Julien Lebon
Game designer
PROJECT
Personnal project : Level for Gears of War
DATE AND DURATION
2012-2013 – 2 months
DESCRIPTION
Gears of War is a Third Person Shooter by Epic Games. One of its key features is the cover system (use objects as covers to protect yourself and shoot back). Create a level with its own rules, scripts and using this covers is an excellent level design exercise.
To create this level, I used the Unreal Editor pour Gears of War based on Unreal Engine 3.
That was a great way to design a level from scratch and then build it using a professional tool for level design and level building.
I also learned how to use kismets/blueprints:create scripts with a visual interface.
MISSIONS
Level design : Design a level “on paper”
First, I created a document with the core of my level : gameplay phases, ambiance, emotions for the player, level design intents.
I tried to think outside the box by using all the ingredients of Gears of War, but differently. Make Gears of War become more like Fear of War. This time, the player won’t have a huge arsenal from the beginning, he starts with a simple shotgun with a low amount of ammunitions. He’s seeking for a warehouse in which he’ll find more weapons.
So I created something new using Gears of War mechanics using other supports and games as inspirations. Who thought that you couldn’t find a No More Heroes-like sequence in Gears of War ?
Level design : Level building on Unreal Editor
Level building, weapons and ammunition parameters, scripts for ennemies and weapons.
Level design : Scripting with kismets/blueprints scripts using a visual interface)
Scripts for spawns, ennemies behavior, events, game objects (doors, triggers, etc.), cameras, etc.
Level design : Aesthetics and lighting
A level isn’t made of blocks, so I found and used the game assets to rebuild the level. And I made the lighting for the level.
Animation
Animate the character and game objects during introduction and conclusion. Animate the cameras. Add voices and sounds.
Sound design : Sound design document
Create a document to present the sound that I used (ennemies, environment, musics), influences, intents, atmosphere evolution through gameplay phases.
Sound design : Create an audio stinger
Create a sound that I’ll use as a feedback for the player and add to the existing stingers of Gears of War (danger zone, no-danger zones, objectives, points of interests, etc.).
I used the sound of a church bell when ennemies come. The player can see the church when he’s not in a building. The sound changes through the game, it gets louder and louder and gets distorted. It was an efficient tool to create a scary atmosphere through the level.
Sound design : Add sounds
Find or create sounds, import them in the editor, create scripts to use those sounds.