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BECOME HUMANS

Project Pitch.

The Love Story between a Human and a Machine.

Level Design Focused Project

Project Pitch.

Experience Goals:
  • Allow for a variety of playstyles
  • Challenge stealth-inclined players with multiple routes to take down unsuspecting enemies
  • Explore and learn about the characters and game world through environmental storytelling moments
Key Responsibilities:
  • Designed and built the level blockout
  • Documented and iterated level quality
  • Wrote all narrative content and designed narrative flows
  • Designed and Scripted combat encounters
  • Scripted a custom weapon 
  • Decorated the whole level to shippable quality using available assets
  • Carried out the lighting pass to add aesthetic depth
Project Info.

Project Information.

Engine: Creation Kit: Fallout 4
Mod for: Fallout 4
Work Time: Feb 2023 - May 2023
Team Size: Solo Dev
Play Time: 30 - 45 minutes
Features:

  • Customized Freezing Grenade

  • Multiple Endings

  • Environmental Storytelling

Become Humans is a Fallout 4 mod level containing a side quest story in a small world with a well-structured interior space.

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This level is about helping a father rescue his daughter, who was kidnapped by a robot for dangerous research. Yet, later, the situation turns into two meaningful choices with different consequences impacting the protagonists' fate and the game's small world, providing a total gaming experience of 30-45 minutes mixing combat and narrative.

Overview & Level Maps.

Design Process.

After recognizing scale and sightline issues in the whitebox pass, I adjusted and polished the level following the initial visual blueprint that I designed in the Level Design Document: the quest takes place on a small peninsula where the player can see the ocean.

Based on the players' feedback in the whitebox pass, the biggest challenge I encountered was that the church modular assets in Fallout 4 were all too high and required ample space for stairs. To address this issue, I:

  • Reconstructed some secular rooms with small modular pieces

  • Increased the gap among some rooms to allow building stairs

  • Combined rooms to become a larger hallway for stairs

While making the level aesthetically pleasing, another challenge I met was that the church wall's modular pieces are similar colors. It creates a visually boring color pattern in my level. However, to maintain my interior decorative theme, I can only replace some of them. 

 

Eventually, after reviewing my aesthetic references, I fixed this issue by:

  • Adding wall adds-on such as flags, paintings, decals, and lamps to break the repetitive pattern

  • Decorating rooms according to their functionalities in real-world monasteries

  • Replacing walls in different colors for secular rooms such as toilets, libraries, kitchens, etc.

Design Goals.

Design Goals.

Clearness

Sightlines, Forshadowing & Conveyance

Reusability

Maximum Reuse 

Featured Space

Diversity

Mutiple play styles are encourged

Design Goal 1.

#1 Clearness.

Sightlines, Pinching & Light Contrast

Portfolio_framming 1_annoted.png

The following techniques ensure the player's sightline is toward the goal in the level.

  • Camera angle pointing toward the goal

  • Assets with distinctive colors as color contrast

  • Special Object as a landmark

  • Light contrast highlighting landmark

  • Pinching: Have assets pointing to the goal in the environment 

Foreshadowing

Right after talking with an important NPC, standing at the entrance of the building, the player will have another good view of the next goal, the entrance of the side yard of the monastery, with multiple eye-catching elements around it.

Portfolio_backward shortcut_foreshadowing_annoted.png

While the player is walking down the hills from the entrance of the small world, a small combat takes place to: 

  • Foreshadow upcoming enemy types

  • Preview the effect of custom weapons

  • Raise the player's excitement with a Wow moment

Design Goal 2.

#2 Reusability.

Maximum Reuse of Featured Space

Portfolio_resuse of space_floor 1_annoted_edited.png

Design Pivot — The Foyer is the most eye-catching spot in a monastery. I maximized this aspect first by designing my flow around the central Nave.

20230507124548_1.jpg

Reuse Pivot - The Foyer in the central of the level serves 3 purposes:

  • Combat Areas for two main encounters in the quest

  • Navigation anchor for the player

  • The place where the main narratives take place

Design Goal 3.

#3 Diversity.

Multiple Play Styles Choices​​​

Portfolio_multi_game_style_2_annoted.png

The following playstyles are encouraged by weapon loot, cover placement, game object placement, and enemy patrolling routes.

  • Stealth

  • Close Ranged

  • Ranged

  • Melee

  • Sniper

Postmortem.

Postmortem.

What Went Well?

  • Best Reuse of Space

    • Central Nave serves multiple purposes​

    • Flow reusing front plaza eliminates backtracking

  • Good Verticality

    • All combats take place in spots with different verticality​ level

    • Also, facilities for different play styles

  • Balance Works Well

    • Level difficulty perfectly fits in the given level of enemies​

    • The customized weapon is powerful but requires a smart strategy

What Went
Wrong?

  • Space & Scale Estimation

    • Messed up scale matrix while blocking out the level layout

    • Too many planned key features resulted in a lot of cuts

  • Dialogues Flow

    • ​Only 3 characters act as telling a story involving dreams, lovers, father's love, and robot rights

    • Dialogues' information points are too concentrated

  • Too many rooms with doors

    • Space is too divided by walls causing too many rooms to get in and out

What I
Learned?

  • Do not overdo cover

    • Cover should be representative before its position is fixed

    • Do not bring in details for cover because it will affect flow estimation

  • A flow chart is a good tool for structuring key points of an understandable story

    • An outline of key points of the story shouldn't mix with additional info

    • Characters' flavor dialogue should come after key points

Gallery.

Gallery.

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