ENCOUNTER STUDIES
The goal of this project was to explore how to design an environment for a combat encounter that is customized to the abilities of the enemy creature, resulting in a unique battle experience.
Pipeline:
Pipeline:
- Sometimes started with the creature, sometimes started with the environment
- Broke down the creature's attacks and abilities into a list
- Brainstormed environmental features to relate to those attacks and abilities
- Drafted the level first in my sketchbook
- Converted the sketch into a Miro diagram, adding color and notating the environment's features
- Blocked out the level in Unity using ProBuilder level tools
Mummy Lord's Lair
Turn-based combat Hard encounter
For this encounter, I selected the Mummy Lord from the Monster Manual of Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition and analyzed its attacks to inform the space.
Once I took the level to Unity, I had to make some adjustments to the design. In order to make the battle space small enough to keep the players in combat, I was not able to include the tunnels between each of the side rooms. The width between them was just too tight.
Once I took the level to Unity, I had to make some adjustments to the design. In order to make the battle space small enough to keep the players in combat, I was not able to include the tunnels between each of the side rooms. The width between them was just too tight.
Scaldris
Real-time combat Boss encounter
Unlike others of these studies where I have begun with a boss creature from an existing system, Scaldris is a new encounter that I designed. I have a childlike love for levels located inside a volcano or above lava. This encounter began with the environment, and I designed the boss enemy to match the level elements in place.
An AI behavioral tree of Scaldris's actions during combat.