Extended Practice Designing and Developing the Layout my Environment (Egypt)

I then moved onto looking at the environment, as I had already done a lot of research into the environment itself and I felt ready to move onto this section to get the layout nailed. I wanted to go back to my Game Design Document, which I did previously before starting this, and this really helped me to look at what I wanted to feature in the level and used the themes section to be able to create a list at the side and plan out the rooms around this.

To begin with I came up with 4 different designs for the layout of the level so that I could get a lot of variety but kept most of the rooms the same throughout. I then altered where they where on the map and looked at adding in holes into the maps so that there was things for the player to jump over and avoid.

I then moved onto looking at how I could show where the different elements are on the map and although it does look confusing, it can easily show where everything will be located, like traps for instance as there are a lot of them located around everywhere. Underneath that I then did a separate map for the collectibles that will be seen throughout so that it was easier to see where their location was on the map.

With this first design I did like it very much, but this is mainly down to it being the first one that I did, but I think that it is a little bit too simple, there aren't many possibilities to make the level harder unless more traps are added in. The overall level design is good though, although possibly a little too short.

 The next design that I did used the same ideas and rooms as the first, much like all of the designs do, but this time it is a little bit more complicated with multiple paths to take at all times, but not too confusing that you could get lost in the level. There are a number of different opportunities to use lever mechanics and also locked doors with traps all mixed in, making this design my favourite.

 I then created another, adding in an element of a curved staircase at the beginning this time, but again for this the layout was just  not working for me as much as the other too and it just felt a little bit too cluttered. I also tried to add in a lot more areas for traps on this design and it may have been a few too many as there then isn't any space for other mechanics to come into play.

 I then did one last design and this one turned out incredibly big. The entire level just seemed to go on and on for far to long and in my opinion it just wouldn't have worked as a level due to the size. It also has a lot of twists and turns in it making the player confused and they may get lost, stopping the flow of the game and making it slow down, something that I don't want to include.

So in the end I have decided to go with the second design as to me it felt like the one that could be carried further into the development stage due to the nature of the design. I then wanted to look at the different colour schemes that will be used throughout the level and knew that I wanted to go with traditional colours for that location. The ideas that I originally had where to keep it in the yellow-orange colour scheme so kept my ideas in that section. Below are all of the colours that I explored that fit in this boundary and I will be definitely sticking with the first two, along with the fourth and fifth ones. I wanted to rule out the more red tones as they would not have worked with the sand idea and wanted to also explore the brown tones as well. As for the colours at the bottom these where very traditional colours that feature against the yellow sand tones and for me would fit into the environment well but will not be used for the blocks, maybe for the doors instead.

I then wanted to look at what level everything would be on in the tomb. As I have added in staircases I wanted to show in colours what level and height each part of the map is on just so that the staircase direction can be defined to make an interesting design on the map.

What I then wanted to do was take this design into Maya to ensure that the layout was working well enough for me to be happy with the way in which it was going. I really like this first test of the environment in Maya and tried to ensure that I had a small cube that represented the character so that I could ensure that the walls are the right size, but this may have to changed later on and made wider so that the camera can still move around once the walls are in, but this is something that will be looked at when I create the first proper prototype in a few days time.