Overview
This page is going to go through the process of how I build and populate a level for a Far Cry 5 outpost in an attempt to learn more about level design and the processes that go towards to develop a map/level. To do this I will be using the Far Cry 5 Arcade level editor and will be utilising all the assets that accompany it to show off some of my skills I have picked up during my time at university. By accomplishing this I will hope to use this as a portfolio piece and let other people to gain insight into what my thoughts were and the reasons behind the choices I made while constructing the level.
Additional Information
Made in: Far Cry V Arcade
Duration: 3 weeks (part time)
Completion: Completed
Platform: Windows PC
- Progression Blog Posts -
12/12/2018 - Well That's A Wrap
It's all done, final details have been added and I have made up a little video to showcase the level at the Synergy Event at Brisbane SAE/QANTM. Overall I'm am really happy with the progress I have made over the time while creating the project and I am quite keen to do something similar again in the near future utilising some of the other features or possibly another engine/builder. To be honest when setting out I was a little unsure how it would end up since I haven't built a complete level from scratch before, so to get as far as I did was a big step forward for myself. Although there were some small things that didn't get implemented due to functionality of the level or time constraints (since I wanted to have it done ready for the Synergy Event), everything was working so yay!
Below is the video of the final project to be presented at the event.
So that's it. It's not exactly how I wanted to present it as I wanted it to be more of a demo reel/playthrough of the level but due some changes as stated before this wouldn't have been possible to work how I wanted it to so I adjusted and made this which ended up just as good.
I'll also share a link to my Level Design Document for those who are interested.
I thank anyone who has taken the time to read this and followed my process and hopefully I can do something like it in the near future.
9/12/2018 - Finishing Touches
The end is in sight, the final touches are being placed around the scene and I am really happy with how this whole thing is coming together. Looking at my last post things have really changed meaning I have plenty to talk about, so let's jump straight into it.
So I guess I'll just start from where I left off from last time which was basically from the main features of the fortress completed but lacking that detail part and that is exactly what I have been up to. Filling in the blanks and not just that but even started and somewhat finished the rest of the map as well. It'll be easier with a picture so I'll just show you then explain it after.
So to makes things easier for myself I broke the fortress up into even more sections, going off the image above the far left side was the barracks and communications area, in which I focused the objects in that area to be more electronic and tech based. The middle section was the command and training area, so in this area was a small firing range accompanied by posts/watch towers above. Then in the bottom section was mainly the supplies and resources section which I filled with a bunch of crates and miscellaneous products, basically anything I could find that I thought could fit the area.
Whilst doing all this detail work I had to continually ask myself the question of "what happens in a combat situation?", where is the cover, where do the enemies come from, which way are we wanting to push the player, does it support how we want the player to play? So this lead to a lot of me just having to jump in and test things out myself. Which was kind of hard as I am the one making it and other people that I was able to get playtest it either weren't good at video games (which wasn't terrible but difficult at the same time) or were limited with when they could play it. So that wasn't easy.
Overall though, this part of the process has been the most enjoyable part of the process. This I believe is because I have found it to be challenging but not frustrating, as it gives me the opportunity to try different things and get creative with some of the assets available. Plus on top of this I get to make things look cool and I'm about those aesthetics. Moving forward now I plan to be wrapping things up, finishing off any small details missed and present everything that I have done in a showcase video.
To be continued...
23/11/2018 - Beginning to Come Together
Made a bundle of progress since the last time I've posted. Some of the tasks I managed to complete were figuring out the complete level flow, terrain shading, the main placeholder elements in, a more fleshed out river and finally begun getting some of the final objects starting to make their way into the scene.
One of the first major areas that I have worked on since the last time I talked was the level flow. Which I had a basic graph drawn up already, however this time I went through properly and detailed it out some more. In this included a diagram of the map with number out sections of where key elements are meant to take place and the desired route the player will take when playing. These where accompanied by detailed paragraphs about each section detailing what the player should see, the pace of that area and the possible encounters they could potentially face. Doing this allows me to breakdown the scene into sections and ensure that I'm not missing any areas the player will come across.
Documentation wasn't the only thing I did though, during this time I was also able to get some of the stuff done in the scene. More work was done on the terrain, more specifically terrain shading and foliage was introduced and made a dramatic impact straight away on the look and feel of the level. As you can see in the image below the change makes a massive difference of the shape of the level and the shading really helps creating height and depth of objects whereas it use to blend in much more before and I was quite happy with the result.
