Maxix Robotics is a Single-Player narrative driven survival-horror puzzle solver, from Belfrost Studios, where I worked as a Level designer and Lighting Artist. The game is available now via Steam.
The main hub and operations center in the facility were meant to detail the company's rich history as well as the background of its proprietor and creator, who'll play a large role in the games story. The initial design for the foyer of the facility was circular with the Maxix Dott statue at its center. We decided that a more elongated design would capture the player's attention more from the start and give them the feeling of a museum-like environment while they learn some of the backstory and get started on their journey.
The main facility acts as a hub that allows you to venture into each wing of the manufacturing plant to repair your DOTT and restore order to the facility. This room needed to be simple to navigate and interact with because the player will begin their journey here after making their way through the opening. This work station also shapes out to be their hub for restoring the facility. We wanted to use backtracking to give the player a sense of comfort until they're surprised to find that there's more to the facility directly below....
In Maintenance, you'll have to navigate a labyrinth-like storage room in order to solve the puzzle, while avoiding the sentient BOTT's guarding the room and successfully recalibrate DOTT and gain access deeper into the facility.
This environment went through maybe the largest layout change overall. Initially the player was led down a long corridor into a room that opened up and had some warehouse storage racks and shipping containers with the floor buttons that serve as the room's puzzle located at the direct center and the player would play a hybrid version of Simon Says while avoiding the AI. We felt this didn't engage the player enough and felt dull.
To create more immersion and suspense, we decided on a labyrinth-like design to create more suspense and some frantic searching for each correct button while evading the enemy AI. To offset a near impossible task we decided to orient monitors over the buttons so that the player could gauge where the buttons were but still need to search for which was the correct color.
The Processing Plant is one part of the game that the layout remained almost identical throughout development. We always envisioned a lot of conveyer belts and packaging to give the appearance of a real processing plant. However, we did extend the level's design by adding some long winding corridors where the elevator lets you out, and brings you back to Operations. These long hallways also allowed us to create a terrifying run-for-your-life moment when you complete red light - green light-like puzzle to calibrate Dott. This design as well as some audio design helped make the sequence an over the top white knuckle grip moment in the game.
