help comes later
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Project Status: Completed
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Project Type: Personal
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Project Duration: 1 week
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Software Used: N/A
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Languages Used: N/A
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Primary Role(s): Designer
About Help Comes later
Help Comes Later was a game project that I came up with for a game design class, back when I was studying at UOWM KDU Malaysia. The game is essentially a grounded, tactical game that takes place in a present day modern American city where a mysterious outbreak of an unknown pathogen has turned almost all of the city’s population into the undead. It follows the story of 1 survivor who journeys throughout the city to scavenge for supplies and find rescue amongst all the chaos. During the assignment, I was also tasked to come up with level design mockups for the game by the lecturer, which I did 3 of and got a good mark for. So, that's what I'll be sharing here. Without further ado, let's jump straight into it:
Map Section 1
This was the first map of the game that was made. It serves as the starting point for the player when they load into the game the first time and is the first area they would have to traverse in the game in order to progress:
The idea that I had for the game is that it would take the survival gameplay elements from games like Project Zomboid, Left 4 Dead, Unturned and The Last Of Us and encourage acts like exploration, resource management and fear of enemies so that players always had little resource on them and had to be tactical with their choices as not to waste. This would then in turn make the players want to explore the map more and find more resources for them to use.
With that concept in mind, I went to designing 3 maps that encouraged such behaviors. The first one you see here was designed to almost be a "tutorial" or introductory level to the players that would help teach not only the game mechanics, but also what sort of playstyle the game encourages. This particular map for the game was made with little enemies for players to encounters, but just enough to make the players think about their actions and be careful when roaming around the level, but also to give players the sense of what the game world's like. A place or city that has gone to hell with no one left and all that remains are these "monsters" that made what was once normal, now a living nightmare to go through.
Placement of resources for this particular map for the player to grab is placed in relatively easy to find spots as most of them are placed along the path players are most likely to take, with only 1 placed tucked in the corner of a building at the top left of the map. The reason for such a decision was to ensure that players had the resources they needed to play the game and prepare them a slightly for the challenge ahead. Players are given some ammo and a health pack when they first load up the game, but the ones they find in this map are there to help balance combat and encounters so that it wouldn't be impossible for the players to get through the game. Plus, this map is essentially the starting area for the players which meant in my mind, it should help set the players up for the game before throwing them into the deep end. The items were scatted around the map and not all placed in 1 area was a choice to ensure that players know that exploration is something that is rewarded in this game and is something that the game encourages.
Map Section 2
This was the 2nd map section that the player would have to navigate after they got to the first safe house/ checkpoint. This was designed with the idea where the game really starts and challenge is added into it compared to first one:
As mentioned above, this 2nd map section was designed to be where the challenge would really start in the game. It's where the game would put what has been taught (hopefully) by the starting 1st map section and put into practice.
This area was made to be littered with more enemies than the first one as the idea of the game's narrative is that the player character is travelling deeper into the city as way to find the extraction or rescue point that he heard back at the military tent's radio on the 1st map. The deeper he went into the city, the more of the chaos and destruction that the outbreak had caused can be seen. The map was designed with that intention in mind where the players would be able to visually and audibly see the damage that such an outbreak would have realistically had on largely populated city with thousands of people trying to flee and survive.
Due to the game's tactical nature, this map also included 2 different paths that the players could realistically take in order to progress through it. The blue path represents the quickest route that the player could take to the Safe Zone along being the one with the most resources available to them to grab. The red path represents the longer route to the Safe Zone, but relatively safe but with less resources available to them. The decision to make such paths for the player is to give choice and let players have "freedom" in the game with how they want to progress in the game. They could either play it safe and take the red path or risk it for extra supplies that they could use and would need for the next part of the game by taking the blue path. This choice would be theirs and I felt that it was important to include such a thing in not only a city level but also in a game like this, so players don't feel like they are being led down a path and forced to do what the game wants them to.
Map section 3
The 3rd and final map section for this chapter of the story that was planned for the game. The player character would essentially make his final push/ dash towards safety and escape the infected populated city:
This map section is pretty straightforward in terms of what it serves as. This would be the final challenge that the player must overcome in order to get to safety. This map's difficulty would be increased compared to the first 2 they had to go through to really put to the the test the skills the players have learned so far.
The environmental look of the map also becomes more dense with urban landscapes and infected as to signify that this is the heart of the city and where thousands of people fell victim to the outbreak. The placements of not only the enemies but also the ruined cars, buildings and military checkpoints serves as visual story telling devices that tell the players how bad the outbreak was even with all the help that was given, thousands of people still fell to it and such a reason is why the player character wants out of the city,
The same principle of having multiple paths or routes that the player can use in order to get to objective still apply to this map section as it gives that sense of "freedom" or choice that I wanted players to have when playing the game. It almost acts as way for players to also tell how this story would end which makes for interesting gameplay.