Black Ops 3
Falzen
Falzen is the first level of a series of BO3 zombie maps I am designing/building within the Radiant level editor. As the player enters Falzen, they find themselves within a partly destroyed suburbia. Fires coat the corpses of cars that belonged to the town's once thriving people. In a vain attempt to stop the horde, the military, and police set up barricades armed with turrets and robotic soldiers. Yet, looking at the aftermath, it would appear the horde overcame their defenses. Due to mistrust growing within the residents of Falzen, in the end, it wasn't just the horde the military was fighting but the people they were sworn to protect. All it took was one misunderstanding and a well-placed shot for chaos to ensue. The military tried to control the mess, but the community's resentment had boiled over for who could blame them? They lost two good friends, seemly gunned down in their kitchen for no reason. All of this strife would ring the dinner bell for the rampaging horde eagerly awaiting their chance to strike, and strike they did.
During the first steps of designing Falzen, I detailed an overall goal for creating the level. This goal was to create a small, straightforward level split into different sections through various means. These sections would become accessible the longer the player or players survived the zombie hordes.
From the overall goal, then went designing into the general mood of the level. Considering the level's size and purpose, I concluded that a general suburban theme would fit perfectly. This would enable me to set a specific ruleset for the future structuring/grey-boxing of the level and create an already preset mood based on the location and basic layouts of personally designed or vista buildings. Yet, the suburban-themed level only partially completed the mood. Thus more was needed to finish the baseline feel for the level. As such, I created a simple backstory regarding the level that would affect later additions, such as environment art. I could make a more well-defined mood for the level through this simple backstory. This story also influenced the choice of time of day in which the level was set. In the end, I decided to make the level a night map. Although this story is never directly told to the player, specific locations inside the map might give them a clue to what happened in this small suburban town. Thus, the desired experience for this level was jumping from house to house through the ruined streets of a suburban once-prosperous city, fighting hordes of zombies while slowly unlocking the level piece by piece and becoming a mighty horde slayer.
Now with the base structural guidelines and mood set in stone, the process of designing the structure and zones of the map began. From here, I limited the number of zones within the level to maintain the guideline of a small/straightforward map. The limitation I set was seven zones that depending on the structure of the level, would be allowed to vary in size and layout. With the zone limit set, I began designing the first zone of the level.
Given that the localized feel of the level was suburban, I began designing a basic suburban layout such as a road, alley, and two houses. Since I didn't want to stress the players out initially, I decided the spawn points should be located outside to give the feel of breathing room and space to maneuver when needed. Furthermore, I wanted the spawn point to be more of a starting area than one you would generally return to when fighting the horde. Thus I designed this area as an alley next to one of the first buildings. Given an alley's linear nature and no path behind them, it would also act as a natural guide/course into the main play space of the level. Although not wanting to cut player choice off, I decided not to add a level break that would stop the player from returning to the alley.
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After the design of the alley was finished, I moved on to designing the first house and an area I marked around to be located within the first zone. This mainly created basic obstacles and fences around the house to give it's exterior a unique feel. From there, I started designing the structural interior of the first house. Following along with goal simplicity, before creating anything, I listed out certain rooms that a suburban home would generally have and, if lacking, might feel somewhat strange to play through. To name a few rooms, these would include a kitchen, bathroom, living room/larger, more open room, bedrooms, and laundry room/area.
Now taking these rooms, I began to assemble the first house modularly, placing in rooms within the home in locations that would make logical sense given the location of other rooms. However, this meant the first "placed" room had the whole house designed around it. This could lead to issues regarding the feel of the house being just placed rather than intended for someone to live in. As such, I had to research how architects generally designed suburban homes to ensure the building felt like a real suburban house. This led me to learn that houses were designed around several main principles. One the most important being the general size of the house and how many bedrooms/bathrooms the house would have. Furthermore, the design, size, and location of the kitchen, dining, and living rooms were also vital to the home's overall design.
