Past the Favelas
- Dying Light Developer Tools -
Overview
Workshop Screenshot (click on image to go to Steam Workshop page)
Details
Development Info
Description: In Past the Favelas, Crane was informed of a rogue Antizin drop that landed in a sectioned Quarantine Zone. Jade radios him to retrieve this drop, defeat troublesome zombies, and get back in one piece. Explore a custom-made level that focuses on exploration and bow-and-arrow combat in an open-world exterior town. Players have the quest to guide them to the main objectives, but are free to roam and explore what the town holds for them.
Team Size: 1 Developer
Software: Dying Light Developer Tools
Mode: Single Player
Development Time: 80 Hours / 2 Months
Platform: PC
Design Goals
Exploration and Guiding Paths
Ranged and Explosive Combat
Easy to Pick up
Design Process
Exploration and Guiding Paths
My focus for this level was an open-world design approach that allows the player to explore while creating a primary avenue for them to follow through with the main quest.
The level is built to look like a favela - a rundown Brazilian neighborhood that scales the side of a hill or mountain face. Much of the exterior is abandoned with traces of people that used to live here. It is now littered with zombies of all kinds and dangerous to explore - Crane is the perfect man for the mission and is tasked to retrieve the rogue Antizin crate at the top of the abandoned construction zone.
Ranged & Explosive Combat
The main form of combat is using a Bow & Arrow to strike enemies from afar and light up explosive barrels for great AOE damage.
Bow & Arrow primary combat
Explosive barrels
Falling catwalks
High Verticality & scaleable parkour moments
These barrels also provide a new accessway for players to traverse by exploding weak concrete pillars and causing catwalks to fall for easier parkour access.
Easy To Pick up
I made this level easy to learn and traverse through. The parkour aspect of Dying Light can be quite challenging for some players, so I had this design goal in mind when constructing my playspace.
All parkour moments are easy to grasp or figure out how to reach their next destination in the quest.
The unique mechanics in the level are simple to learn and immediately affect the environment for the player to utilize to the fullest.
Postmortem
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Postmortem -----
What Went Well?
Found my main mechanic and setting early in development. Created the entire exterior quickly based on my Level Design Document and external references sourced.
Parkour movement felt good to traverse through. The environment was complimented by the innate gameplay of Dying Light.
Easy to implement in-engine and iterated in an efficient manner. Most of the level was developed for the exterior which this editor does well.
What Needs Improvement?
The combat takes a back seat and is only in the level to make it feel less empty. If I go back into the level, I would add more instances of enemies and create arena-like encounters where the player must use their weapons and surroundings to defeat the enemies to progress.
Contextually, the quest doesn’t feel fully fleshed out. It covers the basics of why Crane is there and what he needs to do, but it could use polish and in-game settings to help fully cement it into the game world.
The level can be completed quickly. Not the worst thing, but some players expressed that they wished the quest didn’t end so quickly. It depends on how fast the player explores the custom level.
What Did I Learn?
How to design a parkour-focused level and build an open-world environment around it.
Set-dressing and how to create “beauty corners” to pull the player in and highlight focus on parts of my quest.
Pivot to adding/subtracting sections of my level based on stakeholder feedback.
Iterated quickly with set milestone deadlines and delivered on every one of them.
