Trek To The Factory
Summary: A walk through the remains of a factory, centuries after the end of the world, This is my second foray into Maya whiteboxing and the first time working with a large 3D space.
Role: Level Designer
Project: Classwork
Team: Solo Dev
Development time: March 2022-April 2022
Made Using: Maya/Unity
This is my second foray into Maya whiteboxing and the first time working with a large 3D space.
Lessons Learned:
Maya-to-Unity pipeline: I learned how to get assets from Maya to Unity, as well as best practices for this pipeline!
3D Level Design Techniques: By combining established level design archetypes, Environmental storytelling, and Sightlines, I can create an engaging and entertaining level!
The First Third
I wanted the factory you reach at the end of the level to be a landmark of sorts. It would be visible to the player in all major portions.
This is why I show them the factory at the very beginning to begin creating anticipation and intrigue in the player, making them want to explore the area.
This crater serves as the primary piece of storytelling about what exactly happened in this area. This crater is seen at the beginning of the level and at the end ties the whole level together under one theme.
You get to see the crater, and then as you travel, you see the impact it has had on the local area. When you see it again at the end, the crater is now recontextualized.
This is the first major area the player enters after the beginning, intended as a storage unit. This area is meant to be a showcase of sightlines and guidance in an interior space.
The area has many broken scaffolds the player can navigate through, but they will never get lost, as the scaffolding is always placed so the player knows where to go by just looking at how it points.
Once the player exits the warehouse, they see that the underground transport tunnel has caved in. This part was meant to create a sense of scale of just how big the factory was.
The Second Third
The first image you see on this page was the prototype of the Parking Lot.
Here we see the Parking lot now scaled down and put in the rest of the environment. This was meant to be an example of guidance in outside areas. I used the various car pileups to guide the player on where to go.
One weakness of this level is the lack of color variation. It can be very difficult to navigate an area with a very limited color palette, which is why I tried to use widely contrasting colors to tell the player, even in low-light or low-color areas, where to go.
In retrospect, I would’ve included multiple textures to distinguish the various segments of the parking lot.
What seems like a dead is just on the second floor of the parking lot.
When players first entered this area, I was worried they would be confused about where to go next, so I included a bright yellow parking block to indicate where to turn around. It helped a lot in playtests!
This is one of the more complicated shots, level design-wise. I’m pulling double duty with the parking blocks here.
Many are angled towards the door that is currently unseen from this angle, allowing the player to infer there’s something of interest in that corner.
However, the yellow parking blocks are also trailing towards the broken segment, which would’ve led to a collectible. In hindsight, I could’ve used the blue cars to signify one path and the yellow parking blocks to signify the other.
This is one of the 3 snapshot areas of the game; it is meant to be a showcase of the game's forest scale.
When designing the snapshot segments, I wanted them not only to be great for showing where the player needed to go, but also to serve as little “picnic points” where the player can enjoy the view.
This is the exit to the parking lot and the entrance to the next area.
I anticipated that most players would throw themselves off the parking lot, so I intentionally put these cars in this formation and close to the projected landing zone so they could identify their next path.
Another cool hallway scene for players to chew on. This one is meant to give the locale a sense of eeriness, much like actual abandoned areas.
This next section is another storage area whose roof was destroyed.
It serves as a light platforming challenge and adds excitement as the player navigates the scaffolding to the next area. There was even meant to be another collectible here.
The Final Third
This is the factory. I wanted to sell its destruction by chewing out huge holes in it.
This not only helps sell the area's destruction and decay but also gives the player a reason to come.
The orange car is meant to signal to the player that they should go up the factory.
Once inside the factory, I wanted to sell the age of the destruction by including a tree and grass.
This not only helps build the area's narrative, but also serves as a point of interest right next to the intended player path.
Seen here is an additional platforming challenge intended to reach another collectible.
Adding extra floors to the factory helped make it seem much more populated.
I originally wanted to include further platforming, but due to time constraints, I was unable to.
Finally, on the factory roof, I left some small blue scaffolding to mark the final sightseeing spot on the level.
I use the same idea of the parking block to make sure the player knows that they should turn around.
The top of the factory is meant to reward the player for reaching the end by showing them the sea of trees they waded through and allowing them to see the other buildings.
Much like in actual hiking, it’s rewarding to see your progress visualized from a high spot.
The Background is meant to be mountainous to hide the skybox and, on the other side, to introduce a larger sense of scale for the location.