Eat Lead is a 3rd person cover-based shooter with a strong story. I designed and built the gameplay and interactivity of two levels of the eight. Note that it was designed to be a parody of this genre, and won a VGX award.
My responsibilities on these two levels included:
- Story development and encounter design.
- Building the gray levels in a 3D application.
- Encounter building in engine.
- Cinematics.
- Level scripting including events and custom features.
Primary Level Design Responsibilities
- Office Demonstration Level
- Level 1 – Japanese Restaurant
- Level 8 – Office Building
I was involved with combat design from the start, helping to establish the layout and spacing of cover and how combat would play out. Image 1 is an example of development for the vertical slice. The familiar column designs emerged to allow for architectural cover, reducing the amount of props that needed to be added to an area to provide the needed cover for a given encounter.
On each level I worked with the lead designer to establish the narrative and context of the level, including beats and boss placement. Each level was first modeled in a 3D application. This was then imported into the Vicious Game Engine as a static, and used as the framework for the environment artists to build the level geometry in detail. This allowed simultaneous art development and gameplay setup and testing.
The links below are walkthrough videos of level 1 of Eat Lead.
Japanese Restaurant
The level starts out in an alley which also serves as a tutorial backdrop. The player is then able to approach a set of loading dock doors, providing entry and cover for the first encounter. The player is encouraged to move into the arena so they are not fighting at the door.
In image 3, once in the arena, the player is provided with a choice on how to engage the NPCs. The room splits, and the player is able to flank to reduce the effectiveness of the cover for the NPCs. This is a common pattern for combat in the rest of the game.
Restaurant Bar
Thinking about level design can take many forms, including rough sketches in plan, section, elevation, or perspective. Image 4 is a rough sketch in plan and perspective. In the plan, the left path has not opened up yet, as suggested on the left of the perspective.
Image 5 is a screenshot of the final level. The player now has multiple options of paths and cover to engage with the NPCs on the far side of the bar.
