Five Heroes - Level Design
Quest Maps and Environment
About Five Heroes
Five Heroes is a story-driven turn-based RPG. As a warlord, you recruit heroes, complete quests, progress through the storyline, defeat various enemies and bosses and upgrade your heroes.My Involvement
After planning the story campaigns, I broke them down into levels. I designed each level in the Unity engine, using custom editor tools developed by the programmers. When designing levels, I started with flow design elements, such as quest givers, objectives, trigger zones, and dynamic changes. Once the flow was ready, I moved on to environment design - map, terrain, atmosphere, foliage, props, effects.
↓ Here are some examples of levels I designed, and the general process and methodology ↓
The "Arms Reach" Castle
The capital of the Firestone Kingdom, and home to the King himself. A fortified safe haven for the Kingdom's nobility. It is so safe, that its inhabitants have zero clue about the undead invasion happening just outside of its walls:
The Amazon Fortress
Long gone are the days when Amazons lived as scattered tribes in wooden huts. The Amazon Fortress stands as a tropical paradise and the beacon of civilization in Midland. It is the home to the Amazon Queen, the ruler of all Midland.
The White Peak Mines
Long ago, the snowy mountains of the White Peak were colonized by the Firestone Kingdom, after a large deposit of Diamonds had been found at their peaks. As the miners dug deeper into the mountain, they unearthed an ancient evil - the undead forces led by the Skeleton King. Nowadays, 200 years later, the mines are abandoned.
The Ancient Amazon City
Claiming that Amazons are primitive wild tribes is a huge misconception. They have a long history and a rich legacy, and the prime example is the Ancient Amazon City. Centuries ago, used to be more populated. But over time, it was mysteriously abandoned. Legends say, there is an ancient evil lurking beneath the city. It was driving the Amazons insane, forcing them to fight each other. Eventually, the city was abandoned, but well-preserved.
The Citadel of the Dead
No one knows who built the Citadel of the Dead. Legends say it predates the Firestone Kingdom. Centuries ago, an ancient human empire practiced dark arts seeking immortality. Eventually, they achieved their goal by turning themselves into the undead legions. Even though they were defeated, they are bound to return and haunt the living.
The Crossroads Inn
For generations, the Crossroads Inn has been the favorite resting place for the Firestone's monarchs and nobility. Built so conveniently by the river on the crossroads, it attracts a lot of wealthy visitors.
The Royal Cemetery
The Royal Cemetery is the largest and the most beautiful cemetery in the Firestone Kingdom. This is where generations of the royal lineage rest in peace. No wonder the Skeleton King chose this place to fill up his ranks - there is enough fresh material buried under the soil.
The Tortuga Island
Despite being a small island, Tortuga is one of the most important pirate trade hubs across Midland. Therefore, it is heavily defended, mostly crowded with pirates. It used to be an Amazon island but was lost to pirates long ago.
The River of Two Settlements
The River of Two Settlements is known for the history of two settlements built on either of its sides - an Amazon village on the west bank, and a pirate village on the east bank. They used to fight each other for years until the two tribes realized their battles were polluting the river. The very river that provided for both settlements. To avoid mass hunger and extintion, the two tribes signed a peace treaty. Nowadays, both villages flourish. However, this peace hangs in the balance - every minor conflict threatens to escalate and put the two settlements into war again.
The Ancient Amazon Temple
Claiming that Amazons are primitive wild tribes is a huge misconception. They have a long history and a rich legacy, and the prime example is the Ancient Amazon City. One of the most remarkable of its wonders is the Ancient Temple. The Amazon Pantheon consists of three deities - Barhalla, the first Amazon, Nishbarla, the Amazon that built the Ancient Amazon City, and Inal'ra'bak, the one who made Amazons the dominant power in Midland.
Koth - The Barbarian Kingdom
Deep in the desert lies the capital of the great Barbarian kingdom. It is home to Koth, a proud nation that rules over the other desert tribes. For the last few decades, it has been locked in a neverending war with Goblins from the east, who are jealous of their prosperity. The city of Koth is a well-defended fortress that has never been taken by siege.
The Cathedral
The Cathedral is headquarters of the Paladin Order and a place where all prayers to the Archon are conducted. It is also home to the Grandmaster of the Paladins. The Cathedral district is the wealthiest district of the Iron City, where only the most devoted Paladins are allowed to live.
The Archon's Chapel
The holiest place of the Iron City, where the Great Archon himself resides. Nobody is allowed near the Archon unless he requests to grant an audience to someone himself. Only the high-ranking Paladins dwell in the residential area around the chapel. Those Paladins whom the Archon entrusts to protect his chapel and guard the Holy Fountain - the vessel of Holy Water that heals all curses and diseases.
The Corrupted Archon's Chapel
When the Archon succumbs to the corruption, so does the Iron City. The Archon's Chapel becomes the den of evil. This is where the heroes must confront and defeat him.
