Matthew Wagar | Week 8 : Wall Tutorial Designed

WEEKLY NARRATIVE

So a major design decision this week was to make it so that instead of making the library the area with the footstep trail ability, we would instead make it the area with the wall ability. Because we are introducing Scanners in this area, it makes sense to have the wall block the scanner's vision. Therefore to reflect the introduction to this new enemy type, the new ability should address these challenges the scanners introduce. In my Wall tutorial I created 3 rooms that teach some of the mechanics and dynamics of the new wall ability. 

In the first room I have the player walk into a screenie in a tight bookshelf space. The player is then encouraged to use the ability right in front of them to keep the enemy from walking toward the player. This is done again a couple times after to reinforce that you can use the wall to block off enemies in tight spaces. 

In the second room I introduce two scanners, and one enemy that is looking away. The intention here is to have the player either block off the scanner from seeing the player, or block off the screenie before the screenie leaves the wall-able bookshelf area. This gives the player multiple strategies to approach this room. I have also given the player the ability to x-ray into this room from two vantage points, to allow the player to fully plan out how they want to tackle this room.  

Lastly, in the third room, I again have given the player the ability to x-ray before entering the room. The idea behind this room is that the player is again met with another scanner, but this time the player needs to wall the scanner or else the two screenies will come after the player. In case the player didn't do the block off scanner strategy in the second room, this room ensures the player must wall the scanner. 

One of my main concerns with this tutorial is that the player may be inclined to put down the memento and dash through parts of these levels. Although it might help the player scout ahead, this phase is all about bringing the memento back without the ability to dash, and choreographing that might be difficult. I guess we can only find out in play testing.

All in all, this challenge isn't as easy as previous tutorials. The player isn't just being taught a mechanic, but they are also taught some dynamics. I am also trying to incorporate more diagonals to avoid the rectilinearity I had in my x-ray tutorial design. Not to mention, I also have some x-ray areas in this level design to give the player more agency and strategy over all of their abilities. 

CONTENT WITH HOURS

• Designed wall tutorial (3.5 hours)
• Measuring The Floorplan (1 hour)

WORKFLOW EXAMPLES

Wall Tutorial Design

POSITIVE OUTCOMES

• A design for the Wall Tutorial.

NEGATIVE OUTCOMES

• The modelers and programmers didn't implement this in the game yet (to my knowledge), so we are not creating as fast as we did last week.

NEXT TASKS

Next week I plan on working on more designs, and possibly working on some VFX for the dash and wall to make them look juicier. 

TOTAL HOURS LOGGED THIS WEEK: 4.5 hours