Moving on from this and seeing some progress being made in the aesthetics of the scene, I felt like it was a good time to get rid of the ugly grey blockout wall and replace it with the much nice prison walls. However not this did not completely go to plan, the current layout of the walls the and walls that I wanted t use had a bit of a conflict. In the greybox I had to of the walls on the front of the fortress at an angle, but due to the assets I have selected they would only work in right angles. So some changes had to be made. This resulted in some buildings having to move some different lengths of walls having to be changed. This wasn't a drastic change but however still quite tedious and extra work I would have preferred to miss but you got to do what you got to do.
Another not so much issue but something still to work around was the river and transition into the fortress. With no prison wall bridges in the assets folder, I had to make something work with what I have. The end result being a mixture of fences, platforms and tunnel pieces coming together and to be honest I was quite happy with the final product(Should be able to spot in the top right corner).
Following this I felt in a groove and continued working on getting some of the final main assets in to begin filling out the level. In this part I had o figure which assets I wanted for the core buildings I had being the barracks, captains quarters and warehouse. As I didn't know everything that was in the asset pack, it was a little bit of trial and error in getting the right building for each category. In these decisions I ahd to ask myself some questions about what to choose for each area. Like does this building fit the theme of the fortress? Does the building work with the flow of the level? How would the AI live in this area? Among countless other questions. So this essentially came down to myself finding something that I like that fits the level then going in and doing a playtest of how that would work in that situation. Finally after a while I was able to settle on the following selections seen below.
That's basically it for everything done this time. Moving forward I want to begin to start on filling in the remaining areas and possibly start getting some AI in the scene, as that's going to be the true test on whether this level layout will truly work or not.
To be continued...
8/11/2018 - Setting Up the Fortress
This week I wanted to start to get some sort of layout of the fortress so I can begin testing things to get a feel for how the level will play out. These things would be like building placements, types of areas in the compound and paths that the player can take to get around and traverse the fortress.
So where did I begin? On pen and paper of course. Thankfully, last week I had planned what the player would do and the types of areas of the map there would be in my level design document. So using that information, it would basically be a puzzle to create each area that would be needed and start creating a layout that I believe would work best. While doing this I had to ask myself questions such as, why would the player go here or how will this work with another thing? This resulted in the image below.
With a rough idea of what I want in the level, I could jump into the scene and start grey boxing something and that's exactly what I did. Now before anyone starts asking questions about the assets I chose, they aren't what I would be using for the final product but are of a similar size to what I want to be there and are able to give a sense of scale for the area. This resulted in the following image.
As you can see there was way too much open space compared to the layout plan that I had. So I had a choice to make, either put more into the outpost to fill in the big spaces or do I make the area smaller and have a smaller outpost and I chose the latter.
You may still believe there is still too much open space and there may be but I wanted to wait it out and see if filling in the scene with some of the details such as vehicles, trees, etc. will fill in that space before I start cramping the area too soon. So for now it will stay like this and I'll move to adding the other thing in my design being the paths/roads and water.
Just the subtle change of changing the ground texture made the area feel more cohesive. I was surprised that just having that path from one building to another would give as much direction as it did and I could really see the level coming together with this change which is very pleasing.
However since I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to have due to other projects taking priority over this one, this is only as far as I got for the week.
To be continued...
31/10/2018 - Getting Started
Everything needs planning and that is where I began. This was in the form of a level design document. This is where I was able o develop my idea of what I wanted to do and the possibilities of what this could be.
I began my process by writing out a list of everything that I can use in game, from weapons to vehicles and different AI that could be in the level. Knowing all this I could began starting to plan what you would actually do in this level. Thanks to a level design talk I saw at GCAP by Rob Davis about the level design in God of War, he talked about how they built a level. For them, they based the level around three core pillars and I wanted to do the same. These core pillars being Combat, Exploration and Narrative.
With this in mind I was able to create a short summary of what would take place in the level and a step by step of how the player should play the level (if everything is done correctly). Now knowing all this, I was pretty keen to get into it and begin a greybox of a potential level and that's what I did.
So to begin I did some mock ups of potential shapes of what the fortress might look like from a birds eye view, then once I was happy with one I did up something in the editor using a bunch of rectangle blocks.
Resulting in this:
This was to get a sense of the size and scale of everything. So it took a little bit of fiddling to make things feel a little better and get it to where I wanted it to. What you see above is the final design I settled on for now and moved onto messing with the terrain a little bit.
This was an important part of the level and where I spent a lot more time than what I originally expected. Smoothing it out and raising and lowering it until the terrain started reaching a shape I wanted then testing it out and making sure heights felt right, and that the terrain did what I desired.
This is the shape I made, still needs adjusting at this moment but gives the info that I need. What I wanted is the outpost to be up on a hill and a vantage point to the left of the outpost that the player can run up and scout out the facility. Again it will change when things like roads and nature stuff gets implemented but until then this will do what it needs to do.
To be continued...
