Take a look at my video walkthrough below:
Tools Used:
Trenchbroom
GitHub
Adobe Illustrator
Skills Used:
Level design
Combat encounter design
Iteration on player feedback
Theme and Setting
"In the distant future, the remnants of humanity live out their days within bunkers underground after a dangerous virus ravaged the Earth. You are a soldier tasked with guarding one of these bunkers. One day, you wake to find that a rift in space-time has been torn open in your subterranean haven, threatening the safety of everyone within. Travel between the present and the past as you try to close this rift and discover the secrets of what really caused humanity's downfall."
Temporal Shift is my first single player map for Quake. I created this project following a similar workflow as the one used for my multiplayer map, but broke it down into some more specific steps. I began with brainstorming a theme and setting for the map, and came up with the little narrative blurb above. Rather than one continuous setting, Temporal Shift bounces between a sci-fi styled bunker and an early 20th century city. The past and future settings contrast with each other to create unique and interesting areas for the player to navigate through.
While working on nailing down the narrative and theme of the level, I researched various WAD files (textures for the Quake engine) as well as the various enemy units that Quake had to offer, making sure I filled some generic combatant roles like melee, ranged, and heavy.
Bubble Diagrams, Top Down Maps, and Level Areas
Next up in the process was starting to flesh out the level into distinct areas. I created a bubble diagram (pictured above) to visualize the general flow between the different spaces in the level. The player starts in the Living Quarters area, and proceeds from there. In the process of creating this diagram, I drafted both gameplay and narrative summaries for each area to give myself clear goals once I began building the level in Trenchbroom.
For some areas, I took it a step further and created more detailed top-down maps that included a walkthrough of the gameplay and combat encounters. The following walkthrough and top-down were created for the Speakeasy section of the level, which is one of the first major areas in the "past" setting and introduces a new enemy type:
1. The player will descend the stairs into the area and encounter the level's first Zombie directly in their way. The player does not yet have a means of permanently killing them, so they will temporarily incapacitate them and move further into the main room.
2. As they move further into the room, one more Zombie will be present behind the bar, next to an explosive container. The container will actually block the Zombie from moving out from behind the bar, and they will both be blocking the player from moving into the kitchen. The player can shoot the container to gib the Zombie, teaching them that explosive damage will permanently kill them.
3. The player can then move into the kitchen behind the bar and will immediately be facing 2 Rottweilers in close quarters. They will be running from the back of the kitchen, where there is an open door.
4. The player will move toward the back of the kitchen and enter the storeroom. They'll face one more Rottweiler, then find a key and a grenade launcher.
5. Leaving the kitchen area will trigger several Zombies to spawn within the main room; a "curtain" will rise on the stage and two Zombies will emerge from there as well. Some lights will turn on in the area also.
6. If the player continues to explore they will find the bathroom in the back of the area. There will be a water drip sound effect playing in that area to guide them. Shooting the toilet in the open stall will reveal a secret; the toilet will recede into the wall, and a Quad Damage pickup will rise from the floor.
After killing all of the enemies (or not) the player can exit the area through the door next to the stage using the key they picked up.
Cover test with a button to spawn in enemies.
Determining optimal height/width for different room sizes.
Testing jump height/length and incline for stairs/ramps.
Metrics and Greybox
Prior to beginning to block out my level in Trenchbroom, I created a test map (see above images) to determine some basic metrics, such as room size, hallway length, the height of cover, etc. Once I was satisfied with the way the space felt, I moved on and began the greybox version of my map. As seen in the images above, I tried to stick with a strict workflow for the order in which I added things to the level: floors, walls, and then gates, or interactive elements. The main idea here was to get the basic layout of the level created; architectural details, textures, and other elements could be added later on. I did add some props and details to certain rooms, but didn't spend too much time on it at this stage. You'll see some pictures showing the greybox progress below:
Greybox with only floors
Walls added
Gates (interactive elements, in yellow) and some props added
Gameplay and Playtesting
Having created the foundation of my level, it was time to start adding combat encounters and more interactive elements. One area in particular that I felt turned out well was the Speakeasy, the first major section player must work through once they are teleported to the past. Due to my vision for this area being a bit more complex, I had to balance the timing of certain triggers to make sure everything flowed as I intended.
This section includes enemies that are teleported in after the player picks up a key hidden in a back room; this originally happened out of sight in order to surprise the player and put them on edge when they reenter the main room, however you can see in the images below that I updated this section to include a gap in the wall. This provides an opportunity to present the player with more immediate feedback from their actions, since they can see the enemies spawning in now.
I wanted players to feel a slight panic during this encounter, but they shouldn't struggle here because they just received a new weapon, the grenade launcher. I got the desired reaction from the testers that ran through my level at this stage, and overall they had a positive response to the gameplay. They did note that the player could be in a bit of a tough spot during the final encounter of the level due to a lack of ammo, so I made a note to adjust the ammo economy throughout the map in the next iteration.
Textures and Lighting
Now that I had nailed down the layout of my level via the greybox, as well as the general flow of gameplay, I was ready to begin adding textures and lighting to the map. This was arguably one of the most exciting parts of the process for me, because it’s nice to see everything come together and start to look more like a finished level.
I used a variety of textures from several WAD files; check out the credits page on my GitHub for links to the original WADs.
Overall, texturing the level was relatively straightforward, especially for the sections set within the bunker of the future. This environment features a lot of metallic, industrial textures and had a lot of similarity between different areas.
Lighting played a huge role in these sections of the map as well. Because the bunker is currently in a state of emergency, flashing red lights were great features to use as guides for where the player should go. Paired with the low, flickering lighting in most of the bunker this really helped me find the atmosphere I was searching for.
I did struggle a bit more with the sections of the map that were meant to be set in the past, because the environment was more detailed. However, I think that it came together well and provides a nice contrast with the rest of the level.
