Level Design Blog Week 11 - Pyramid Climbing Cutscene + Level Overhaul

The Pyramid

During this week I created one of my more complicated cutscenes. This cutscene is of the player climbing up the side of the pyramid, I added this as I was making sure that the player didn't have to spend 45 seconds, spamming the space bar to get to their next location. The video below shows the cutscene.

In the cutscene I climbed the pyramid myself, using the take recorder I recorded the player character, I then added in additional shots of the player as they climbed using the "new camera shot" tool. Using a sub-sequencer I was able to add in the player moving that I recorded with the take recorder (which I first enabled in the plugins section, before any of this). I cut out any un-needed footage and went on to create the cutscene that you see above.

Level Overhaul

From the pyramid climbing cutscene video, a noticeable difference is how the level looks compared to last week, this is because I decided to go into it and change the general layout.

Below is a top down view of my newly created area:

Before picture:

After Picture:

Before:

After: New Area with its own story objective/AI:

Within this new area, the player will have to fight a variety of AI, snipers, normal AI, assault AI and then they will have to take out a VIP character and retrieve their laptop.

The Pipe

Seen in the newer images above, their is now a pipe that runs along the entirety of the "Egypt" level, this pipe is important to the story and tells the player where to go, it acts as a weenie, the player will eventually be told " follow the pipes, we don't know what they are", so that the player has a hint towards the pipes basically being their guide through-out the map.

The Ruins

The Ruins have also been improved, they now have working AI as well as looking a bit more like overrun ruins. The player will have multiple ways to get past the ruins, going through the small short cave (seen in gameplay video). Using the underground, or using the crate to hop over the fence. An image of the ruins can be found below:

The Sand Dune

A large sand storm rolled through the area and created this large sand dune in-front of the ruins, the player can go 3 separate ways to go, left, over the top or right. If the player goes over the top they get a very nice vantage point of the area.

The Danger Zone

The player can either go in guns blazing, or try and avoid the AI. A large group of assault AI guard a shotgun AI while they patrol the map, a sniper gives overwatch to the area. The player can follow the pipes leading up the pyramid to get to the pyramid cutscene, or they can die trying. The barrels surrounding the area are explosive, and do a great job at flattening the playing field.

What Are The Pipes For?

The Pyramid acts as a weenie for the player, they know that they have to get to it, but the pipes guide them. Combining the pipes with the pyramid was inevitable. The player is now trying to find out what the pipes lead to.