Knowing this, I began redesigning the first house while considering these suburban house guidelines. After some time, I finished the design of the first house, and from there, it was time to move on to the second building within the first zone. Although for this building, I wanted to create something a little different regarding its structure. Instead of a house, it would be designed more around being a building used more for storage. Furthermore, I had the wreckage of a plane partially destroy the building. All of this was done to play more into the level's backstory and amplify the mood. Although there was another reason for this decision, and it was regarding the many vending machine upgrades and pick-ups the player could interact with when the level was completed; more on this design process later.
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Once the structure of this partially destroyed building was complete, the first zone, in terms of general design, was done. Now I moved on to the second zone. Initially, I would make zone two encompass a house like the starting zone. Still, during earlier testing, I learned that having zones between the houses was more efficient regarding zombie spawn placement and correct spawn timing. As such, zone two became the street area between the starting and third zones' homes. Knowing this, I also wanted things to be a tad simple regarding the site within the second zone but still make it different from the starting area regarding its open portion. This desire then shaped what obstacles and later additions I would implement to shape this small but essential break zone between the main play spaces of the first and third zones. This then affected the exterior placement of obstacles around the main area three's house.
Regarding constructing the third zone house, I desired to create a key structural difference between it and the first house. Thus I added a balcony to the third zone house to make one vital difference regarding the homes' interior and exterior. Now adding a balcony might sound like a minor alteration, but it creates a more dynamic and flexible traversal and fighting space for the players to experience. After designing the balcony placement, I modularly developed the home around the other vital rooms, ensuring that the interior structure varied from the first house to create a different play experience.
Furthermore, I wanted most homes/buildings to have a unique feature other than the first to not complicate things for the player that early into a run. As such, the idea for an underground section or basement for the second house was born. Yet, there was a problem with having it just be a basement. That problem would be that it would simply become a death trap later in the run. This realization meant that it would be avoided by the players in the long run and rendering its creation pointless. Therefore, I switched it from just a basement to an underground section of the map to remedy this issue. I planned to connect it with other buildings and areas to ensure it didn't become this death zone once entered. Although I wanted to focus on finishing the main area above, I planned to return to the underground section later. Thus, after completing the exterior and interior design of the zone three house, I moved to the fourth zone.
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Much like the zone two area and a portion of the starting zone, zone four was an open play space. Although, unlike the previous open areas, I wanted this zone to be unique in size and its planned connections to other zones. Going back to the main structural goal of the level being an interconnected area that would unlock and open up throughout the run, the fourth section would prove, as one of the main points of interconnection, how this interconnection would be achieved through the debris system within Radiant. Using this system, I planned certain obstacles that, if interacted with, would be removed and connect zone four to the first and second zones, thus creating this loop for the player to traverse around while playing. Although these objects could only be removed if interacted while in zone four.
Furthermore, I wanted some risk assessment for the players before removing these blockades. Removing them would allow them to loop back to other zones and pick up weapons or upgrades they couldn't do beforehand. Still, it drew some vital chokepoints, and thus, an easier time dealing with the hordes would have their effectiveness reduced by a large margin. Therefore this added some choice for players that had learned the map and the more effective spots to engage the zombie horde.
Although having zone four be an entirely open street/sidewalk section creates space for the player, it lacks cover and LOS breaks for the players to use against the zombie horde if they need to recover for a second. Thus I added a small building to create this break. After adding this building, I realized it would be a perfect connection point for the underground section. This meant it would lead the player or players from the third house under the open and past part fourth zone, which could be used for significant horde evasion later in a run. Noticing this made me alter the small building to understand why it might connect to an underground network of paths. Thus it became an electrical/sewer station, and I placed barbed wire fences around it to sell this aspect of the small building more. Yet, putting these fences meant the original purpose of the building being covered for the players to rest behind for a second was lost even after adding a door that could pay to move. As such, I added a variety of minor obstacles around the open area to create these small breaks or dodge points for the players to use against the horde. Now, with the designs of the fourth zone, I moved on to the fifth and final house zone.
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The creation of this zone, much like the starting area and zone three's homes, was built through modular design based on crucial room placement and size. Although, unlike the first two homes, this house's unique feature was an attic the players could enter and explore. Yet, I had to be careful given the learned lessons from attempting to add a basement section to zone three's house. Thus when designing the entrance point to the attic, I made it easier for the players to avoid and jump out of the attic if needed so they wouldn't become trapped. Furthermore, structuring the entrance enabled me to add small walls the player could use to avoid the horde and escape through this same entrance point. These changes would then lead me to finalize the zone five house and move on to the final section of the level, the underground network.
