Final Boss has multiple attacks and two phases, I didnt just want a flat bullet sponge. I wanted the fight to be in an interesting arena as well, so theres these bookshelves that rotate around providing moving cover from the Wizard’s grenade launcher. Half way through the fight, more attacks become available to the Wizard. I wanted to keep players on their toes as the wizard flies around and teleports around them while summoning lighting and fireballs 

Giving players access to magic spells in a post apocalypse type environment lends to an interesting and unique setting while also providing the player with a way to engage with the environment for combat and puzzle solving

Something I wanted to do with this project was work in modularity. With that in mind, I designed the RPG mechanics to function as a character framework that all characters would be based off of. The skills and stats would be used by both the player and the NPCs much like a table top RPG.

To continue with the modularity idea, I designed every item to be from the same master item, that all share the same stats. When designing each category of item (weapon, armor, status aid, ect.) I started by making a test item that I could manipulate the numbers on to make sure everything worked, then once that was done, I made each item I wanted in the game, using rough white box models and animations. 

I then designed more complex systems on top of the framework. To add more variety to the gameplay I designed a hunger, thirst, and sleep sleep system. And the magic system. This is also when I added leveling up as well. I finished this step by adding a few perks that acted as sidegrades, giving the player new abilities as well as traits to go with the character set up screen.

I included a crafting system since I wanted the player to be able to craft powerful game changing potions as well as weapon modifications.

At the start the player has no HUD, but they are positioned in such a way that they are facing the headset needed to initiate character creation, this also enables the HUD.

Both hacking and lockpicking are introduced near eachother to get the player familarized with how each works.

The player is alerted to the precence of enemies, but given a way to sneak past them. introducing stealth.

At the end of the cave the player is informed about the magic system, and given a simple block stacking puzzle to test it out on.

I started by drawing out a simple linear cave area that could introduce the player to most of the main game mechanics

With a layout to go off of, I went about blocking the level out with some basic lighting so I could see what I was doing

I wanted the game to start off with a little cutscene thing for immersion so I added that in.

I then refinded some of the objects shape and added colored material to indicate what kind of object something was.

Right around the corner I put a trigger box to trigger an audio cue to alert the player of the upcoming enemies

Finally I scattered items around, mostly some crafting items,  but I made sure to put a few weapons that were easy to find to make sure the player would be equipped upon leaving the cave

I wanted every major location the player to could go to be visible right from the start. I feel like its important for progression and orientation that the player is always able to see at least one landmark in the distance, it also makes the back drop more visual interesting.

First I drew out the map with the village in the center and each major landmark in each corner of the map.

I blocked out a first pass of the terrain in order to give the village scene a backdrop and examine how things looked in 3D space.

I returned to the main scene and filled out the world, adding border regions, variations to the terrain, and extending the indent I had for the overpass into a fully fledged dried up river bed. I did this because I felt like it added some extra variety to the level and by changing the depth in some places, restricted where the player could cross as I didnt want the player to be able to just walk in a straight line to everywhere.

With that done, I added whiteboxes for the road and all the small explorable locations.

I wanted some extra detail to go into the Outpost around the radio tower, so I drew up a seperate map for it.

With all of that set up, I shaped up the radio tower outpost to be an area where the player could enter from multiple different angles.

I then filled out the forest area with sharp spires. The forest is inspired by some ideas of how to warn future generations of nuclear waste hazards. one such Idea was fields of concrete spikes and when I saw that I just knew I needed to put something like that in around the military base that's supposed to be haunted.

After filling out the area with smaller spikes, I added a color filter and a slight mist around the forest to add to the spooky, unsettling atmosphere I wanted this area to have.

I then scattered items across the area, with placement rewarding exploration. I also added enemies and their patrol paths. A few enemies wander around large sections of the map. Powerful mutant enemies have a patrol around the map and ghosts wander the Death Forest.

In the outpost and crashed aircraft locations are objects for quests. The player's attention is drawn to these areas via hints. A note from one quest leads the player to the outpost, and a terminal outside the Military Base tells the player to find the crashed aircraft to get a code that unlocks the door to the base.

The village is layed out like a wheel, with the oblisk in the middle to act as guide point for the player, with several spokes radiating out from there. I wanted the village to be easily navigatable, and with the central oblisk in the middle, it helps orient the player.

