Level Design

Level Design 

Chivalry Contest / Level Design Project

Week 01

I decided to create a level for chivalry to tie in with my level design project at course,. My main theme is a town on a river but have some dark or grim element to it. Spent a lot longer then I had hoped learning this editor chivalry uses. Once I got my head around how to create landscapes, my next step was to create the play loading part of the game which allows you to pick which team you play on as well as the 

Week 02

After a week of playing around in the editor I have finally got the hang of what I'm doing. 

Playing with different scale for the ground texture. 

I started making my town, I found out that my level was taking too long to get to one side of it to the other, So i ended up bringing all the parts of my map closer together and also make them smaller.

During this I also changed some of my objectives. 

My first objective is rescue the peasants, 

Started creating the town you walk into as you start the level 

Playing with some lighting are creating some detail around the area so it doesn't look so placed 

Landscape material 

Just added a node to control how much influence the material has, Once I got to 7 different textures, The material would go black and not acknowledge any material. So had to keep it to 6.

UPDATES

• Town has a basic layout
• Landscape blocked out
• Textures added to landscape
• Water textures fixed and updated
• Fog Added
• Player spawn point added 
• Water Added
• Made ground texture Material

FEEDBACK

• Assets look placed
• Collision issues with some buildings
• Scale issues with Assets
• Some assets have clashing textures
• Landscape textures are inconsistent 
• Fog too light
• Water texture looks good
• Level too large ( too long to run from the start to the end)

Week 03

Started creating the Lighting adding some mood and atmosphere, During this week i was also learning how to create normal maps to create a nicer 

First Start hub for one team

Entrance to the graveyard

Within the graveyard

Farm part of town

Where the lord is

Overview of the town

I started playing around with some of the lighting i thought would look nice for my level and give it this airy feel 

Graveyard

Boats added for an idea of giving the peasants a Royal send off could be used for objective one

UPDATES

• Some lighting added
• Graveyard added
• Farm part of town added
• Started on the last area where you kill the lord
• Boats added 

FEEDBACK

• Farm doesn't fit with the level 
• Can fall though parts of the map 
• Some assets seem to large

Week 04

Implemented the first objective And started implementing the second

Worked on the next part of the town and also changed the farm scene to more of a forest as it didn't seem to fit with the feel of the town.

Town burnt down, The Objective gets pushed though here

Forest where the push objective happens

Castle for the Lord

UPDATES

• First objective added
• Lords castle started
• Forest started
• Played around with some fire particles 

FEEDBACK

• Fog is heavy 
• the wooden platforms around the towns don't fit with the theme

Week 05

Grave yard

Push animation added

Path to first objective

View from first objective

Received feedback from the developers after submitting my first WIP of the level

General Map Feedback

• Too Dark
• Visuals clash. Is this a forest...in a desert?
• Poor Flow. Aside from HUD markers, there is nothing to guide players in the general direction of the objective.
• No strong central element. The height is the same throughout.
• Don’t paint landscape at sharp angles. Use meshes for vertical changes.

Objective#1

• Long, confusing run to the objective.
• Defenders spawn right near the objective.
• The game ended upon completion.

Week 06

Ok so after the feed back from the Dev's I changed up my map , Added more hills and paths, Also looking at adding a objective before giving the peasants a royal send off, maybe a capture the small town Or free the peasants.

Some more Screen sots of the forest 

Shot of the first town 

Graveyard shot 

BEFORE

AFTER

UPDATES

• changed layout of my map
• Added hills and slopes
• Redesigned graveyard so players knew which ways they could go 
• Played around with lighting 
• wooden platforms removed from towns

FEEDBACK

• Lighting is amazing
• Atmosphere looks awesome 
• Some parts of map still not smooth can get stuck walking on it
• The lighting the boats objective has too many boats 
• Shadows are too dark

Week 07

Still giving the level some height change and adding more assets to create a more aesthetically pleasing level

Added in a cheery blossom tree to give the scene of a funeral or a nice area to come when some one dies for the 2nd objective .

Graveyard

I wanted to have a green lighting to give you an uneasy feel though the graveyard, To create it to have a spooky airy feel while travelling though it. There is a main path that leads you though the grave yard on 2 sides so that when you spawn you can come from behind or in front of the opposing team

Playing around with lighting 

The biggest issues I have with the blue lighting was I lost the orange bright pop of the trees and the blue fire in the lamps didn't fit with the theme. I was trying to go for a more spooky feel in the graveyard but may need to find another way to bring that out as changing the lighting to blue just isn't working.

