SPACE TO BASE
Dying Light Developer Tools Level

ROLE

Level Designer

PROJECT KEYWORDS

Dying Light experience in Space
Non-linear parkour routes
Multiple WOW moements

YEAR

2023

GENRE

First Person, Parkour

Total Work Time

10 Weeks

Base Parameters

At least 7 minutes of gameplay, one exterior area, two interior areas, one main quest, one side quest

PROJECT SUMMARY

DESIGN GOALS

Explore the "Space" theme in Dying Light

Creatively re-use traditional assets for new purposes

Craft a non-linear parkour experience

Keeping the Player surprised using thematic WOW moments

DESIGN PROCESS

Design Process 01 - Level Hooks

The start of this project was around the time when Starfield was launching. I was inspired to do something unconventional in this project by cooperating the "space" theme into my Dying Light level.

Design Process 02 - Asset Exploration

The theme I chose for this project is outside of the main game's thematic area, I have to pick out assets that would be appropriate to use to compose the level. I have chosen to comb through all the assets in the editor and pick out the most suitable ones.

Design Process 03 - Design Draft

My level has three major areas: Broken Shuttle, Space Station, and Space Colony. The flow of the level takes the Player back to the starting area and the level primarily focuses on the fun of parkouring on floating objects in space.

Design Process 04 - Visual References

With an out-of-the-box thematic design, I need to find accurate references to assist me in building believeable areas. These references helped me refine my placespace, as well as creating a more immersive environment to sell my "space" theme.

Design Process 05 - Blockout and Iterations

At the start of the blockout phase, I built the level according to my map design, however, the gameplay turned out to be bland. So I added non-linear parkour routing to my level through each iterations and the Player can freely explore available playspace however they want.

LEVEL SHOWCASE

PROJECT POST-MORTEM

What Went Well

Creative and fun thematic design

Choosing to design for a Space-themed level was an unorthodox idea that brought a lot of interesting elements together in the Dying Light editor. I enjoyed thinking outside of the box in terms of mod kit usage and thematic exploration.

Consistent design language to sell the out-of-the-box gameplay

Keeping consistent floating object designs, blinking lights, and moving objects in the level helped convey the flow to the Player.

Reasonably scoped level size for the length of the project

Considering we only have 10 weeks for this project, I reasonably scoped down and controlled the sizes of each area to make sure I had enough time for polish and refinement.

What Went Wrong

Hardest element to sell - Gravity

The engine itself comes with gravity and it is not something I can easily script around. Having the limitation of Gravity, it is getting very difficult to sell the "space" theme. I worked around the obstacle by adding more objects to make it appear "interior" or the Player's movement is being restricted by something else. However, the WOW moment of the level would be blocked off if I turned the level entirely into an interior-centric level.

Lack of Combat Experience that fits the level

While there are combat elements at this level, the combat dynamic of the AIs is not driving the gameplay of the level. If I had designed the space around the combat experiences, rather than the parkour experiences, the gameplay would have been a lot more interesting.

What I've Learned

Learned how to use the Dying Light Developer Tools!
Dying Light can be a combat-heavy game, use its combat elements well to design playspaces around it

When designing for a game that has heavy-combat elements, it's recommended to use the levels to highlight the good parts of the game. I have only highlighted part of the good qualities of the game using this level. Next time, I will try to design the playspaces around the types of combat that will take place.

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