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Designing the underground pathways was broken down into three main parts. This first part was where it would link back up to the upper portion of the level. This was vital to get down since these connection points would define the remaining structure of the pathways. Once these points were defined, I moved on to the second central part, designing the base structure of the underground network.
Given the spacing and amount of side rooms, I wanted to add, this took some time. Not wishing to over-scope, I settled on three side chambers and one main chamber at the center of the network. From there, it connected these chambers with pathways to and from the underground section's defined entrance or exit points.
Once all the parts connected, the final part of this area's design came into play, how to make it more of an unlockable experience rather than just having the player gain access to the whole network from the one entrance point. This is where I began cutting the underground section into two main zones, zone six and seven. These zones would be defined based on the two main entrance points, the one connected to the zone three house and the one connected to the power/sewer station. By breaking the underground into these two sections, I began designing where the unlockable doors would be located.
Yet, a problem arose, which section should the main chamber be connected to? Given the planned placement of items within this chamber, whichever entrance point had it within their zone ultimately had more value than the other. Thus solve this issue, the trap door entrance was born. This entrance was located within the third zone but was outside the house. The trap door would be removed upon paying the door fee, and the player could drop into the main chamber. However, there was no staircase connection like the other two entrance points, and there was a reason for this choice. That reason is that the main chamber would have the most valued items. Thus to balance this, given that the cost of the trap door opening would be the same as the other entrance points, it meant that for a small period, the player was forced to fight within the underground section. This was until or unless they had enough points to open other redesigned connection doors to escape into the zone three home or power station of zone four. As to not punish the player or entrap them for an unfair period of time, these doors, if interacted with from the underground section side, would cost significantly less to open. With the underground section base design finalized, I placed zombie and dog spawns based on previous testing and knowledge of how AI interactions would occur across the map.
Zombie Hordes, Vicious Dogs, and AI Zoning
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Now that I had finalized the base structural design of the level, I moved on to the placement of zombie and dog spawns. Using the zones, I determined that during the structural design process, I broke the order of basic zombies spawns by these zones. Since I wanted each zone to become slightly more dangerous than the last to give a feel of progression through difficulty, I set a limit to the number of spawns based on each zone's desired base and increased difficulty compared to the previous zone. These numbers would be altered based on testing and later balance refining of the level, yet they were helpful as a baseline to start from.
For the first zone, I set the number of basic riser zombie spawns to two, given that these types of spawns gave less time for the player to react, and as such, two was the chosen number. Although to balance out the lower number of riser spawns, I planned to have four barrier zombie spawns. These spawns gave the zombies had to break down a barricade to reach the player, giving the player more time to react and fight back against the horde. Yet, the question was where to add them within the first zone. Due to the desired experience of fighting zombies off in suburban houses, I added two barricade zombie spawns on two ground-floor windows within the first house. However, given the difficulty the first zone was to the easiest, I chose windows that allowed the player time to react through long sight lines and a multitude of space to fall back to if needed. From there, I still needed to place two more barricade zombie spawns. Since only two spawns used the outside portion of the first zone, and given this portion's size, it felt underutilized. These last two barricade zombie spawns were placed outside and along the path to the main house of zone one. After these two placements, the zombie spawns within zone one were completed.
From there, I moved on to the zombie spawns of zone two. Given the size of zone two, I set the limit to the overall amount of spawns to only three. Since anymore would only create a sense of crowding the zone and wouldn't generate an enjoyable experience for the player. To counterbalance this, I decided two of those three spawns would be risers, whereas one would be a barricade spawn. Using this, I placed the spawns according to what made logical sense regarding spacing and the structural design of the area.
