Overview
Postmortem
Gallery
Overview
Bucephalus ChargeDistinguished international art thief, Thomas Blackmoore, prepares to embark on his boldest venture yet: infiltrating the esteemed Royal Museum of London on an audacious job to steal the armour of the legendary steed Bucephalus. From the confines of his unassuming van, Blackmoore meticulously plans every facet of his daring heist, every minute detail considered, every potential hurdle accounted for. Ready for action, Thomas steps from his vehicle into the museum’s sprawling parking lot. Will he enter incognito, blending with the crowd, slip stealthily into the restricted quarters, or exploit the building’s labyrinth of vents to dip in undetected from the building’s roof?
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Sneaky SneakyFor this project, I’ve created a level that immerses players in the heart-pounding world of stealth and heist gameplay. Stepping into the shoes of a seasoned infiltrator tasked with navigating a complex museum layout to secure a prized artefact concealed within a heavily fortified vault, players engage in intense exploration based stealth gameplay. This isometric heist game offers a chance to strategize, explore, and execute high-stakes thefts. It's a vertical slice of a fundamental concept that's extremely engaging.
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Postmortem
Bucephalus Postmortem - The building is Actually Real
Introduction
For this project, I’ve created a small game that immerses players in the heart-pounding world of stealth and heist gameplay. Stepping into the shoes of a seasoned infiltrator tasked with navigating a complex museum to secure a prized artefact, players are tasked with searching the area, discovering hidden secrets and optional objectives, and of course securing the prized armour of Bucephalus. This isometric heist game offers a chance to strategize, explore, and execute high-stakes thefts. It's a vertical slice of a fundamental concept that's extremely engaging.
Key Successes
- Exploration Centric Design: A highlight of the project was the emphasis on exploration driven design. Placing players in a museum teeming with secrets, branching pathways, and hidden rooms while challenging them to unveil mysteries and optional objectives elevated player engagement. This approach not only stoked curiosity but also encouraged replayability as players uncovered new paths and strategies with each playthrough. Interestingly, because the level ends by displaying to the player how much of the level’s content they successfully uncovered and completed, playtesters would near immediately request, or even demand, that they be allowed to play again in order to more thoroughly look for secrets they now know they had missed. A playtester literally demanding to play again is, I think, the best possible outcome.
- Open-World Level Design: A cornerstone of the project was the open-world level design. Crafting a map that defies linear conventions empowered players to chart their own course. Presenting both a direct path to the main objective and a variety of alternate routes showcased the game's versatile mechanics and optional objectives, nurturing a profound sense of player agency. This design philosophy was rewarded during player testing, where players quickly spread throughout the possible routes, and of playtesters who experienced the game multiple times, varying paths were often taken throughout repeat plays.
- Innovative Pipeline: A surprising success sprang from my unconventional approach of integrating CAD software with Unreal Engine for level design. I used AutoCAD to create architecturally accurate drawings and 3D models for the building that I then imported to the Unreal Engine. This pipeline is particularly interesting because it's not an expected use case by either AutoDesk, the developers of AutoCAD, or Epic Games, the developers of the Unreal Engine. While it presented numerous challenges, the resulting product actually turned out quite well, and though the creation of structures in AutoCAD takes much longer because of its necessitation of architecturally sound design, it also meant that once that step was completed, bringing the building into Unreal and tweaking it as needed for gameplay was quite easy. This innovative pipeline streamlined the process of developing an interesting but also accurate building for players to explore.
- Prospect & Refuge: For this project, I wanted to make ample use of the fundamental level design concept of Prospect & Refuge. To facilitate this, I created two unique area types: Hiding Spots and Restricted Zones. Hiding Spots serve as sanctuaries where players remain concealed and undetectable to any nearby guards, the game’s enemy NPCs. Meanwhile, Restricted Zones represent high-stakes areas of the map, housing prized loot, objectives, and pivotal level content, along with increased risk. This synthesis of Prospect & Refuge, adapted literally, created intense level sections that saw players sprinting down corridors in a Restricted Zone so they could quickly dip into a closet and hide from the patrolling (or even pursuing!) guard. While this fusion of gameplay mechanics with architectural psychology created unique challenges in both, the moments of exhilaration, strategic depth, and immersive tension observed during playtests were their own reward.
- Blueprint Scripting Advancement: Another notable achievement stemmed from my progressive mastery of Blueprint scripting within the Unreal Engine. As familiarity with this distinct and unconventional programming language grows, I find myself more and more able to swiftly implement intricate mechanics. This proficiency brought forth to this project a dual advantage: not only were mechanics realised more quickly, but this time-saving benefit also allowed for a more thorough refinement process. By leveraging the powerful toolset of functionality present in the Unreal Engine, I was able to prototype, iterate, and fine-tune mechanics with relative ease. My evolving grasp of Blueprint scripting fundamentally enhanced the creative process, fostering a dynamic environment for experimentation, iteration, and ultimately, delivering an improved gameplay experience.
