Zhenghao Chu

Overview of the Level Map

Goals

The design goals are mainly focused on the ambush design and flexible combat design:

• In the dying light, the player's movement ability is very powerful. Under that situation, the ambush design needs to focus on restricting the player's flow to add on more pressure and tension.

• The vertical structure is abundant in the Dying Light, it could be a good consideration perspective for the ambush design.

• The enemy's enemy could be the friend, which could make the combat dynamic and skillful.

• A good combat design should deliver multiple methods for the player to solve the dilemma.

Design

1.  Restrict the player's flow in a reasonable, natural way:

If the player could immediately run away from the kill zone set for an ambush, it is clearly an insufficient ambush. Therefore, how to restrict and guide the player to the pre-set kill zone is always a challenge for the ambush design.

In my level, I add the restriction in the following way:

• A toxic puddle that covers near all the level(except the central military zone)

With the toxic puddle, now the player could only move around the roofs, with some spike traps(in the right picture), it is now much easier to control the player's flow. Meanwhile, it is important to make it looks natural, and easy to realize "that is toxic and dangerous".

There are signs and quarantine walls all around the level, and the player could see the zombie bow to vomit and gradually die, with the fire and broken cars, it explains clearly in visual that this green puddle is something really dangerous.

• Wooden crates and planks in the warehouse

How the storage shelf set in the warehouse is always neat and uniform. One of the advantage of that is with small amount of barriers which used to block the way, it is very easy to make up a maze. Also, the corner and the top of the storage shelf is always a good place for the enemy hiding for ambush.

However, this 'maze' could be hard for player to find the way, which could be very frustrating. So the conveyance design in this area is very essential. I put the colored arrows on the surrounding as a visual guidance, and I also add bodies and spike planks to set up the structure line as a hint for the right direction.

2.  The vertical structure enriches the combat:

The vertical space always brings extra advantage/disadvantage for the combat. In my level, I add a plenty of vertical structure to enrich the combat experience.

With some ranged enemy(Toads) and the enemy that could move across the vertical space(viral), the combat requires player to take care of wider space and figure out the best movement route.

3.  The enemy's enemy could be the player's friend

In the Dying Light, there are so many types of enemy, however, among these enemy types, there is also some hostile relationship between them, like the banadit will fight with zombies and so do the zombies. This hostile relationship does provide some inspirations.

I designed this arena to create a chance for the player to take advantage of this hostile relationship, where the human soldiers are guarding the area on the tower(blue circle) while the viral is flowing into this area(red arrow).

I set the timing for the combat between the soldiers and zombies starts before the player enter this area, so the player could inspect what is happening. I also provide the player with some fire crackers which could gather the zombies to a specific position, which could work as a tool for the player to get some "help" from the zombies.

4. Multiple choices for solving combat dilemma:

The goal of the combat is always straightforward, while the way to accomplish the goal should always be various.  It is important to provide multiple choices according to the play style for the player to solve the combat dilemma.

The goal of this area is to kill all the soldiers on the tower, so there is multiple strategy the player could choose:

1. Use fire crackers to gather the viral to kill the soldiers(Strategic playstyle).

2. Climb on the tower and assassinate all the soldiers while they are paying attention to the zombies(Sneak playstyle)

3. Rob the rifle from the soldiers and use it to kill the others(Peek playstyle). 

With all these choices, the player with different playstyle could fight in their familiar and loved way.

Additional Screenshots