Level Design
Discordia was my first real experience as a Level designer. As a turn base tactical game, the main control over the level design was through the terrain, obstacle, cover, creating interesting engageing point for units, strategy location for combat advantage and many risk reward choices for the player.
General Idea
1. The region in the world map defines the type of location and environment for the map. The moment in the story defines additional objects that can be found in the level.
2. Once the concept is ready you can start planning interesting routes for the player’s units to traverse the level.
3. Start playing with the level elements to create obstacles, locate resources and potential engagement and battle spots.
Units Metrics
LDD (Level Design Document)
Before start creating the actual level I did a complete document for the metrics of the units, including movement, range, cover, combat mechanics, etc. With this deep comprehension of the units behavior I was able to define constrains for the level and start thinking in interesting ways for units to interact with the environment.
Adalaz Ruin was the tutorial level for the game. Using the world regions description in the world document I did the first sketches to fit the story of this first mission. The most important part in this process is being able to create a powerful visual storytelling. In the LLD I also set the rules for the Illustrator to create the level, here you can add as much detail as you want.
Level Modeling
This is the final step of the creative process where I created the top down view and then the 3D model using the height that I got from the metrics and transforming all the details in to playable terrain or obstacles. In this map we did the playtest so we can change it easily if we need. This is the moment when I decide where the players are going to start the mission and I can tweak the difficulty adding obstacle, difficult terrain or may be adding more units for the enemy.
This is the final version of the level. The illustrator worked over the 3d view adjusted in an isometric point of view. The tiles are prefectly blended and the story telling works perfectly.
Final Art
This is the final version of the level. The illustrator worked over the 3d view adjusted in an isometric point of view. The tiles are perfectly blended and the story telling works perfectly.