Pivoting

Now that I have been working on this project for six weeks, I feel that I have a good understanding of what the finished product will look like. As happens with almost any creative project, the idea has grown in areas and changed focus in others. This means that the what I am currently making is slightly different to what was laid out in my statement of intent.

To begin with, I have pivoted focus from crafting items at workbenches, to instead using the various machines that will be found in the Crypts of Refuge. Instead of the player obtaining crafting materials and using them to craft new equipment, they will instead spend the gold they have obtained through exploration on linear upgrades to their equipment. My intention is that this will streamline the experience and mean that the player is not required to spend unnecessary time interacting with the game’s crafting systems when they could be progressing through the level. It also gives me another excuse to do some scripting in the Creation Kit and create a unique system. Please see below for a more detailed breakdown of how these upgrade machines work.

Level design

I have made a lot of progress on my level design this week, creating almost the entire layout, minus the intended boss area. Initially, the level was created to loop back on itself more, involving a heavy amount of backtracking (fig. 1) However, upon playtesting this design and experiencing it from the first-person perspective that Skyrim affords, I came to the conclusion that the experience was more complex than necessary and there were multiple instances in which a player would likely become lost. In response to this, I slightly reshuffled the layout of the level. While the resulting level is certainly still interconnected and involves backtracking sections, the overall design is more continuous and hopefully the player will have a firmer understanding of where they are required to go (fig. 2).

Leading on from where I left off last week, I created a cave area that the player must pass through (fig. 3). This area will provide a change in scenery for the player and is intended to house a ‘mini-boss’ in the form of a large spider that will ambush the player once they step inside. Upon killing the spider they will be able to loot its corpse and retrieve a key that allows them to unlock the catacombs.

From there, the player is able to unlock a shortcut that leads them back around to the initial Crypt of Refuge where they are able to access the catacombs using their newfound key (fig. 4). Here, they descend downwards and eventually back up into another Crypt of Refuge, where they can unlock another shortcut which crates a greater level of interconnectedness. They then traverse through some larger rooms which feature more platforming, similar to that which has been previously introduced to the player, but with added complexity. This path then leads them to a room in which they obtain one final key which will unlock the final boss room and eventually allow the player to escape.

Crypt machines

Following my slight pivot in focus this week, one of the major mechanics I had to begin implementing were the Crypt Machines. As touched on before, these are interactable objects that the player can use to spend gold and upgrade their existing equipment. Before jumping into this blind, I decided to create a flowchart detailing what each machine would do, and how they would advance (figs 5, 6 and 7). I knew that I wanted one to handle weapons, one for armour, and one for resources that the player may need.

With the flowcharts established, the idea was much more concrete in my head. Below is the finished script that handles the resource purchasing system (fig. 8). It took a while to get it working, but I feel that through a great deal of trial and error, I was able to learn and grow as a programmer. I feel somewhat accomplished in the fact that I can script in a brand new syntax outside of my normal environment in C#.

Once I had the scripts working, it was time to create the objects that players would interact with to initiate them. Looking through the variety of models that are used in Skyrim, I came across the “Dwemer button” model which fit my vision of these machines quite well. I created three variants of these buttons, titling them “Resource Mechanism”, “Weapon Mechanism”, and “Armour Mechanism”, before placing them in my previously created Crypt of Refuge (fig. 9). I then added the appropriate scripts to them and tested them out in game. I am really happy with how these turned out and I feel that their inclusion adds a level of complexity and nuance to the project that elevates it past just being a level mod. Now, not only is the player granted with a feeling of spatial progression as they advance through the level; they are also afforded progression in capabilities and power. It also gives the player more opportunities for meaningful choices, as they may only have enough gold for one upgrade.

Research

Initially, my level was intended to be heavily inspired by Resident Evil (1996), utilising crafting and featuring a limited carry capacity which encouraged careful item management. While it has since moved slightly away from this singular focus to become it’s own experience, the use of the franchise’s cleverly interconnected level design remains at the forefront of my design considerations. When discussing this during this week’s GAM230 workshop, my lecturer Jeff recommended that I read an article about Resident Evil‘s map design (Pruett 2011). The article discusses how, through a term he calls “recursive unlocking”, the Spencer Mansion slowly becomes more interconnected and traversable to the player, as they pick up new items and backtrack to previous areas to unlock previously inaccessible rooms. He even goes on to say that  recursive unlocking is “used to control the pace of the game, the flow of the narrative, the progression of enemies and weapons, and even to force a change of scenery on the player, all while maintaining a non-linear feel” (Pruett 2011). Although I had not heard the term before, my level certainly adheres to the rules of recursive unlocking, with many areas beginning as inaccessible to the player until they have explored enough to find an item such as a key that enables further progression. While it may not feel like it, the first time the player moves through the space they will be guided through a linear path as they gradually unlock shortcuts and exits that reveal the non-linearity of the level over time.

I have also recently started playing Bloodborne (2015) for the first time, thanks to many recommendations from fellow designer Steven. It is a fantastic game filled with many fascinating design decisions in all departments, but the area that has intrigued me the most is the game’s genius level design. The game feels like it opens up in a spiralling fashion, with many paths taken unlocking shortcuts through areas for later use. A well-versed player who has unlocked these shortcuts could traverse the entire map in a matter of minutes. I think that this level design philosophy has certainly crept into my own, as when looking at the topography of my level, it similarly spirals into itself, with the player taking paths that eventually lead them back to previously accessed areas, through the use of shortcuts. I suppose you could call this project “the Dark Souls of Skyrim”.

References

Bloodborne. 2015. FromSoftware Inc., Sony Interactive Entertainment.

PRUETT, Chris. 2011. ‘Recursive Unlocking: Analyzing Resident Evil’s Map Design with Data Visualization’. Chris’ Survival Horror Quest [online]. Available at: https://horror.dreamdawn.com/?p=81213#:~:text=In%20Resident%20Evil%27s%20case%2C%20the,maintaining%20a%20non%2Dlinear%20feel. [accessed 10 March 2022].

Resident Evil. 1996. Capcom.