Tamer Sioufi
The City Below contributions
Design
Whilst my primary role was as the team's producer, I also dedicated time to helping out in the design department. My contributions to design were as follows:
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I help devised the premise and setting of the game.
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Assisted with level design, creating the player's room.
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Aided in the formation of game mechanics design.
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There will of course be some overlap with some of the tasks here, as they may also fall under my role as the producer.
Design & Planning
A games design document is a crucial part of the development process, it outlines the vision, scope and mechanics of the project. Its the framework for which the project is built upon.
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I did a lot of work on the Games Design Document, namely I added the sections about lighting and audio, as well as re writing and expanding upon the section about the user interface. I also expanded on most sections, polishing language to make it more readable and clear.
Feel free to have a read of the full Game Design Document Below.
The City
Along with the design document I came up and planned multiple of the mechanics. I pitched the idea to set the game in a futuristic pit city to the designers and the artists, the team liked this idea and we ended up going ahead with it as it set an epic and unique backdrop for the story and game to take place in.
To help out with building the city, I decided to make the background a procedural city. I made this decision because we had a small 3D art department and I didn't want to overwork them. I have also done some procedural work before and felt like it would benefit the project both in terms of speed and my confidence implementing it.
Since the city would have tom be densely populated and dystopian looking, I decided to use Hierachical Instanced Static Meshes. Which is a system that allows for very efficient rendering of many static meshes due to them essentially being rendered as one mesh. Hierarchical instanced static meshes also have the benefit of including LOD calculations so buildings further away take up less computational resources.
I used some maths to compute each index as a separate building block, each with its own windows which are the glowing orange emissive colours you see above. They also have different rotations as to hide texture repetition which would occur if I kept rotation the same.
I also created some variables which allowed me to edit the buildings in the viewport. This helped define certain buildings and allowed me some creative control over the look of the city.
To fully realise the alien dystopian setting one of the designers suggested that we add in a background planet, knowing my extensive work with planets and planet materials I obliged. Since it would just be a background planet in this project I kept the material more simple than my other ones. I added a ring for some flair as well.
After some external playtesting and a review, I suggested adding a 'hub' level, which would essentially connect all the levels together, this would also set the scene with a view of the city creating an immersive atmosphere.
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Initially, the lead designer started blocking it out but after some time asked if I would be willing to help as he wanted to spend more time focusing on his level and making it as sharp as possible. I agreed to help and took it from the blockout you see below, to the finished product, complete with lighting, the entire city as the backdrop. I also tried to add in some extra detail, such as the fire FX as well as a balcony with which the player can step outside and appreciate the city at a distance.
The sliders below will allow you to view the before and after of the blockout to the final version. Simply drag the slider to view both versions.
To capture the vibrant yet dystopian world of The City Below I made use of emissives here. I selected very specific ceiling and wall pieces from the asset pack the artists made, as these pieces looked industrial, helping to reinforce the cold, mechanical tone of the city.
The hub level, also being the player's quarters in game, allowed for an upgrade bench, as well as the bounty screen to have a physical place in the world making it feel more tangible and lived-in.
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In terms of audio design we decided to have a more relaxed ambient track layered with the crackling of the fire, to provide a sense of contrast between the chaotic world and the players room. It creates a kind of uneasy calm, a more quiet comfy place before the player sets off on a mission in The City Below.