With zone two spawn placement completed, I moved on to zone three. Designing around the fact that zone three's play space was mainly the house within its borders, the number of barricade spawns was increased, given that riser spawns wouldn't make sense within the area. Thus the zone three house had an increased number of windows in which the player would have to be wary, from two to three. Furthermore, to counterbalance the lack of risers, the advantages given within the starting zone house, such as increased line of sight onto the spawns, were reduced, as was the space where the player could fall back. This increased that desired difficulty while remaining balanced, given the lack of risers within the immediate area. Although risers from other regions would still move into the zone, this is where this home's balcony comes into play. Since the balcony faces the first house, it gives the player a high-ground advantage against the zombies coming in from zone one and two.
After placing the spawns and ensuring their balance within the third zone, I moved on to the fourth area. Given its larger open play space, this area has many riser spawns, with four in total. The reason for this was to utilize the space of the fourth zone better and to give the player a gameplay switch from constantly shooting zombies and breaking down barricades. Although two barricades are within the zone to add more flavor, they aren't the main threat to the area.
From zone four, we move to zone five, which like the previous zone three, is almost entirely inside. As such, following the same principles of the third zone, the fifth area has fourth entrance points, all of which had decreased line of sight too. Still, given zone five's size and room placement, the house has more room and an extra floor to fall back to as a counterbalance to the lack of general sight into their spawns.
With the final upper zone finished, I move down into the underground section, starting with zone six. Before adding spawns into the underground section, given its nature, I decided on a few guidelines to help balance the area. Those guidelines were no riser spawns allowed given the lack of general room and fallback area, the number of barricade spawns was to be determined by the size of the area with no unlocked doors, rewards within that area, and the time players might access that area.
Using these guidelines, I began to place spawns within the sixth zone, the one attached to the area three house. Following these guidelines, I put only two barricade spawns with a good amount of fallback space and unbroken line-of-sight angles. The reason for this decision is that the reward for this area is the lowest regarding the general value, the area's size is the smallest, and given that this area is attached to the zone three home, players might access it earlier in a run compared to the other sections of the underground.
This is why the drop-down entrance and zone seven entrance have three spawns, given that they would generally be accessed later. Thus, the players would be better equipped, and their rewards are better regarding general value. However, there was one guideline that the trap door entrance was the exception, and that was no riser spawns guideline. The reason was the value of the main chamber's upgrades accessed via the trap door entrance. To ensure this didn't unfairly surprise the player, the riser spawn was to be located behind a locked door in one of the side chambers guarding a high-end weapon spawn. With the underground section finalized regarding zombie spawns, it was time to switch to the dog spawns.
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The process of placing the dog spawns was much more straightforward than that of the base zombie spawns. The reason was that the dogs only spawned every couple of waves, and their general difficulty was more concerning the area in which they were engaged. An example is that dogs were more deadly when fought in the open than inside a building where they could be undone through choke points.
Thus when I began placing their spawns, I took this into account, as well as the general increase in difficulty over the course of moving from one zone to another. Thus within the first zone, I placed two dog spawns to avoid creating a problematic situation for players that might not be ready or equipped to deal with the difference in dealing with the undead dogs compared to their human counterparts.
I didn't place any dog spawns for zone two because the zone size didn't make sense, and the dogs from zone one had the speed to easily traverse through the first house and come after the player. The same was valid for zone three, given that it is almost entirely composed of interior play space. Thus when it came to zone four, to make up the difference in zone two and three, zone four had five dog spawns, all placed with care to give the player space and sight lines onto the dogs to prevent the player/players from being unfairly overwhelmed.
These were the final dog spawns placed since zone five, and the underground sections were all interior play spaces and, as such, didn't make sense to have dog spawns. For the underground section, given the speed of the dogs, much like the reason most of the area risers weren't added, there wasn't enough general fallback space unless the plays unlocked the numerous locked doors throughout the section. However, this didn't stop dogs from entering the area; their entrance points were choke points the players could use to their advantage. Now with all the spawns in place, it was time to place the upgrade, doors, and weapon spawns throughout the map.
Environmental Interaction, Power-ups, and Weaponry
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Once I placed all the various spawns, I moved on to designing the location of the doors the player would have to unlock and the number of points they would have to spend to open the door. For this, I created a baseline/standard range of door-point costs that would vary depending on what was behind the door or debris.
