Project Velocity is a work in progress first person parkour platformer. My directive was to design a tutorial level set in the warehouse of a junkyard. This area of the game would serve as an introduction to the protagonist as well as the core gameplay mechanics of crouching, sliding, running, jumping, wall-running and ledge mantling.
A lot of collaboration and iteration went into concepting and building this level out. Given the lore of the environment (rundown slum-like industrial region), I started by using factories and warehouses from the industrial revolution as inspiration. However, this changed to a more run-down modern design to fit the theme of the game's setting (futuristic dystopian) better.
The original concept took place entirely within the bounds of the warehouse with a short introduction starting at the front door and the level ending as the player exited the warehouse on the other side.
After a few block-out iterations on the original concept the team and I kept feeling like the level was too short and lacked replay value for the planned time attack mode for players to try after completing the game. So I took what we liked and got to work on expanding it t make the level a bit longer.
1. The player starts in an alley way between the back of the scrapyard and other industrial buildings. Behind and left path are blocked by a closed gate, front path is blocked by scrapyard debris fallen over fence. Player may only proceed to the right, by crouching under the break in the fence of the scrapyard.
2. The player continues into scrapyard, into a small navigable area but is blocked from being able to fully circumvent the warehouse.
3. The player will be prompted to ledge climb onto the treads of an excavator, that is stationed between the incinerator and scrap piles, then jump to the conveyer belt that is feeding scrap into the incinerator.
4. Here the player will need to run against the belt, up the inclined portion, and jump at the end transition to a wall run on a suspended shipping container then launch off onto the exterior catwalk.
5. From here the player could drop down back into the area they just came from if they want to practice this sequence again, or to continue their progress drop into the warehouse through the broken window.
6. This will drop them to the ground floor of the warehouse where a portion of the catwalk has collapsed from the opposite side of the entry window.
7. Player will begin to run across the floor toward a warehouse storage rack that’s partially collapsed and slide beneath it through an opening to the other side.
8. They should then continue running and jump or climb over some debris (crates, pallets, etc.) and mantle up some stacked crates, finally jumping onto a pallet suspended by a forklift.
9. Next they’ll run across a collapsed support beam between two storage racks and run across the various sized crates and pallets.
10. At the end of it, they’ll jump, wall run then jump again aiming to exit through the broken window (opposite from where they entered the warehouse).
11. They’ll then slide down the foyer roof of the warehouse and land on the ground in front of the facility. They’ll continue moving toward the exit of the scrapyard to end the level, view a cinematic scene and proceed to the next area.
END of Tutorial/Scrapyard Level
This new concept felt a lot more robust and brought a lot more interesting scenery to the level, so I jumped back into blocking it out for the next team meeting so I could present the new concept and be ready for feedback.
After some more feedback and team collaboration, we decided going through the middle of the the entire area felt too generic and instead we liked the idea of snaking through the middle and back out to the side of the map to cut through the warehouse and offices to make your way to the exit of the junkyard through the front gate. Our producer also tasked me with another challenge to bring it all together. Bring some interaction and life to the environment.
With a layout the we finally found both interesting and challenging enough I was able to go full steam ahead on bringing it to life and start working on my next directive, adding some interaction to the environment to bring it all together and add some depth. After some brainstorming and prototyping I implemented a few sequences that would give the player a taste of what's to come as they progress further into the story. As the player enters the junkyard through the broken fence, they'll see a column and some debris come crashing down (this is where they'll learn about sliding). You'll notice in the clip below that I also added some bounds that will kill and respawn the player at the beginning should they fail jumping over a dangerous obstacle.
As the player continues, they'll find themselves sliding down a construction trash chute into a compactor that triggers as they fall in and they'll need to think quickly and find an escape before being crushed.
The next and last triggerable event in the level is a damaged catwalk that when the player lands on it, it collapses and brings them to a different part of the warehouse than they anticipated.
With some life brought into the level, there was one more mechanic that I needed to work into the design, interactions. I came up with a rough prototype of a forklift that the player would need to interact with to raise a pallet of crates that would allow them to get through to the other side of the facility and continue their progression.
With the structure of the level completed, we've moved onto asset production so that we can move closer to completing the vertical slice of the project. Below you'll find a clip of a full run through of the level from start to finish.