The Sewers
The sewers are the only place where the Iron City authorities would not look for thieves and fugitives - those from the Iron City can't stand the stench. The sewers are the home to various criminal syndicates, gangs, or just miners who decided to live off-grid - all answering to the Sewerlord. However, since the corruption started taking over the sewers, his tight grip on the sewers has started loosening.
The Corrupted Mines
The work at the mines is hard enough - huge demands, and poor working conditions. But when the corruption hit the mines, a high number of miners found themselves affected. Over time, they succumbed to corruption and lost the last shreds of their humanity. They turned into feral beasts, attacking those miners who still haven't been infected.
Level Design Process and Methodology
Whenever I approached the level design stage of production, I already had the story and the quests settled. I already knew how many levels there are going to be, what happens in each level, and how it moves the story forward.
Flow Design
The first step to designing a level is to design its flow. The flow consists of objectives, involved characters, interactions, enemies, and dialogue. In other words - who we need to speak to, what we need to do, and who we need to fight (if it's an important enemy or a boss). The goal of this first step is to have the entire flow of the level working on an empty map. Suppose we need to speak to a peasant, rescue his son from a bunch of skeletons, return to the peasant, and receive our reward. This is a simple example, but the complexity doesn't matter here. It just needs to work on the technical level.
Map/Setting Planning
The next step is to define to map and the setting - where it all happens. If we speak to a peasant, we need a village. If the skeletons kidnapped the peasants to the cemetery, we need a cemetery. If there is a lake we need to sail across, we need a lake and a ship to board. This step also requires an understanding of the level's difficulty. Is this a tutorial level, where we teach the player basic mechanics? Is it one of the story levels? Or is it a boss level that needs to be difficult? The broader context of this determines how far we want the player to go to rescue the peasants, and how many obstacles we need them to overcome. To map all of this, I usually begin with a sketch of the entire area on paper - this is where we start, this is our quest giver, this is our objective, this is where we encounter the enemies, etc.
Initial Implementation
After laying out the map on paper, I implement it in the engine. This is where I determine the approximate size of the map and its boundaries. Then, I place the key elements into their respective places according to the sketch - characters, objectives, enemies, etc. Once it's all ready, I have a playable map level with a functioning flow. It is important to mark the main paths we want players to follow. The "main road" needs to be intuitive and eventually lead to our objectives. There might be several paths, but if we want to encourage exploration, players need an indication when they are "on" a path or when they stray from it. So even before we delve into environment design, we need to determine our "main path."
Worldbuilding
The next step is worldbuilding. We have a playable map but it's still dry. This is where I define what else is on the map. What helps me here is the broader context of the entire story - what does this place mean for the story? What do we want the player to experience? Another thing that helps me is to tell the story of the place itself - who lives there? What do they do? What do they want? I use references from other games or real-life locations to make this place look unique and believable. My paradigm in this step is that the story of the game occurs WITHIN the story of the place. So it should NOT be too much connected to the main story. Rather, it needs to exist on its own. However, it also needs to serve the main story, not contradict it. So there is some balance to maintain. With that in mind, I design the environment.
Player's Experience
Once the map environment is ready, we have a playable level with all its visual story settled. Now it's time to populate it with gameplay-related stuff - enemies, rewards, secrets. Enemies are mainly on the main path. Secrets lie at the end of the paths that stray off the main one. When an environment is well designed, it would normally have those stray paths already. They are not necessarily "paths" per se, but could be backyards, forest hideouts, less crowded places in a village, or hermit huts. What's important is that it has to look natural and organic. When we have that, we could place the stronger enemies and the juicier rewards at the end of the secret paths, thus rewarding exploration.
Environment Fine-tuning
The next step is to flesh out the environment. Now that we have our environment, we need to make it more visually appealing. That includes more randomization in nature assets, and more props and foliage. Since, in Five Heroes, the map is a grid, I make sure to give offsets to certain assets to make it look less geometrical or more natural. Avoiding symmetry is also an important step of the process (unless symmetry is intended). Whatever type of environment I am building, I make sure it looks as believable as possible.
Life and Soul of the Level
The next step is to give more "life" to the map. It includes 3 layers - visual, narrative, and audio. Visual comes through animations - if there are NPCs, I give them something to do. If something happens in reaction to the player's actions, I give it VFX and animations. Audio comes through music and ambiance for the atmosphere. Sometimes, I play audio effects in reaction to the player's actions. The narrative layer in Five Heroes can be reflected through various interactions with NPCs or objects. These interactions are not mandatory but it's fun to play with. NPCs react with funny quips or complaints related to their everyday lives. It gives a broader perspective on the game's world and gives more "soul" to it.
Playtesting
The last step is, of course, playtesting. I need to test the following things - everything works as intended, the difficulty is balanced, the narrative pacing and beats serve the intended experience, the map has no holes, the flow has no bugs, the texts have no spelling errors, and finally, the level fulfills its purpose as a part of the story campaign. This might turn out to be the longest step in the process, depending on the number of iterations needed to achieve the desired results.