The first point on this range was the connector debris related to the two pieces of debris the player could remove once within zone four that blocked the paths back to zone one and zone two. Since the player would have had to make it to zone four by opening other doors via paying points, these two debris were given the low cost of 500 points to open or 4-5 zombie kills.
Next on the range were the doors that lead from one zone to another, not including those that lead into the underground section. Given that these doors were the obstacles that acted as progression checks, all cost 1,000 points to open, or 9-10 zombie kills, these doors also include those found within the underground section once accessed.
After the basic zone doors were the unique doors, these doors are only attached to the partially destroyed building in zone one. These doors cost 1,500 to open, given that they don't block progression throughout the zones but only have upgrades and items behind them. As such, opening these doors is optional for proper play, and doing so costs a little extra; from there, we go to the doors that lead into the underground section. Given this section's rewards and general danger, these doors cost the most at 2,000 points to access. Lastly, there is one sub-category when it comes to the doors leading to the underground section, and that is if accessed from the underground section side, they only cost 100 points to open to not trap the players in the most dangerous area of the map.
Other than doors/debris, I needed to place one crucial environmental interaction: the power switch. Given that I already had a power/sewer station designed, I put it on the outside of the building to make it visible to the player and to break up the interior and exterior value of the building. These values are access to the interior's underground section and the ability to turn on the power in the zone five house and activate the upgrade machines for the exterior area. Given that the outer section was a method of general-level progression, the cost to open the fence gate was set to 1,000 points as set by the baseline range.
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Once all the doors and debris costs were set in stone, I moved on to designing the locations where the upgrade machines would be located and, in doing this, created a general design and placement guideline for these machines based on the cost to acquire their upgrade and the general utility or power of these upgrades. In total, nine machines needed to be placed. These ranged from the basic gumball machine to the powerful Pack-A-Punch machine. Using the guideline, I put the lower-cost devices first while considering their utility to the players. While placing these machines, I also knew the structure and ease of access allowed by the designed buildings would affect the placement. As such, steps were taken to ensure these machines could be accessed fairly depending on their given value to the players. I also started setting value marks for the various houses and buildings during this process. As the player progressed, they gained access to the higher-use machines and upgrades. This entailed that, as planned from its inception, the underground section had more valuable machines than the upper parts of the map. After a while, all the devices using the guideline and set values for each building were placed, and it was time to move on to the weapons.
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Much like when placing the upgrade and item machines, I set and followed a value cap for each building where I put numerous weaponry. This also worked in my favor, for the weapons sat upon a cost-value range starting from 500 and going up to 1,500/1,650. Using this, I placed the guns costing within the 500-point range within the first house. This would enable the players to quickly get primary weapons other than the base pistol and give them a better fighting chance. However, it was clear that even though the two weapons within this range cost the same, one was more potent than the other. Thus I made this weapon harder to reach by placing it on the second floor within the office space.
The theme of one weapon, although the exact cost as the other being slightly stronger, continued with the 750-point cost group for the zone three house. Therefore, following the steps taken in the first house, the more powerful weapon was placed on the second floor to balance the time to obtain and value of the guns. To this house, I also added the grenade to balance out the value jump between it and the next home.
From the 750 range, it jumps a bit in price for the zone five house sitting at 1,300. Just like the other two ranges, steps were taken to balance out the slightly more powerful gun at this range through its placement. Given the size of the house, I also wanted to add an Easter Egg weapon that, based on cost, would be the most powerful ranged weapon sitting at 1,650 points. This weapon was placed in a location that, if explored a little bit, would be easily found by a player or players.
After the 1,300-poi range and the addition of the Easter Egg weapon within the zone five house, I had one more range of weapons left to place. This range was the 1,450 - 1,500 point range and consisted of two weapons. Given the power of the 1,500-point gun, it was placed behind a locked door, and if the door were unlocked would start to spawn the only risers located within the underground section. This was done partly to balance the cost and power difference between the rifles and their placement within the underground area. However, there was one weapon I had yet to place: the knife upgrade costing 3,000 points. This upgrade was perfect for the side area I designed within zone one, the partially destroyed building, and as such, was placed at the far back of the building behind three doors and guarded by one barricade zombie spawn. With this final weapon put, the placement of the guns was complete, and their placement balance testing process began.