Arachnotron - Anthill Mines (WIP)
Level Goal
The goal of the Anthill Mines is to teach the player how to use the Railgun, and to have the hardest basic enemy encounters in the game as it is the final level.
New Mechanics for the Level
Railgun - A charged up ray-cast beam of pure energy that can pierce targets. Can also be used to light up multiple crystals at once.
Crystals - Glow when hit by the Rail-gun, if three are shot simultaneously then the player will unlock a way to move forward in the level
New Enemies
Napalm Dragonfly - A flying enemy that can set a small area on fire, effectively rendering the surface useless for a short period of time
Laser Ladybug - A grounded enemy that shoots a cone of lasers out of its back
Boss
Pelican Spider (The one in the logo, on our stickers, and almost all marketing material for the game)
The goal of the Anthill Mines is to teach the player how to use the Railgun, and to have the hardest basic enemy encounters in the game as it is the final level.
New Mechanics for the Level
Railgun - A charged up ray-cast beam of pure energy that can pierce targets. Can also be used to light up multiple crystals at once.
Crystals - Glow when hit by the Rail-gun, if three are shot simultaneously then the player will unlock a way to move forward in the level
New Enemies
Napalm Dragonfly - A flying enemy that can set a small area on fire, effectively rendering the surface useless for a short period of time
Laser Ladybug - A grounded enemy that shoots a cone of lasers out of its back
Boss
Pelican Spider (The one in the logo, on our stickers, and almost all marketing material for the game)
Level Sketch
Program: Quill (Oculus Rift)
Sketches for Arachnotron's Levels are weird because the player can go literally anywhere, so we needed a program that can do the same, henceforth Quill was chosen! The main idea of the level originally stemmed from a horror themed darkly lit maze of an ant colony, but the majority of the mechanics for the level were dropped early on. We pushed the level to the side for a bit and would talk about it occasionally. Around February of 2019 we started getting feedback players wanted more movement challenges, so this level then became that answer! Evan, our Lead Designer, came up with the initial room to help us understand how the railgun was going to work. Once briefed I hopped into the Oculus for about 4 hours to create what is in this gif. For the last two rooms I shot some ideas back and forth with Billy, our other designer for possible puzzles while drawing.
Sketches for Arachnotron's Levels are weird because the player can go literally anywhere, so we needed a program that can do the same, henceforth Quill was chosen! The main idea of the level originally stemmed from a horror themed darkly lit maze of an ant colony, but the majority of the mechanics for the level were dropped early on. We pushed the level to the side for a bit and would talk about it occasionally. Around February of 2019 we started getting feedback players wanted more movement challenges, so this level then became that answer! Evan, our Lead Designer, came up with the initial room to help us understand how the railgun was going to work. Once briefed I hopped into the Oculus for about 4 hours to create what is in this gif. For the last two rooms I shot some ideas back and forth with Billy, our other designer for possible puzzles while drawing.
Level Whitebox
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Program: Unity3D
The Anthill actually has the simplest whitebox in the game due to a few reasons. The big one is the fact that we had some Art Assets (all of the tunnels) that were implemented right off the bat. This allows our Artists to just update the asset and it will auto update everywhere else in the scene. Another huge reason as to why it was so simple is because this is the third level made for the game so the process for whiteboxing was known across the board.
Goals of each Room
Room 1: In room 1 the player has to deal with different surfaces covered by electrical fields. They are able to get rid of them by destroying canisters. Eventually the canisters will open up the first set of Crystals in the whole game. The player then just has to line them up and shoot them all at once.
Room 2: In room 2 the player has to destroy canisters to make platforms rise that will line up the crystals. The only problem however is that the crystals are shielded, so the player must quickly charge the canisters underneath them and then line up the shot.
Room 3: In room 3 there are fan-blades that can be rotated to line up multiple sets of crystals. Each time the player shoots a set of crystals enemies will spawn in different parts of the room. Since this is the last non-boss room in the game it is a final stand in a way.
The Anthill actually has the simplest whitebox in the game due to a few reasons. The big one is the fact that we had some Art Assets (all of the tunnels) that were implemented right off the bat. This allows our Artists to just update the asset and it will auto update everywhere else in the scene. Another huge reason as to why it was so simple is because this is the third level made for the game so the process for whiteboxing was known across the board.
Goals of each Room
Room 1: In room 1 the player has to deal with different surfaces covered by electrical fields. They are able to get rid of them by destroying canisters. Eventually the canisters will open up the first set of Crystals in the whole game. The player then just has to line them up and shoot them all at once.
Room 2: In room 2 the player has to destroy canisters to make platforms rise that will line up the crystals. The only problem however is that the crystals are shielded, so the player must quickly charge the canisters underneath them and then line up the shot.
Room 3: In room 3 there are fan-blades that can be rotated to line up multiple sets of crystals. Each time the player shoots a set of crystals enemies will spawn in different parts of the room. Since this is the last non-boss room in the game it is a final stand in a way.
