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"DISHONORED" PRACTICE LEVEL DESIGN

OVERVIEW

Engine:

  • Unreal 4.27

Genre:

  • Stealth Action-Adventure

Duration:

  • ~1 Week

Features:

  • Design a ​"Dishonored" Level

    • Lv 2 [High Overseer Campbell]

  • Develop a New Ability for Corvo

    • (With Level Functionality)

  • Develop a New Enemy Variant

    • (With Lore)

DESCRIPTION

"Dishonored" is a Stealth-Action RPG developed by Arkane Studios Lyon around 2010 - 2012. It is known for it's stealth mechanics, multiple pathways, abilities, and of course optional objectives and methods which coalesse into one of 3 endings.

 

This project, though lacking a more refined modeling pass, is a blockout and concept document associated with a Week-long Final Level Design Test.

The final design sees the player moving through from the River towards the City Watch Officers Office with the two alternative side paths before the main building that open up more collectibles and side quests. 

A new ability, "Assassins Path," reveals and allows the traveling of pathways leftover from more experiences Assassins.

 

A new enemy, the "Rat Catcher" seeks to expand on the previous unit roster with a long range melee combatant that uses their spear to strike at unsuspecting plague rats from atop their security checkpoints.

IMAGES

POST MORTEM ANALYSIS

After completing this project there were multiple issues stemming from the midweek redesign which was completed upon the realization that a second alternative path leading under the prison would not be viable to complete. ---------- For example it may be noticable that despite being themed liked a "Dishonored" Level, there is a lack of multiple entry/exit pathways. These were included in the original design, but were cut due to the weeklong schedule. These paths would have included a rear jail section accessible through a second exposed sewer from which the City Watch Headquarters would have been built upon like a tower. The idea was to make it appear larger. Additionally the Secret Office was meant to be the Memorial Room above the Jail which would have allowed another entry to the Second Floor. This previous removal saw the addition of the roof route to compensate. Though it seems to have made it somewhat cluttered in certain views. ---------- The height of the buildings is also considerably too short as I unnintentionally only accounted for the first level of "Blink" which shrunk the overall building sizes by a considerable margin. I noticed this around the time I began constructing the "Mistress's House" as I had to continuously increase its size to prevent players (Should it be developed with a working Corvo) from exiting the level or bypassing obstacles. This led further into issues of scale with the Third Floor Officers Office. ---------- The "Disgruntled Populace," also takes away too much control from Corvo/The Player by having an explosive situation draw away the guards. Though it would make the return trip more interesting if the player had removed the explosives or killed the group it would have made them not appear. I suppose Corvo could have only taken one from a horde, but the use of the explosive in the Second Plaza wouldn't have been entirely obvious. ---------- Due to the maps compact nature I felt that there weren't enough side objective locations as were seen more prevelently in "Dishonored 2," with the first game at least having 2-3 in the larger map cases. In my level the only major internal sections outside of the Headquarters are the Gatehouse upper levels and the Mistress's House. ---------- Ironically despite knowing we (those choosing Dishonored) were redesigning the second level it had been a while since I had played and my research playthrough was too limited to compare the levels side by side while I was developing my map, so it completely eluded me how I could have constructed the headquarters in a similiar manner to the Arkane Level Designers and use a U structure. It would have been recursive and allowed easier backtracking. At least until halfway through the design.

DOCUMENTATION

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