Implemented Update

          When blocking out my level, I first wanted to focus on the landscape and environment, as I want that to be the main attention when playing this level. This level is to reference one of my other projects with implementing man vs nature, on a deserted island with creatures out to get you, while the level also references a part of the island’s area. While also implementing a stealth mechanic in the gameplay, for different usages. This concept is also to grab the attention of the player. Letting them understand their environment to know what to do with recording their area, keeping landmarks, and escaping from monsters that lurk within, creating that intended concept of survival.

When making the level, I used one of my concept designs of the island and tried to replicate it in this level. This helped visualize what I first needed to implement, what to take away, and learn new tools for later use for the next project. The process made creating the environment gave me many failures of capture, while also giving me new insight into what I can do better. Things would include parts of areas where I have to flatten or extrude for the player would not get stuck on something and must reset the level, players moving unseen from the enemies in a reasonable manner, placing noise makers close to enemies to distract them, area advantages of where the player must cross, and many other intended purposes, mainly depending on the player.

After completing the landscape level, I needed to include another asset to complete my vision, and that was to implement a foliage forest. The idea was to create parts of the area to have dense trees to create that feeling of being lost and survival, moving through the unknown. I downloaded a tree mesh that would fit the environment and laid it across the whole level, while in some parts of the area, it remains clean. (The clean parts indicate either parts that will include later props or moving through the next level, a later feature that will soon be implemented for a bigger map. The feature will be like Kingdom Hearts gameplay when moving through different areas on the map.) The environment also provides the initial advantage with cover. It’s not like obvious “stealth props,” but players use the environment as their advantage to move around without getting caught by the enemies. This would also provide more than one path through key areas, so they can choose between sneaking past, distracting enemies, or risking running through. The enemies are spread across the level, positioned in parts of the area that the player needs to strategically move through.

Throughout the whole process, I would say this was the moment of relief since making the landscape and figuring out new tools and settings led me to a moment to think and organize my folders and my meshes properly. The next step was to reskin the enemy meshes into monster or intimidating characters. Though I would say it shows how I attend to things to act, or at least for the demonstration. I will later include various types of creatures for the later meshes. For the player character, I would leave alone since the idea was the enemy AI meshes rather than the player.

After completing that task, I would need to include checkpoints/saving/loading within this level. The initial idea for my personal project is not to have that, unless it's at home base, to showcase the risk of venturing in the wild, as it’s an unforgiving place. For this project, I would leave a checkpoint in the winning section for the player to explore the area from two different points and scout out.

Finally, after completing the setup of the level, I can playtest the level and review what changes need to be made, what can remain the same, what needs to be included, and the repositioning of many meshes and objects. While working on that, I have encountered a new behavior of some of the enemy AI moving back into their original positions. Parts of the area’s ground needed to be smoothed over with the landscape tools, as I would sometimes get stuck on something, causing issues with the gameplay. Lastly, adding in more foliage to the landscape to showcase the density of a forest, having the player recognize their location, and where they need to move through. Those would be moments of relief as I would finally figure out the moving tool within the settings to increase the camera speed.