I wanted to invoke a sort of interesting vibe clash, with walls based off of mud brick walls from central african kingdoms from the middle ages with an ancient obilisk towering in the middle and simple huts, yet theres power lines and an electrical generator. One of my inspirations was the original fallout and the sort of simple but detailed architecture used in modling buildings in older computer games

Scattered throught the village are locked footlockers and chests of varying lock level. This rewards players who invested in lockpicking with several goodies and even some rare loot in some boxes.

I wanted the town to feel alive and have a sort of hustle and bustle. In addition to several NPCs who wander in random and set paths. I designed a system where if the player attacks a villager, the entire town enters a panic mode, all fleeing the player while turning the guards hostile.

I started off by drawing the layout for the village, I wanted a wheel shape that would be easy to navigate. A tall obelisk in the center acts as the central focal point that the rest of the village revolves around.

I put down some shape  roughly where I wanted them to be based on the layout I drew up as well as to act as a stand in for the Overworld map.

I drew the path and used that to finalize the alignment of all the buildings. I then went through and replaced all the shapes with greyboxes and added some lights inside some of the tents to represent camp fires.

I then placed the villagers, creating a node system to simulare the villagers moving about in their day to day. I wanted to the village to feel like it was a busy place full of people.

I went through each container in the village and filled its inventory and provided an appropriate lock level for each.

I then put in the quest giver NPCs and any quest items required for quest activities that place inside the village.

Finally I set up a scripted event in the Tavern, entering the Tavern the first time starts a dialoge with these bandits, dealing with them starts the main quest to deal with the Wizard.

Being an undisturbed bunker, there is tons of good items for the player to find if they have enough lockpicks and feel brave enough to look.

The final room to finish the quest has a water leak and dangerous robots, if the player's computer skill is high enough they can hack a computer to electrocute the enemies in the water.

I knew from the start I wanted to fight ghosts in a cold war style bunker. It perfectly encapsulated the mix of sci fi and fantasy concepts I was going for. I first started by looking up pictures of Cold War style bunkers.

When drawing the layout, the idea was to keep the design compact while keeping the central elevator that goes through the whole bunker.

I next figured out the general shape of the bunker.

I then went in and added some details and blocked out some desks and furiniture.

I placed items and enemies in the bunker, taking care to slowly increase the difficulty the deeper in the player went. but better items can be found in the more dangerous areas.

With everything put in place, I added the quest related objects and set up functionality for the elevator.

Each floor has a pass condidion that changes with each floor, but generally involved getting a key of some sort. One floor has the player crafting a key, while another floor has the player managing power levels to reveal a passcode while managing not to blow themselves up. all the while the Wizard taunts them.

The tower starts with a large forbodding hallway that sets the mood for the Wizard's power.

After taking a long stairway to build suspense for the final confrontation, the Wizard is in a large circular library. I wanted the boss arena to be something interesting. a mix of colored lights and bookshelves that rotate around the center helps sell the fantasy aspect as well as provide an interesting boss arena.

Before the boss fight, the player is trapped in this combat room and forced to fight waves of enemies before taking on three mini bosses in seperate rooms. I wanted to make this sort of jungle gym combat room with every type of combat element present: high ground, a turret, cover, and environmental hazards.

I then went through and added extra details. I wanted to make sure there was plenty of variety in the tower.

With that done, I then put the puzzles in and made sure they worked and functioned.

I went about filling the rooms with enemies, taking care to ramp up difficulty with progression. culminating in the combat gauntlet on the 4th floor.

I then went to designing the boss fight, I knew I didnt want just a damage sponge. Giving him extra attacks and and different phases I felt helped add variety to the fight in addition to the spinning bookshelves. I wanted the arena to also be interesting and give the player somehting to react to and work around.

I put trigger boxes across the level that would trigger the wizard taunting the player over intercom, I wanted to make sure the player felt the Wizard's presence throughtout the dungeon. As well as adding a trigger to start the combat gauntlet.

Finally I added the final items in the Wizard's study, mainly the phyactery to not only imply that the Wizard is a litch, but also give the player different ways to complete the quest, either by taking it with them or destroying it.