Developing a title like LEMNIS GATE is no easy job. One of the most crucial aspects of any video game is level design.
Greyboxing is the process of first creating a level with basic geometric shapes. This allows us to quickly generate an idea for a level and get it to a playable state. This way, we can test it out and decide whether it will be a fun addition to the game before investing in detailed artwork. Given that, we’ve consulted with our in-house level designer and picked his brain to determine what elements he considers when greyboxing levels:
•Layout: When creating a level, it’s paramount to approach things on a larger scale and then go down into the details. Envisioning the level’s primary intent, how it’s going to play, and how it stands out into the game is extremely important when designing a new area.
•Line of sight: These are points in the map that give players enough visibility to engage enemies from different areas. It helps to understand where players will cluster or have opportunities to attack and defend strategically.
•Readability: A critical thing to keep in mind is how quickly a level can become visually noisy. As a fast-paced multiplayer game, it’s crucial to communicate clearly and decisively where the intended paths are.
• Path Creation: Paths are key elements when designing a game like LEMNIS GATE. We need to ensure players have multiple ways of reaching objectives and provide alternatives that create exciting altercations between them.
• Signposting: When greyboxing a level, we’ll be able to identify areas that can be later touched on to help immerse and guide players towards objectives and/or chokepoints. Signposting is the act of placing shapes, colors, or specific lighting to lead players towards individual sections of the map. It also helps players to locate themselves on a map and not feel lost.
• Flow: Also tied to path creation, the flow is determined by how players move around the map. Nothing hurts a level more than bad flow when you feel that relevant areas are not correctly connected or lead to nowhere. Losing momentum or coming to a dead-end breaks the player’s flow, which usually makes for a frustrating experience.
• Chokepoints: Chokepoints are areas where players will most likely engage in combat. It’s important to balance things here. As the level designer, you must identify these areas and validate if these zones are suitable and exciting enough for players to engage.
• Balancing: It is imperative that both teams have a fair chance in any arena shooter. Thus, we ensure that factors such as spawn locations, distance to reach objectives, visibility, high ground areas, and amount of cover are in place. There are many aspects to balancing a map: it takes time, rigorous testing, and a keen sense of observation to iron out potential exploits or other issues from both sides of the map.
• Art Pass: Although not a part of the level-design process, the environmental artwork is heavily impacted by the greybox. Once a map is handed to the art team, they do their best to maintain the metrics defined by the level designer while bringing the map to life! It’s a constant balance (usually taking multiple rounds of back and forth) before a map can be finalized.
How do we make sure these elements all work together? We test, discuss, and iterate. The best part about greyboxing is that changes are easy to make. So, whenever we create a new level, we test it, discuss its strengths and weaknesses, and make the necessary changes to reach the desired results. After that, we can send it over to the art team. But it doesn’t end there! As mentioned previously, even after art passes, we bounce back and forth between new gameplay and visual tweaks!
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* All greybox images presented in this article represent levels that may or may not be available in the final game.
