Molten Core | Sam Hooser Design

Position: Level Designer

Engine: Prodeus Level Editor

Team Size: Solo Project

Development Time: 12 weeks (~180 dev hours)

Concept: "Molten Core" is a standalone level within the Prodeus universe. The level has the player infiltrating a massive drill to remove its power source.

Roles and Responsibilities

Designed and iterated on a stand alone map from brainstorming to shipping.
Provided regular updates to professor as well as collecting and responding to various feedback.

Screenshots

Gameplay

Design Goals

Clear, useful and effective sightlines and landmarks.
Interesting, diverse and flowing arenas.
Reuse of space with changed aesthetics.

Clear, Useful and Effective Sightlines and Landmarks

The player starts inside a small valley with the direction to go clear and in their line of sight.
An explosive barrel is placed in front of the vent to further encourage players to either shoot the barrel or the vent to break it.

As the player is moving through the vent, small floor grates can be used to foreshadow what enemies the player will face moving back down the hallway.

After the player defeats the the sniper within the sniper tower, they have a sightline to 2 points of interest: The giant drill in the distance and a green laser beam shooting into the sky.

After the player reaches the train station, they have to use a button to open the doors forward. A window is nearby that lets the player see the doors opening along with enemies spawning, spinning lights, and sound effects.

This principle is used again as the player moves closer to the drill and begins to head around the back of it (Since the front gates are closed).
This is also establishing a language that red spinning lights signal importance.

If the player doesn't make realize that they've reached the back of the drill at the location pictured here:

Once on top of the drill, they can see the smoke stacks they saw earlier from the sniper tower (at the beginning of the level).

The white hand on the interact buttons naturally pull players to them, but green light was added around it to further convey the importance.

Once inside the drill, the main set piece of the level (The conveyor belt) is revealed and seen from a large window. The blue against the orange shows where the blue key card and sets a short term objective for the player to reach that room.

When inside the control center, the player has windows into the mineral transfer area as well as a sightline into the next arena (The Refinery).

A sniper post is located at the end of the drill and can be seen with the blue shield protecting him as well as the sniper laser that draws a line to his position.

When walking into the Refinery, the green color and lights of the door are shown to show how to progress forward.

Once the player has acquired the blue key card, they hop down and are back to the conveyor belt, but now with the key needed to progress further down it.

Once in the cleaning station, once again I use the blue against the orange, as well as motion, to draw their eye to their next landmark: The cell gun.

Once the player has attained the rune, they are lifted up into the engine room. This is a cool moment to see the sheer size of the drill as well as the transitioning point for the prodean enemies to arrive.

If they happen to be looking the other way when the elevator arrives, they can see the green key card, which is needed to complete the level.

After they've grabbed the key card (which they need to leave the room) they finally can see that sniper that's been pestering them while inside the drill.

This once again orients them to where they are in the drill once they see the conveyor belt again.

When re-entering the conveyor on the way out, I've closed all the windows and have the green door as the only option out. This also stands out against the red atmosphere.

When leaving the drill, the sniper from outside in the level is another landmark (as well as the giant front gates) the helps to orient where they are in the space.

The way to deactivate the shields protecting is conveyed with the bright blue lights and the interact button once again.

Once again we have a clear sightline to the shields going down and the player gets their sweat revenge against the sniper.

Once reaching the front gates, the green beacon of light is their main way to remember where they need to take the green key card to leave.

Interesting, Diverse and Flowing Arenas

The first arena the player encounters is their first visit to the train station. The encounter is short since we'll be revisiting the space at the end of the level.

The beginning of the level involves alot of transitional spaces, with the first real arena being located here:

There's an island of rock in the center to allow for quick transitioning across the lava and large rocks along the paths leading to the stairs for more cover to use.

The arena on top of the drill is lit much differently and has a mix of high and low ground as well as long corridors for kiting enemies.

After the initial wave, a dangerous gunner rises using the central elevator. Red spinning lights and sound effects signal his arrival and help the player to plan around him.

The next arena takes place in the control room inside the drill. The player is drawn in by a few weak enemies that, when killed, bring in the rest of the fight.

After using the conveyor to reach the blue key card gate, the player enters the Refinery arena. This arena uses the rising lava buckets as cover and platforms the player can use to flow throughout the space.

A group of weak enemies is introduced at the end of the arena near the newly activated button to draw attention to it.

