Marigold Estate
A Third Person Stealth Level
Introduction
With this project I wanted to explore a narrative by setting up two versions of the same level. Where the intro would take place many years ahead from the post apocalypse.
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Marigold Estate is a post apocalyptic level focusing on level design and stealth design inspired by The Last of Us.
Summary
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Production Time: 4 weeks half-time
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Tools: Unreal Engine 5.3, Inkscape
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Template: Jakub IWALS 3.1
A Cold Opening
Setting The Tone
By creating a small intro for my level I wanted to set the tone immediately for the player.
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The goal of the intro was to make it short but impactful and establish goals for the player in the future.
Foreshadowing
Through the intro I foreshadow different events. For example the pool area, keycard and the character that you play.
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This design technique lets the player think and remember certain events for the future.​​
Mental Mapping
By foreshadowing events to the player I also let them mind map their way around the mansion.
I wanted the pool area, the office and the stairwell to be memorable for the player when they later return. ​
Checkov's Keycard
With the keycard I got inspired by the Checkov's Gun method, which means that you present an item that doesn't seem to have an importance.
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But in the intro I used it in a way that you place it inside a safe and you don't really know what's it's used for.
What just Happened?
At the end of the intro level I force the player to die to a zombie. ​By doing this I subvert the expectations of that the character is the main protagonist.
But instead I created more questions towards what will happen next and how does this intro tie into the level itself?
The Post Apocalypse
The Window
The player discovers that the lab door needs a keycard. The player turns around and sees a window with curtains.
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In this moment the player should remember the intro sequence and know that a keycard should be up in that room.
Stealth Encounters
The second part of the level is about stealth so I wanted the encounters to be exposing and tension rising.
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I wanted the player to move between covers and time it against the zombie's patrol, the player also has to cross the patrol paths. Giving the player a bit of fear of getting caught.
Environmental Storytelling
While building the level I wanted both versions to be distinct from each other.
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By working with environmental storytelling I added different debris and objects to the house that would tell a story about how long the house has been without maintenance.
Is That... Him??
While exploring the mansion you stumble upon that same character in the intro, but now turned into a zombie who's now roaming the second floor.
By meeting the character again I wanted to create a bigger connection between the intro and the current timeline.
Grabbing The Keycard
Refering back to the Checkov's Keycard we have now arrived to grab the keycard as our new character.
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This time we have now established where the keycard leads to and is now more important to the level.
Backtracking
Obtaining the keycard starts a backtracking segment where the player has to go back to the lab entrance that was presented earlier.
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But to give the backtracking some variation, a zombie has changed the level condition and the player now has to solve this last encounter.
Creating Two Level Variants
Gathering References
I knew from the start of the project that I had to scope it down to manage my deadline, so for me a architectural style with heavy details was of the table.
I went with a contemporary style set in a sunny and warm location. Inspired by the hills around Los Angeles.
Sub Levels
The challenge of the project was how to build two different layouts of the same level in the most effective way.
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Using Sub Levels allowed me to connect two main levels too share the same sub level, meaning both levels could be iterated on at the same time
Intro Iteration
In my first design the intro start with waking up in your bedroom and hear noises from outside and you were to investigate.
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I changed it to focus more on the office area instead. I felt that the path to the window didn't give any purpose to why this house is important.
Design By Subtraction
My first design for how the player would explore the mansion included going through multiple rooms before even reaching the stairwell.
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After feedback I decided to cut a lot from the indoor areas since they really didn't add anything new. Instead the path now leads directly to the stairs.
Illusion Of Scale
Even though a lot of the indoor areas where cut from the project I decided to keep them for the exterior.
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Which added this illusion of that the mansion is a lot bigger than the playable space.
Blockout
Whitebox
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Gameplay Playthrough
Closing Thoughts
Jakub IWALS AI
When working with Jakubs IWALS template you have to be careful with what you edit in the Blueprints as they can easily break or even the project if you try to edit different nodes or behaviors without knowing what you really edited.
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So working with the AI and trying to change how the zombies behaved the way I wanted was more time consuming then what it was worth.
Spaceplanning
When designing the house and the interiors I fell into an architectural and space planning loop that could take me awhile getting out of. I could spend hours on just figuring out how a stairwell is placed inside a house and how all the rooms should connect to hallways and such.
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I think I should have made the decision of scrapping some rooms earlier so I could polish further on the things I already had settled on.
Sub Goals
When I first started designing this level I had a sub goal in mind where the player needs to lift the lockdown of the house to access the office with the keycard. But due to scope and deadlines I decided to cut it out of the level.
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But if I where to take this project further I would definitely add a sub goal for the player to solve before completing the level.
