Star Wars 1313 Inspired Blockout
Overview
Narrative / Setting:
Boba Fett, hired by a mysterious organisation has been paid to bring in a crime lord who owns a nightclub on coruscant.
Constraints:
Medium Sized level exploring the level design behind games such as Star Wars 1313 and Uncharted. This is set in the third person POV and has mechanics such as walking, running, crouching, taking cover, jumping as well as gun combat.
Platform: PC
Role: Concept, Blockout, Lighting, Pacing, Scripting, Combat Encounters Design, Prop and Texture Placement.
Development Time: 3 Months~
Team Size: Solo
Genre: Action Adventure
Tools Used: UE5, TPS kit, ElevenLabs(Dialogue Audio)
Engine: Unreal Engine 5
Idea
I wanted to create a level design blockout inspired by the unreleased Star Wars 1313 game. Using the limited bits of information that was shown of the game (I.e. trailer footage and snippets of gameplay), I tried to replicate what a level of the game might look like. For this level, I wanted to incorporate three different sections of the game:
Narrative
Stealth
Combat
I decided to go with a linear approach to the level as is similar in other games to Star Wars 1313 such as Uncharted with a set piece. I wanted the player to be able to advance very easily throughout the level without feeling like they are just walking from corridor to corridor.
Goals
To learn more about Linear level design (especially with set pieces).
Practicing and refining my level design pipeline.
Design a level that naturally fits within the Star Wars Universe whilst using architectural concepts.
Create a level that is fully playable all the way through using a preexisting character controller asset to deepen my prototyping / blockout knowledge.
To learn more about Unreal Engine 5 (first time using UE5).
Restrictions
Only use the basic mechanics that are included in the TPS kit (i.e. Sneaking, the enemies, the weapons, cover, running, walking etc).
The animations will be very basic just to provide a general idea of whats going on.
Not everything in the level has full functionality (not every wall is a cover point) as this would take too much time.
What I learnt
How to be more efficient with the level design / blockout pipeline.
Level design aspects to consider such as Metrics, Wayfinding and Massing. I found metrics to be particularly troublesome with having to considerably adjust the levels size to feel like the room was of adequate proportion.
How to quickly reiterate a level if the initial results are not successful.
How to better approach combat encounters using the environment.
What went well
I am overall very happy with the pacing of the level, I feel like there is an appropriate amount of time / energy spent on each different aspect (narrative, stealth and combat) with sufficient time to have a break between.
For a first project, the time taken to complete the level blockout with scripted sequences was less than I anticipated.
The game has positive reception from people who have played the level with only minor criticisms.
What didn’t go well
During my first iteration of the map, on paper I drew the map and then when translated into 3D did not workout very well as it looked unrealistic / did not fit within the Star Wars Universe. This taught me to be careful when drawing level maps on paper and to consider how this will look in 3D.
I had issues with some systems of Unreal Engine such as Blueprints and nav mesh. However, this was to be expected as it was my first time using Unreal Engine 5 as Unity was my primary game engine. Although, this taught me how to properly use these systems.
I feel like unfortunately the level is too short as well as too easy. Although I was considering the level to be one of the early game levels and thus makes sense for the game to be easy.
Creating a circular building provides a lot of unique challenges with level design blockouts such as most blockouts utilize a grid snap with blocks which could not be done as easily with a circular shaped building that the player must traverse through. In addition, circular combat zones did not seem to work from my testing.
Process:
Moodboard
The concept for the map was inspired by research done into the games central premise - Level 1313 of Coruscant. Doing some research into this led me to the idea of a level playing as Boba Fett and bringing in a crime boss. I decided upon a club which is set on the higher floors of Coruscant as it allows for some more interesting vertical elevation gameplay and makes sense thematically. I created a mood-board of what level 1313 / Coruscant might look like, using some concept art from Star Wars: 1313. Coruscant being an Ecumenopolis ( a planet covered by an entire city) means that the level will be very industrial and also has clear verticality.
