Level Design

Rift Loopers required a large amount of procedural level design, but also some traditional design for its final raid level. I will go over both here.

Invaded City

Concept and Planning

I decided to base the level on Queens, New York for a handful of reasons.

  • The algorithm I inherited relied on a right angle grid, like most American cities.

  • The isometric camera meant it could be easily obstructed by tall buildings.

  • Stylistically, Rift Loopers was based on classic 80s action movies like Escape From New York, Robocop and The Running Man. So setting it in the home of many such action movies was a no-brainer.

I was inspired by X-COM 2’s level generator and how it builds large, medium and small POIs and slots them into allotments on the grid (https://youtu.be/5jrq5rDI4dk?si=P2M36l4u6O7CTpFp).

This gave me a laundry list of potential building types, large car parks, medium-sized apartments and small alleyways to meld the level together. By balancing these, I was able to satisfy key gameplay requirements like multiplayer-centric spacing, enemy spawn areas and flow routes.

Cells

A few examples of building types for this level. I built these on the assumption that the building would block flow, and the gazebo would encourage it. By mixing these types together, I ended up with a level that required thought and planning to traverse.

Art

The decoration of this level had two components.

  • In-world props; bins, benches, litter, vehicles, lamp posts, etc.

  • Biomass. The flesh-like alien goop covering a large portion of the map.

Fixed (or nearly) fixed place assets like benches, bins or lamp posts are placed according to specific, authored locations in the level. Cars are placed, or not placed according to designated locations on roads or in parking spaces. Trash was spread with a PCG framework.

Biomass is attached to props. The combination of these two facets of random placement gave me an extremely random-feeling layout of props and obstacles.

The border of the level was a fixed tide of alien biomass.

The Raid

Concept and Planning

This level was intended to be an ultra-hard piece of end game content, designed to be played, failed, studied and overcome - like a WoW raid.

It was thematically set in the lab from which the “alien” originated.

It had a number of objectives.

  • Encompass 30 - 45 minutes of gameplay.

    • My valves for this were:

      • Spacing metrics.

      • Enemy strength.

      • Enemy amounts.

      • Boss strength.

      • Amount of subsections.

  • Feature self-contained subsections, each with a final definitive encounter.

    • See how these have been denoted in the blockout with green, yellow, red and black walls.

  • Feature varied gameplay styles.

Blockout

Art