For this project, I had 6 weeks to produce a level based on a brief provided to me. With this, I worked solo, facing an immense amount of problems that seemed to appear almost daily. With the project having stealth at the forefront of gameplay, I had to develop a new perspective for myself so I could design the best I could. Though in the end, I was able to finish with the gold version currently available to download! Throughout this project I was responsible for everything, this includes AI, Level Design, Mechanics, End Conditions, Art, Documentation, and so on and so forth.

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The main problems I ran into (apart from a lack of knowledge surrounding Unreal Engine's blueprints and visual scripting) were the level design and the AI.

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Level Design

The problems with the level design started early, as using landmarks had to be scaled down and eventually removed entirely. I had to resort to a narrowed focus towards the critical path, as designing the level around avoiding enemies and utilising stealth seemed to be a challenge early on.

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I countered this by focusing on the use of leading lines and objects around the various spaces players will find themselves in to draw their attention. This was done by having exit signs that stood out from the gloomy and dark atmosphere as well as using lighting as a form of directional attention seeking, as one could call it. Using these techniques, I limited myself in the long run a I had made the rest of the game level navigate using them, narrowing my range of unique designs that would catch the player's attention.

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In the end, I would've followed a strict set of pre-defined "rules", as this would have made designing the sections within the level much easier, rather than either eyeballing it and playtesting it or setting a specific reason for the section and running into problems with how the section functioned in the first place. 

 

AI

With AI, I had to first teach myself visual script, then understand how to use Behaviour Trees, then finally actually implement it into the level and weed out the unholy amount of bugs that followed suit. The main problem that I faced was actually the stress of stealth in the first place, as the core gameplay loop revolved around having the various AI bad guys around the level actually present a usable stealth system. This meant changing the way I approached the design of it originally, taking it from death when they touch you, to on touch as well as on a meter that filled up.

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The first thing I would change is the way they detect you, being a full 360 view to a 90-degree view, allowing for an increase in player autonomy and consistency to other games that have stealth elements (enemies can't see you when you're behind them kind of thing). I would also change the way they catch you as well, changing to an onsite chase where if the player leaves their sight, they go to the last known location of the player, increasing the stakes of risky movements and a focus on safe, stealthy gameplay choices.

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