Project Summary
Description
Outcasts' Hideout is my hub level set in a high-fantasy world. The world is undergoing a century-long war between the Spirit and the Union, a multi-race alliance. You play as a mercenary. After fighting at the front line for months, you finally have some time off. You return to your city, the Outcasts' Hideout, to visit your ill sister.
Game Engine: Unreal Engine 4.
Project duration: 1 month.
Outasts' Hideout.mp4World Setting
Many races co-exist in this world, though not peacefully. Every race had been at war with each other for centuries. They fought for resources, territorial control, and supremacy. One race (I call it the Spirit for now) overpowered all the other races, which led to the creation of the Union, a multi-race faction including races such as Humans, Dwarfs, and Elves. This alliance was fragile, as they were only united to defeat the Spirit race.
Each race heavily emphasizes the purity of bloodline, meaning cross-race descendants are not welcomed and often discriminated against; they are cast away by society, hence the title outcast. Our protagonist and his sister are one of them.
The rise of nationalism and separatism inspired the game's backstory and theme.
Screenshots
Project Development
Initial level concept
Inspiration
I started working on this project sometime around the TGS (Tokyo Game Show); this was also when I first saw the trailer for Nier Replicant ver. 1.22474487139...The choice of location was largely influenced by The Aerie (Kaine's Village) shown in the trailer.
I decided to create a large city built by the outcasts, a city hidden deep in the mountains. That's why I named it Outcasts' Hideout.
As a fan of fantasy RPGs, I was excited to build a large high-fantasy city. Of course, it would be unwise to create a AAA size map, so I only designed a small portion of it. The rest could only be seen from a distance and was not accessible to players.
Things I've learned
The biggest mistake I made was not testing the scale of the environment early on. I used a player-size capsule to measure the size of the environment. But without playtesting the level first, when I realized that I messed up the scale and made everything too big, it was already too late. I didn't have time to rebuild the entire level. The final result was much bigger than I anticipated. Filling a large area of empty space within a tight schedule was challenging and exhausting. Playtesting is important. Solely relying on grid measurement is not enough to get a good grasp of the size and the pacing.
Another big mistake was the bridge. This section was made too long and too complex. It's good to change the player's path once in a while. But having too many twists and turns in a short segment can make navigation tedious and annoying. Especially in an area that players will pass through frequently. Sometimes less is more.
Design Documents
Tianzhi_Shen_HUD_WalkThrough.docDesign Doc
Tianzhi_Shen_HUD_AssetList.docAsset List
