Death Summit
INTRODUCTION
PROJECT DETAILS
Death Summit is a Left 4 Dead 2 campaign map, fully playable in cooperative mode.
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My goal was to create an experience of contrast in the level. I tried to play with verticality making the player climb a mountain.
I wanted to convey to the player of Journey and verticality. moreover, I wanted to create a contrast between spacious spaces and more confined rooms.
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Developed in 5 weeks
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Valve Level Editor: Hammer World Editor
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Level Design
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AI scripting (for the Zombies)
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Triggers for scripted events
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Performance (light and nodraw textures)
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Level Design Jam 4 Hosted by Steve lee
The theme was “Contrast”! This was about working on the fundamental stuff that makes levels and experiences interesting, distinctive, and memorable. The objective was to think about all the different kinds of contrast a level can contain, and how we can push them to create something cool:
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Light and Dark
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Large areas and small areas
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Styles of gameplay
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Narrative beats; Beginnings, Middles, and Endings
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Distinctive Locations
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Changes of Atmosphere
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Changes of Character
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Asymmetry
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Interesting surprises!
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Dreams versus reality, parallel universes, and other bonkers stuff
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The jam was hosted by industry AAA veteran Steve Lee, click here for his Youtube channel.
Pre - Production
Before gathering reference images, I like to start with a text file.
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During this process, I write down these elements:
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GOALS: what I want to do, why and how.
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ELEMENTS: gameplay elements at my disposal to use.
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QUESTIONS: questions popping up during the logical phase.
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IDEAS: idea popping up during the phase.
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SEQUENCE: effective design sequence of the level. This style permits me to constantly questioning myself and iterate.
References
Death Summit is inspired by snowy mountains, in order to justify the verticality of the level. To convey the experience of a dangerous place, the player can encounter dangerous natural situations like landslides.
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Also, the mountain serves as a Landmark to the player, always serving as a point of interest.
For my research, I studied the level "Surface Tension" of Half-Life 1, serving me as an inspiration for my level.
Small Mood Board.
Level Flow
Level flow is very simple, due to the shortness of the campaign.
Design & Gameplay
A lot of the gameplay bits is borrowed from Left 4 Dead 2. I used the elements of the game to indirectly tell the player where to hold ground optimally without forcing the decision.
VISUAL STORY TELLING
Death Summit contains events that give a narrative to the campaign.
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Survivors are left with a mission, retrieve a haunted treasure on the mountain summit and discover the fate of the outpost.
VERTICALITY
Death Summit is designed to be vertical, in order to contrast with horizontal spaces.
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I wanted to give an interesting critical path and setting compared to the usual urban setting in many other Left 4 Dead maps.
SCRIPTED EVENTS
A lot of scripted events are in Death Summit.
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The player will encounter landslides that will trigger the zombies, and unstable platforms will break on touch.
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The peak of the first chapter is the haunted gold, if taken a trigger will activate an infinite horde of zombies, while the players try to enter the safehouse.
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LANDMARKS
The Mountain is the landmark of the level,
indirectly drawing the player's attention.
Steam Workshop page
Conclusion
This is a map created to hone my level design skills and learn spaces, lighting, and AI. Some chapters are a bit flat and not very interesting to navigate, the biggest flaw is the finale in my opinion. It's just too simplistic. Nevertheless, this was an interesting experience and a great learning opportunity!