The Twin Pines Raid - "Ready Or Not" Custom Mod Map
Project Length: 3 Months | Team Size: Solo Project | Tools Used: Unreal Engine 4, Environment Art Asset Packs | Role: Level Design
Overview: A mod map for the game Ready or Not, made in Unreal Engine 4.27, using a fan-made unofficial modding template.
Level Showcase:
Project Goal
My goal with this project was to familiarize myself with the unofficial modding tools to make maps for Ready or Not. The community of this game is amazing and eager to create modded content for the game before its 1.0 release and the release of official modding tools, and since I discovered them, I knew I wanted to jump in and learn how to use them to make some cool stuff. This level was also really good level design practice as I love tactical shooters and this allowed me to design and experiment with a project that can be tested and played in a complete and finished game.
Level Playthrough
Ready Or Not 2023.12.14 - 17.32.45.02 - Trim.mp4Design Goals
- Design for the Genre:
This was my first experience designing specifically for a slower-paced tactical shooter. I love tactical shooters and have always wanted to experience designing in this sub-genre of FPS, I wanted to use my prior knowledge of different games in this sub-genre, as well as the hours I've played of Ready or Not, to influence my design decisions so I can make a map that flows and feels like an official map.
- Familiar Flow with an Innovative Setting:
One of my main focuses from the start of this project was to see how I could design a map that felt like it could be an official map while also having a setting that was different from the rest of the game's levels. Currently, there's only one other level that's somewhat similar to Twin Pines, but I think I've captured that feeling of a familiar flow and a newer setting, as well as adding some contextual environmental hazards that aren't seen in the other levels to force players to rethink their strategies and positioning.
- Design with Formal Pipeline and Art Pass Process in mind:
This was mostly a personal project, but I used the format of my school's semester and deadlines to follow a formal pipeline of development by starting from pen and paper along with real-world reference research and then moving on to creating diagrams and a level design document before getting into greyboxing the level and adding to the level based on playtests. Another related design goal I had was to design a level with a formal art pass as part of the process. All of my other projects are still blackouts or have minimal art to get the themes across but since this is playable in an actual game, the art pass mattered more this time around.
Level Design Process:
Map Pre-Production:
For this level, I started the project with the setting already in-mind. I knew I wanted to create a level with a more nature-focused layout and environment as it would stand out from the rest of the in-game map lineup and it would also create a challenge for me, at the time of the project's start, I was very unfamiliar with terrain and landscape tools and I always loved designing very dense, urban environments with little or no natural terrain in them.
I wanted to step out of my comfort zone to try designing something that I thought would fit the game's map lineup while also challenging myself to learn some new skills and try designing something that's fairly new for me as well.
In Figure 01, you can see where the process work began, I gathered some reference images, put them on a mood board and also looked at what assets came in the pack I bought and I began sketching out the flow of the level's layout, taking into account the areas with the most gameplay focus being the clusters of buildings and structures while also trying to draw the natural flow of the terrain and the flowlines of where the player would navigate.
Takeaways:
In order to design a level that feels similar/on-par with the official in-game content, it's important to adhere to the design principles and constraints used in existing content and have a strong grasp of those things before deviating and adding on concepts and ideas that innovate on the foundations that already exist.
For a tactical FPS experience, cover and aggregate gameplay can separate a great experience from a poor one. Ensuring that your map/level has good flow from cover to cover and has areas and encounters that encourage strategic/tactical thinking is what's important to make the level functional for this sub-genre.
Lighting is very key to the experience, especially when designing a map for a game like this. I tried to experiment with a low-light nighttime map to add an extra layer of strategy by making players think about when and where to use night vision while also breaking up the standard flow by creating areas with lots of light to make sure they didn't have the advantage of NVGs throughout the entire experience.
Figure 01: First Draft Sketch
Early Prototyping & Testing:
Since I already had asset packs to cover art, I skipped the traditional blockout stage and began using assets from the pack from the beginning of testing.
This project was my first time using the terrain tools in Unreal, so I began the project by ensuring that I could use those tools to create the base of my map layout, creating a sort of canyon with two high points and a slope that leads down to the final area of the map between the canyon with the focal point of the map being the bridge that connects the higher elevation areas. Players would start at the top and ideally work their way down, but given the flow of "Ready or Not," players have the freedom to approach the level in different ways.
My goal when making the terrain layout was to capture the flow that I had envisioned in my initial sketch, where the level starts from the bottom left of the sketch.
Over the course of the level's development, I was able to gather some testers to try out the WiP version and iterate based on my own thoughts of playing the level (solo with AI) and getting the opinions and feedback of other experienced players (co-op play, no AI)