Assassin's Creed 3 Inspired Level
ROLE
Level and Quest Design
DESCRIPTION
This started as a quest design mock test that turned into a Level and Quest design project. I decided to make a quest that would be Connors first time in the southern part of the Colonies, specifically Charleston. After the test was done, I came back and added level design elements to fully round out the level. Everything in this project was made by me except for the animations.
YEAR
2024
GENRE
Action Adventure
Engine
Unreal Engine 5
Video Playthrough
LEVEL DESIGN
Layout
For the layout, I designed it to fit in Charleston. So what I did was identify 3 buildings that were in close enough proximity to each other that they would be in running distance and then made my area around that. I wanted to figure out 3 buildings because most Assassin's Creed quest in any of their games take place close to or in historical landmarks in order to act as, well landmarks. To start, I took a screenshot of the city in Google Map (because I couldn't find a historical map where I could identify the buildings I used) and then painted over it so it was just the roads, the city blocks, and the 3 historical buildings. After the mock design test was done, I went back and added an interior into my Dock Street Theatre to help improve my map. In the future, I plan on adding the parkour routes for players to take on the buildings and to model proxy buildings to fit into the street grid instead of blocks. Another thing I intend to add is the waypoint system that Assassin's Creed uses to help direct the player.
Step 1: Quest Design Mock Test
I started out with the quest in the area. Conner never goes to the southern colonies in Assassin's Creed 3 so the quest is designed to be the first quest in the area after Conner arrives into port. The Quest giver is Francis Marion aka Swamp Fox. Swamp Fox was a revolutionary leader that led the guerilla war campaign against the British in the south. In the quest, the player will talk to Swamp Fox and learn about the British destroying local houses and taking some of their valuables. One of these locals are outside the court house trying to get the soldiers punished. The first objective of the quest is to head to the nearest viewpoint to get the lay of Charleston. The second object is to go to the Charleston County Courthouse and talk to the local. From there, the player learns that the British soldiers frequent the Dock Street Theatre and keep some of their stolen items there. The last two objectives are to kill the enemy soldiers and get the items back. Finally, the player turns the quest into Swamp Fox.
Reference Board
Step 2: Interior Theatre Space
The next part of the process was to design a space inside the theatre. When I was doing my mock design test, I wanted to do this space initially, but quickly realized that it wasn't feasible in the time I was given. So after the test was done, I decided to revisit the area. I started by trying to find picture and blueprints of the area inside and what it looked like. I did find the a blueprint of sorts and then the next biggest problem is that the blueprint was more of a drawing of the space and didn't have any scale markings. To find the right scale, I counted the seats in the first row of the theatre and assumed the average seat width was 1 meter. After setting up the theatre and the seats, I made my rooms keeping the feel in that room in mind. Since most of the enemies are in the entryway, the theatre, and the greenroom area, I paid more attention in those areas and their design than the patio and dining room for this initial block out.
Step 3: Iteration
With iteration, the first thing I wanted to do was add some more cover to the top part of the seating and to revisit how some of the rooms were made. I created walls with doorways to reach the seats in the second level to block the field of view of the other enemies in the hallways above the seating. The next thing was remaking the main staircase. A colleague reviewed my portfolio and found the landing on top of the staircase and the landings in between were too small. To fix this, I made sure the landings in between went all the way to the ground and I looked at reference photos of the theater lobby to figure out that the top landing shouldn't go all the way to the ground, but should be a little thicker. The next thing was the highest floor. The staircase going into the kitchen was awkward and not how it was in the architecture anyways. So I pulled the staircase into the landing which made the space a bit less awkward.
The next steps of the iteration were the enemy placement. I added two more enemies (one in the kitchen area and one on top of the seats on the ground floor). I did this to fully patrol the area as I realized there were some places that the player could almost get through without even seeing an enemy. I also moved the enemy that was on top of the stair case over to the hallway. It was too hard to get up the main staircase without getting spotted by either the enemy in the second level seating hallway or the enemy on top of the landing. This change allows the player to make a decision instead of trying to run through without getting caught. Another change was increasing the undetectable zone in the lobby. I felt it would be natural for their to be a crowd in the lobby since this is taking place before the production would have started and since there is a crowd and its Assassin's Creed, that would mean the player would be undetectable.
Before:
After:
Next Steps:
For later iterations of the project, I want to add other entrances to the area through windows and side entrances into the theater. With that, I would also like to add other functionality to the AI system to make it more like Assassin's Creed enemies and make the undetectable zones more accurate. Another thing I am excited to do is put a more effort and attention into the city around the buildings. First thing I want to do is make the buildings buildings instead of squares and rethink the city planning that I have right now to be more Assassin's Creed accurate. The next thing with that is making parkour lanes to get through the city and get to the roof tops. One of the most important things for Assassin's Creed is their parkour and while I don't have their free running system (or the time to make it) I would like to add lanes to climb, jump, and vault through the city. The final thing I am looking to work on is the historical buildings and making them more unique.