A projectile enemy is also placed near the door forward to coax the player to use the rising platform to reach him.

After a long stretch of transitional spaces leading through the cleaning station, the player reaches the Engine Room.

This arena keeps the flowing idea with a circular layout and plenty of melee units. This is also their first encounter with a Slayer, which is an enemy that buffs others around it.

From this point on, the arenas no longer only have one type of enemies as the Prodeans invade on removing the rune from the engine room. These enemies fight eachother as well as the player, allowing the player to fight both or watch as they kill eachother.

The next arena is a revisit to the Control Room arena, but now the space is powered off and comprised of only Prodean enemies. This makes the space feel unique.

Now that the player has escaped the drill, they must deal with the invading prodeans and the defending chaos members outside of the drill entrance. This arena has 3 floors which allows for more aerial enemies since the player can use the floors for cover.

Lastly, we have the final aren where the player started, the train station.

On pressing the green button inside the safety of the train control center. A boss enemie, the Harbinger, spawns in directly in front of the player and shatters the glass of the control center. This takes away the safety of the structure from the player.

Reuse of Space with Changed Aesthetics

As mentioned before, I end up reusing the Mineral Transfer section 3 different times. The first is the introduction of it with a single sniper.

The second time, it's right after acquiring the blue key card and rocket launcher. The sniper is still present, but now a larger enemy, the Void Reaver, who shoots out tinier Skullfish enemies adds challenge to the second encounter.

The third time, the entire drill has been shutdown and the emergency lights are active. The change in color and emissive enemies (Prodeans) makes the space feel unique even though you've been through it twice.
The conveyor has also shut down providing more reliable cover for a tougher fight.

This time the space is much darker an ominious with the emergency lights being the only light source. The carnage from your first time through also reminds you of what happened here before.

On the way out, the player moves through the lava pump section again, but this time can see the Prodeans wiping the floor with the outnumbered chaos enemies.
The conflict attracts their attention as well as the green beacon.

To keep from rehashing the train station segment completely, I'll skip the breaking of glass that transitions the space slightly.

A main issue playtesters experienced in this section was running out of ammo due to already cleaning out the arena beforehand.
To remedy this, I have "drop pods" that drop down during the final fight and help the player to refill their ammo and health amongst the challenging prodean enemy fight.

Postmortem

What went well?
Set Piece Design and Implementation
- Early on I had ideas for some set pieces and I was able to get a lot of mileage out of the spaces.
- I also made sure to include plenty of landmarks and other things that would draw the players eyes and it seemed to be effective based on playtesting sessions.
Player affecting the spaces
- I was really proud with how the whole shutdown sequence ended up.
- The changing lights and ominous lighting was much more impactful than initially planned and it helped to push the effect the player's actions had on the space.
Interconnected Space
- I really wanted the interior of the drill to connect in logical and sensical ways.
- I believe that I was able to include a lot of verticality to push the space and fill it with as much gameplay as possible without having the player span large distances of map.

What went wrong?
Feature Creep
- Throughout development I continued to have ideas on how to improve the spaces and things that I wanted the player to do throughout the level.
- I believe that I ended up adding too much content and due to that the highlight moments get washed out by the spaces that weren't as successful.
- If I could redo it, I would cut down the space to possibly only include the interior of the drill.
Modularity
- I created a mod kit to help with my extremely large spaces and getting them to look good aesthetically.
- Due to having a common mod kit throughout the spaces, alot of playtesters commented on how some of the spaces feel very much the same except for the colors.
- If more time were alotted, I would've tried to create mod kits for each room instead of 2 that I used depending on where you where in the level.

What I learned?
Kill your babies
- I wanted to keep the entire level, and I did. However, the level isn't well optimized and has a few areas where frames can drop. This is due to the sheer size of the map in comparison to typical Prodeus levels.
- As mentioned before, if I could've cut down on how many ideas I included in the map, the map would've felt tighter and more focused which would have benefitted the final product.
Playtest, Playtest, Playtest some more
- In a game such as Prodeus where the gameplay takes center stage, due to the simplicity of textures and structures (Retro style), you need as many people to play it and give their thoughts as possible.
- I made use of a few playtesters throughout the project, but I didn't take advantage of the members of the Prodeus discord until near the end of the project where I planned to not make many more changes to the overall level.
- If I had been playtesting with a larger audience from the beginning, I may have decided to cut it down earlier since playtesters were taking about 30 minutes average to complete the level.