Moved the push objective to follow after the giving the peasants a royal send off, As someone suggested something that flows into the next objective makes it less confusing for players. 

Bridge leading to the 3rd objective, Pushing the bomb cart to the gates through the forest 

New map layout

• Dark blue= Agathar Spawn points
• Red= Mason Spawn points
• Blue = Objective 1
• Green= Objective 2
• Pink= Objective 3
• Orange= bomb cart rout
• Yellow = Objective 4

UPDATES

• changed layout of my map
• Added hills and slopes
• Redesigned graveyard so players knew which ways they could go 
• Played around with lighting 
• Removed boats from 2nd objective
• Smoothed landscape in some areas so player wouldn't get stuck

FEEDBACK

• Lighting is amazing
• Atmosphere looks awesome 
• Some parts of map still not smooth can get stuck walking on it
• The lighting the boats objective has too many boats 
• Shadows are too dark

Week 08

This week I had a lighting issues where my shows went Black , i added a Skylight so the map sound;t be darker no matter where it was than the chosen lightness of the skylight

Before

on of the many lighting test Tests

Shadows Final 

Changed the Lords area to be a courtyard rather than a castle 

Push-able Kismet for the bomb cart Objective 3

UPDATES

• Fixed shadows
• Changed the lords area to a courtyard 
• Started playing with its lighting 
• 3rd objective added

FEEDBACK

• Try using a Skylight for the shadows
• Play around with world propriety settings 
• Can get stuck on stairs near the lord
• Town between the forest and Lord is looking bare 
• Particles in forest would look good
• Got lost in the forest 

Week 09

Particles / Effects

Water Material I made by following along with the Chivalry's material , I needed to create my own water as their one was cooked and didn't allow me to change colour or opacity on the way
After

Before

Water Material I made by following along with the Chivalry's material , I needed to create my own water as their one was cooked and didn't allow me to change colour or opacity on the way 

Dust

I wanted to create some dust particles while travelling though the forest and graveyard, I found a simple tutorial Which had moving images to give colour change with the particles.

 Fog

The Chivalry's fog cloud didn't allow me to change the colour of it or how dense it was so i needed to create my own. I followed their particle node, but for some reason it kept coming out with a repeating texture.

Their particle on the left, Mine of the right

Fog's Material

I left it for a few days and come back to it, managed to fix it by tweaking a few initial size attributes

My Fog Particle goes from a light green brown to a white up the top

Playing with the fire in courtyard lights

Left side orange right side yellow, found that they yellow with the green made the lighting a lime green colour so I decided to go with the more orange lighting for the fires.

Courtyard Town

Town before the courtyard Fixed and assets added

Forest

Fences added 

UPDATES

• Fixed shadows
• Changed the lords area to a courtyard 
• Started playing with its lighting 
• Bomb cart now explodes Gate

FEEDBACK

• Try using a Skylight for the shadows
• Play around with world propriety settings 
• Can get stuck on stairs near the lord
• Town between the forest and Lord is looking bare 

Week 10

Particles

Firefly 
I wanted to create a firefly particle to go with the lanterns around towns and the forest

Firefly Material

Particle

In game effect

Skylight Issue

I found out that when trying to play test my level in chivalry the skylight overpowers all other lights leaving the level flat and dark. I tried playing with the world proprieties, Also removed the skylight complete, But when I did that my shadows turned black and it didn't matter what I tried to do would stay too dark, Even though the skylight looks fine in engine, 

With a skylight

Without skylight

Forest Object 3

Kill the Lord objective added

First Objective Town area

First Objective Take over the town and free the peasants from the Masons

Flags before you take over the town 

Flags once objective has been completed

kismet with all objectives added

UPDATES

• Kill objective added
• First objective capture the flags like objective added
• Town fixed and redesigned for first object
• Town between forest and Lord fixed and assets added
• Lighting and fog changed
• Firefly particle created and added to lamps 
• Trees added in forests to stop players walking in the forest 

FEEDBACK

• Try using a Skylight for the shadows
• Play around with world propriety settings 
• Can get stuck on stairs near the lord
• Town between the forest and Lord is looking bare 
• When loading the 2nd objective HUD loads at the same time as the first objective

Level Videos

Objective 1 area- Take back control of the town 

(Town)

Objective 2 area- Give the peasants a Royal send off

(Graveyard)

Objective 3 area- Bomb the Gate

(Forest)

Objective 4 area- Kill the Lord

(Courtyard)