 days to build, the pier models, maybe 1-2 days, the straw roof buildings also 1-2 days and the metal roof buildings also 1-2 days, so overall maybe a week of work for the assets and then maybe another week combining them into a level, but I only did a little bit every day, since assembling the repetitive assets got me bored quite fast, especially since my collisioncode seems not to be that good, so I had to do a lot of adjusting so the players do not get stuck, as well as managing so the bots can navigate properly. I planned to decorate it with some prop models, like crates, barrrels and that stuff I made earlier for the game, but in the end I was too lazy so I left it empty. Maybe I add them later. So overall this was roughly 2 weeks of work. You can try it out in realtime, if you want, the game is free, maybe it inspires someone in level design, or maybe someone wants to offer some criticism, which is also welcome.
It is inspired by an old custom map I made for the game FarCry 1, where I piled a lot of wood cabins on poles on the water, which turned out to be a nice small deathmatch map. I chose to do it as a contrast to my other levels which are mostly terrains and vegetation and because it is relatively easy to build since it does not require that many assets for the basics, since I'm quite lazy. I did chose a modular design, because I want players in my game to be able to quickly build their own custom made maps and for that it is good to have as much re-usable content as possible.
Asset breakdown:
Pier modules I build, these will be our foundation, a small one, a long one and a big one. All planks are modeled out so you can look through them and see the water or eventually players swimming below you, which is quite a nice feature and the polycount budget allows for that, since they are all low polycount anyway. These will give quite a lot variation, since they can be combined, scaled and rotated so they look a bit different every time.
House modules. I chose a set of simple wooden huts, with a very basic inner layout so players can hide in them. One set with straw roofes and one set a little more modern with metal roofs. The metal roofed versions I created variations on their color using vertex paint, so I can re-use the same textures, but they have a different color. The houses also can be scaled slightly to offer some variation.
Frontal preview shot of the final level, as you can see I also build a big lighthouse, since it fits the scenery and I needed some kind of landmark, to break the repetitiveness of the rest of the level and to offer some vertical gameplay. The lighthouse may look out of proportion, but that is because it has to be that big, since it has a staircase and rooms inside and both need to be big enough to at least allow two players pass each other ( 2x1 meters) so players do not block each other inside the building all the time. So it is a compromise between realism and deathmatch level.
This is an aerial view of the whole map, you can see that it offers some round courses, since deathmatch levels should not have too many dead ends, since it interrupts the gameplay flow. What you cannot see here that good is that there are also some connection between the round courses that go through buildings, some go underwater and some go over the roofs, so gameplay can take place on multiple levels, which adds a nice variation.
An inside shot from the lighthouse, where you can see the spiral staircase and the room in the middle, pretty basic interiors, mostly empty.
And here an ingame screenshot how it looks inside the game, it is also on one of multiple ways you can exit the water, so you can actually swim under water to a different entrance where you can get out again. Additionally there are many spots on the map, which allow you to climp on the roofs, so you can quickly go from middle, to top, to down into the water and up again.
As other levels this is also playable at different daytimes like dawn:
Day:
Night:
And in rain:
This offers some nice variation with little efford as I just have to change weather conditions like sun, lighting, clouds, fog, rain and some post effects.
Overall my experience with modular game design is, that it is not that practical, as it took me quite a long time to assemble the level, while modeling the invidual assets is quite quick, so if I would combine the time I spend modeling the modular assets and combining them into a level, then I could have made much more unique geometry in the same time, which then would not be very modular. But this way I can re-use the assets eventually later and add them also into other levels and of course so users can make their own levels with them, so it is always a compromise and depending on the situation, so if I would have to make one individual level only I would not chose a modular design.
My modeling skills may not that impressive compared to some others here, but my goal was to get a level designed as fast as possible, since I planned to create 3 new levels for my new version of Uebergame, so I had to be quick and only a maximum time of 1 month per level, however this turned out much faster. I don't really know how long it took me to build, since it is just a hobby project and I do not work fulltime, but the lighthouse took me roughly 2 days to build, the pier models, maybe 1-2 days, the straw roof buildings also 1-2 days and the metal roof buildings also 1-2 days, so overall maybe a week of work for the assets and then maybe another week combining them into a level, but I only did a little bit every day, since assembling the repetitive assets got me bored quite fast, especially since my collisioncode seems not to be that good, so I had to do a lot of adjusting so the players do not get stuck, as well as managing so the bots can navigate properly. I planned to decorate it with some prop models, like crates, barrrels and that stuff I made earlier for the game, but in the end I was too lazy so I left it empty. Maybe I add them later. So overall this was roughly 2 weeks of work. You can try it out in realtime, if you want, the game is free, maybe it inspires someone in level design, or maybe someone wants to offer some criticism, which is also welcome.