Layout
When making the layout, I was inspired by one of the concept art images on the mood board which includes a very high platform that is circular. Using this, I created the nightclub inside of these circular platforms with additional circular platforms surrounding the nightclub. The player would enter the club, fight their way through the club then chase the villain throughout the streets which would be the set piece and then the level would end after the chase was finished. For the first iteration, I originally just had the entire chase scene be on the same elevation and just run through the streets until they hit a warehouse where the villain would escape. However, this did not make sense to me in two ways. The first being that it misses out on the opportunity to utilize verticality and frankly a great moment (jumping off of a high off platform to chase someone). Secondly, this did not feel like Coruscant (The planet that 1313 is based on) therefore needed tweaking to feel more like Star Wars. There are some details on the original level map that I did tweak / remove for one reason or another. One example is the starting location of the player, originally the player is on the same circular platform as the nightclub. However, I felt like when adjusting the viewing angles of the approach of the nightclub a funnel then a reveal was a more effective method of showing the player where to go as the player now goes around an opposite platform, goes around the corner and reveals the nightclub entrance. Another feature from the level design layout that was changed from the blockout was the ending, this was cut due to time constraints.
Blocking out
When blocking out the level, I began with the biggest basic path towards the final object (Starting with the circular platforms and the external buildings connected just to get a relative idea of the Metrics of the level. I then tested the level and ran through the level and found that the level (in particular the chase scene that I had in mind) was way too large. I decided to reduce the size of the level significantly but this still ended up feeling too large and just not write so I went back to the drawing board and changed the chase scene to have different elevations as mentioned in the Layout phase. Once this was redesigned and blocked out it felt much better. I then got to work on the Nightclub interior. This would be a three tiered building with the middle floor being the entrance with enemies within, then you would go on the bottom floor with stealth and then the top floor with more enemies and the start of the chase. However, testing the middle floor with enemies added into it felt extremely unfair and frustrating to play against as the area is a giant circle with enemies attacking you from each angle. Even with cover, this was too frustrating to play against. Therefore, I turned this area into a narrative area with dialogue being announced to the player instead. Then on the bottom floor, I had to slightly adjust the amount of enemies due to the size of the building and viewing angles. I had to ensure that the player could see the enemies that they are approaching before they get spotted so I made their routes quite short with gaps between the objects to constantly be able to see where the enemies are. Otherwise, this floor remained relatively the same as the layout as was the same with the top floor. I had particular issue with the circular shape of the building as it made it difficult to create walls / blocks / objects that fit within the circular shape. I utilized Unreal Engine’s modelling tools such as Meshbool and deforming as well as utilizing modular prefabs.
Audio
Whilst audio is not integral to a level blockout, I felt that adding some extra audio did not take that long and added to the believability, experience and the narrative of the level. I added basic ambient noise to the level (talking, whooshing, cars etc) and also some dialogue which I utilized ElevenLabs as I have no voice acting experience nor do I know anyone who could do this.
Other Tweaks
To sell the level design more and add to the ambience of the level, I added simple animations such as the vehicles flying through the streets of Coruscant as well as some simple animations during the chase scene ( a vehicle pulling in front of you and a roof collapsing). In addition to this, I also adjusted the enemy AI's as at first the AI was just charging towards the player trying to get a better angle of attack. However, this caused the game to become very difficult as multiple enemies all charging at once will then overpower the player and without cover, the player dies very quickly. Therefore, I adjusted the aggression ( as well as other factors such as hit accuracy) to ensure that the enemies weren’t as aggressive with pushing up towards the player.
Overall
Overall, I am extremely happy with the project with this being my first blockout of this scale. This project has deepened my level design skills, improved my workload and increased my knowledge of Unreal Engine Blueprints. I think in the future I would use snapping and more precise metrics to ensure scale is more accurate and also be more rapid with prototyping the level.
