A short, 10 – 20 minutes of 3D level was created for PC using Techland’s, Dying Light Developer Tools (Techland, 2015). In-game available art assets were used to create the level. Quests, objectives, pick-ups and dialogues were written in HTML (XML) data whereas opening doors, enemies, triggers, spawns, in-game music, in-game ambience and interactive objects were scripted. VoiceBot was used to script the virtual commands for the levels.
The level design focuses on gradually increasing pace of gameplay, starting from slow pace, medium pace to fast pace where the attention required from the player also increases. According to the increasing pace of gameplay, the level is divided into three different sections.
SECTION 1: As shown in Figure 1, the small red box on the top part of the image is where the player spawns. The level starts with the slow pace area which is covered by blue box in Figure 1. This section introduces player to simple walking, using items, opening doors, sprint and jumping mechanic. The objective in this section is to get into the locker room, go through the ventilation shaft and reach the security room, unlock the security door, revisit the locker room through the same ventilation shaft to go ahead through the unlocked door into section 2. There are no enemies in this section, so the player is able to get used to voice commands while completing the objective.
Figure 1
SECTION 2: The level continues with the medium pace area which is covered by blue box in Figure 2. New mechanics like attacking, dodging, finisher moves, slide and crouch are introduced to the player. There’s only one enemy in this section. At the beginning of this section, the player is greeted with an easy difficulty enemy and needs to kill it or escape from it. After that, player is able to crouch or slide through the obstacles and reach the research room to grab the research data. After player has grabbed the research data, player needs to escape the facility by entering into drainage pipes, through the hole, as shown in bottom right corner of Figure 2, into Section 3.
Figure 2
Figure 3.1
SECTION 3: The level continues with the fast pace area, which is the sewer, as shown in Figure 3.1, 3.2 & 3.3 successively. Upon entering the sewers from the drainage pipes, as shown in Figure 3.1, player enters an invisible trigger (blue boxes as shown in Figure 3.1) and activates it. A mini-boss enemy named “Volatile”, of easy difficulty, spawns (white boxes in Figure 3.1) with a spawning animation, in front of player. Volatile will always chase down the player until killed or loses sight of player. Volatile can easily outrun the player whereas obstacles prove to be effective in slowing down a Volatile, thus the placement of obstacles helps the player outrun multiple Volatiles. This section requires fast speed voice interaction. Player is challenged with situation which requires high level of concentration and effort than previous two sections of level. Player would require to constantly run, which can be achieved by saying “Sprint” command once. While running, player will face small sewer pipes and deep pits as obstacles. Player can perform “Jump/Slide” in successive manner to jump over or slide under obstacles.
As shown in Figure 3.2, player now reaches the first pit obstacle which requires player to perform three successive “Jump” consecutively. On successful completion, the invisible blue box trigger is activated once (as shown in Figure 3.2), and each Volatile spawns at both white boxes (as shown in top left corner in Figure 3.2). Player has an option to “Jump” and use the zip-line to get behind them easily or run past them.
Figure 3.2
Both way player will reach another invisible blue box trigger (as shown in Figure 3.3), which is activated once and a Volatile will spawn at the white box (as shown in top part of Figure 3.3). Player would require to “Jump” at the final pit obstacle and grab the ladder automatically. Finally, the end-game credits roll in while player would still be climbing the ladder.
Figure 3.3