Second Level (4th June)

With the concept for my first level in place, I now had to figure out how I was going to progress this onto a second level and how this level would progress the storyline. The story that I had created so far was that main character/player would be part of a tactical unit who was trying to track down an arms dealer, who’s last known location was the house in the first level.

This storyline helped me figure out what I wanted to do for the second level as it got me thinking about if the main antagonist was an arms dealer then he would most likely have a secret location to stash/smuggle his weapons, this is where the idea of an underground cave system came into mind. I really liked this idea as I love when games change your perspective of an area e.g. a small room has a little hatch that leads to a big area, this adds a shock factor into a level and intrigues the player making them want to explore. It also reminded me of documentaries that I had watched on El Chapo and the underground tunnel networks that he had to smuggle supplies and what was really interesting about it was that the tunnels were in such unsuspecting places e.g. under the bath tub etc. This kind of surprise factor and intrigue to delve deeper was what I wanted the players to feel when they found the secret doorway to my games underground network.

One of El Chapo’s underground tunnels[1]

Now as always what the underground network would look like was all down to what was available on the UE4 marketplace[2] as I wouldn’t have time to create a detailed modular kit. Fortunately for me there are a few options and the one that must stuck with me was the Underground mining asset pack[3], this had the feel I wanted and the idea of it being an old mining network just fitted the story perfectly.

Mining kit I am using [3]

Showing how easy the pack was to manipulate

I am starting to get really excited about putting these levels together now and have already found the next level that I am planning on implementing (which I’ll discuss in my next post). I can’t wait to start constructing this world and really seeing my story come to life.

References:

[2] Epic 2014, Unreal Engine 4 Marketplace, [Access at:] https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/store

[3] KK Design 2020 ,Old Mine Tunnel and Caves, [Access at:] https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/en-US/product/old-mine-tunnel-caves

Images :

[1] The Guardian, Tunnel discovered on US-Mexico border is longest ever, authorities say, [Access at:] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/29/drug-tunnel-discovered-us-mexico-border

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