Games Proposal: Project 1 - Week 1

Coming back from the summer I have been incredibly inspired to take my level design process up another notch! While I had some strong ideas last year, I was only really finding my feet towards the end of my time so I really wanted to hit the ground running as I came back.

One pitch idea that has been posed to us is a "Studio Superfan" project. In essence, finding a studio that inspires you, taking some time to research their design principles and core mentalities, and then creating a project in a way that they would expect you to approach it.

Respawn Entertainment is a studio I have admired for a long time. Games like the Titanfall series and the Star Wars Jedi titles have made it clear that they know how to get game-feel absolutely spot on and are always attempting to push their creations as far as they can go. It's also clear from Christopher Dionne's GDC talk in 2018 Designing Unforgettable Titanfall Single Player Levels with Action Blocks that they are given a lot of freedom to really experiment, so long as they can do so in a quick fashion.

With that in mind, I wanted to create a space using Respawn's "Action Block" method. Creating quick ideas to playtest, experiment with and either throw away or expand on, depending on how they feel while playing.



I will be creating a third-person balance of platform-based puzzles, gun-based combat and exploration. This level will have space for players to learn traversal techniques, improve those techniques and then be challenged by more complex sequences involving those techniques. Each section will ramp up in difficulty providing players with multiple skill challenges to engage them in gameplay. The space will also encourage exploration by spreading environmental puzzles across spaces as is done incredibly well in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Gun-based combat will be made compelling by the moving platforms used for the environmental puzzles also being used as moving cover, meaning players may have moments where they must keep moving with these platforms as enemies fire upon them, use those same platforms to traverse to another area and then bring the fight to the enemies.

Next week I will develop the core movement mechanics and begin creating Action Blocks to get a feel for certain puzzle moments that I can quickly develop or move on from if they don't feel right in gameplay. I shall also be playing a LOT of Titanfall 2 this coming weekend!

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