Encountered Challenges
- Player Guidance: A pivotal realisation surfaced during playtesting. Specifically, when I created the level originally, I offered no explanation to the player about what their goals and objectives were, or even where to find those objectives in the level. This resulted in the desired effect of players exploring and eventually finding the main vault that they needed to breach, but I noticed that this initial exploration phase before they could even begin working towards the objective was longer than I'd like. In further tests, I told players before they started that they were looking to breach a main vault, but nothing else. This seemed to greatly speed up the initial exploration, and based on my findings this was because players were looking for a specific target, rather than simply looking around at whatever they found on their path. In further iterations of the level's design, I streamlined the pathway to the main objective, making it literally unobstructed from the starting point. I still leave most of the game ambiguous, so as to encourage exploration, but the immediately apparent golden path gets players going a bit faster, and has had a pronounced positive impact on player retention.
- Lighting Optimization: Tackling lighting optimization proved to be a significant challenge during this project. Increasing the number of lights had an expected impact on performance, which was particularly noticeable due to the expansive scale of the museum environment and the large number of lights needed. This significant performance dip prompted a strategic reassessment of lighting distribution. The goal was to find a balance between maintaining visual quality and ensuring a seamless gameplay experience. This involved careful adjustments to the placement and properties of lights, optimising their impact while minimising performance overhead as much as possible. Conversely, this problem also led to a reevaluation of level storytelling as well. While lighting is, first and foremost, a method for making games playable, it can also serve as a narrative tool. Where the entire level was originally lit, with every room having active fixtures, I decided during an optimization pass to remove most active lights in areas that would logically be closed. For example, the fully closed third floor is inaccessible to the public, so why would all of the lights be on? By judiciously reducing the number of lights in less critical areas while prioritising lighting in focal points and high-impact zones, I was able to both maintain gameplay performance while enhancing narrative depth.
- Unit Scaling Discrepancy: Early in the project, a notable challenge arose due to a unit scaling discrepancy between the two pieces of software, Unreal Engine and AutoCAD. Because Unreal is software that creates a 3D space specifically for video games where the laws of physics don't necessarily apply, it uses a non-standard measurement system called "Unreal Units". While Unreal Units try to simulate the real world metric system, I noticed during this project that the scale is not exact. Conversely, AutoCAD, which is robust software for creating real life architecture, must by its nature use accurate vector-based real life units, and as such there was a slight disconnect between my AutoCAD drawings and their supposedly equivalent size in Unreal. While this problem is passable at smaller scales like the size of a person or a few yards, it becomes particularly problematic when scaling an entire three story, 50,000+ square foot building, which is what I produced for this project. To deal with this problem, I created a multi-software ruler, which took and compared measurements across both softwares, automatically making necessary conversions, and producing scale corrections for me on the fly. With this tool working, I had an effective scalar that was accurate down to a sixteenth of an inch between Unreal and AutoCAD, which I then used to keep my building not only at a correct scale for gameplay, but at a factually realistic scale as well.
- The Other Scale: An early hurdle emerged from the initial size of the level map concept. While the interior of the building was scaled perfectly for the gameplay it facilitated, the peripheral areas were more expansive than they needed to be, and created uncomfortable situations in which the player spent considerable time simply traversing from one notable point to another. Originally, the plan was to have the player walk around the building, but nobody enjoys holding down the W key for 45 seconds. This excessive running had a negative impact on the overall pacing of the experience and diluted the focus on core gameplay. Recognizing this, I decided to strategically reduce the map size, cutting out extraneous areas and overly long pathways, replacing them instead with more perilous cuts through the building itself. Instead of walking around the outside, the spotlight was shifted to the central gameplay zones. By trimming the map's periphery and consolidating gameplay around the central areas, players engaged more frequently with gameplay mechanics. This adjustment aligned gameplay intensity with spatial design, underscoring the importance of a map that seamlessly blends exploration with meaningful interactions, but in correct amounts.
Conclusion
Βουκεφαλας Had an Ω On His Rear
In crafting this game project, I embarked on a journey to deliver an exhilarating experience of stealth and heist gameplay in a level that was just as fun to explore as it was to complete. Dropping players into the labyrinthine corridors of a museum, the challenge was to strike a balance between freedom and guidance, fostering exploration without overwhelming them. A series of strategic design decisions and innovative approaches enriched the gameplay, narrative, and player experience. In retrospect, this project encapsulated the transformative potential of exploration-focused design, the power of innovative pipelines, and the artistry of translating architectural concepts into gameplay.
Reflecting on Bucephalus Charge, it's evident that we have ventured into a realm where architectural precision and the engineering principles of architectural design can be considered for their ability to synergize with the medium of video games. This project stands as a testament to the innovative potential of blending rigorous architectural methodologies with the creative liberties of game design. By leveraging the strengths of AutoCAD's engineering fidelity and Unreal Engine's dynamic game mechanics, I've crafted an experience that not only challenges players but also immerses them in a meticulously designed environment. This exploration has opened new avenues of thought for future projects, setting a precedent that I'm excited to explore in the future!
Reflecting on Bucephalus Charge, it's evident that we have ventured into a realm where architectural precision and the engineering principles of architectural design can be considered for their ability to synergize with the medium of video games. This project stands as a testament to the innovative potential of blending rigorous architectural methodologies with the creative liberties of game design. By leveraging the strengths of AutoCAD's engineering fidelity and Unreal Engine's dynamic game mechanics, I've crafted an experience that not only challenges players but also immerses them in a meticulously designed environment. This exploration has opened new avenues of thought for future projects, setting a precedent that I'm excited to explore in the future!