My level following the 8 steps:

8 Steps of level design

My level – Abandoned Lab

1 Idea.

My idea is to design an abandoned lab out in the North Pole.

I am inspired and excited to create this level as it fills me with ideas as to what do with the different rooms and corridors. Labs can be full of twisted experiments with people and animals. The level will be from a horror game.

2. Purpose and Features.

The purpose of this idea is to create a level full of strange and scary items. A corridor full of rooms can create apprehension for the player, much like Silent Hill, you dread what you might find behind the door.

The reasons and purpose for this level is to confuse and frighten the player.

I want to pursue it to completion, as the ideas I have to fill this level are exciting and frightening.

3. Locations and Environment.

Where- A (not quite) abandoned lab out in the middle of nowhere in the North Pole. The exterior is a plain grey concrete building that looks neither welcoming nor particularly unpleasant. It gives the player no idea.

The interior is dull, grey, full of cobwebs and abandoned experiments and jars, failed experiments and bedrooms, canteens etc.

Its set in the future, but the lab was abandoned more in the 40s and 50s. The weather and time of day is not noticeable as the player spends all their time in the abandoned labs, when they travel from one to another the time of day and weather changes.

4. Photo reference.

I will give this section its own blog post.

5. Story.

The environments story is it was once a test centre during the war, the scientists wanted to find ways to poison the Nazis in various ways. This particular lab was abandoned after an experiment went wrong and the air was too toxic to work in and people died from the toxicity, it is now safe for people to walk around but the damage means it was left to disrepair.

The player finds himself or herself there after visiting the Arctic as part of a family who travel for scientific research around the world. The weather means the family got separated and found different abandoned labs. The first level sees the player playing as the mum who has found the nuclear research lab. They all must find their way back to each other or their Winnebago.

6. Objectives and Obstacles.

Goals the player has to complete in this particular level are, once they find themselves in the lab, the front door jams. So they must move forward through the corridors looking in each room to help them find objects needed to progress, such as keys to get into the next corridor or to the stairs. Puzzles will also be in the game, small ones that mean the player can get to an item they couldn’t reach before or it may open a locked chest or wardrobe to get more clues as to what went on and to get to the next section of the level.

Enemies will also feature. These will feature mutated people and animals. The boss at the end of each level will be a scientist still there and heavily mutated. His presence will be felt throughout the level, as with each levels scientist.

I will create an Obstacle Mind Map Tree for this.

7. Top Down Map

I will do a separate blog post for a few sketches of level ideas.

8. Focal points

I need to think about focal points for my level, they must have a functional and aesthetic purpose. When the player sees it for the first time or gets a hint its there, they want to reach it causing them to move forward in the level. Once they do know of whatever the focal point is they can then use it find themselves in the level should they get lost. So it needs to be noticeable and obvious as a focal point, like a statue or something. These can also make the players feel good as it shows progress. It does need to make sense; my level is a lab so it could be, a statue of a famous scientist or a memorial of some kind.