CGMA Week 5&6 - Cowboy Ghost Town

The fifth assignment of the CGMA Level Design course, which spanned weeks 5 and 6, focuses on Spatial Composition and Cognitive Mapping.

Project Details:

– Medium-sized level.
– Made in Unity Engine with ProBuilder and Maya
– 2 weeks to make it from scratch.
– Exploration.

Design Techniques:

Landmarks
In week 5, we discussed how landmarks are used to guide a player through a level. Landmarks can be divided into different types:
1. Distant landmarks, also called “weenies”.
2. Local landmarks, or immediate landmarks.
For this level, I have used the statue, the fountain and the coloured banners as local landmarks helping the player to build a mental map of the different districts. While the church, waterfall, tower and Manor style building act as weenies, guiding the player to the different areas and effectually the main goal.

Environment storytelling – Placement of Assets
The inspiration for the narrative for this level came from Uncharted 4’s Libertalia. The town has become a ghost town as a result of the people in charge taking all of the money for themselves. As a result of this coursed the people living there rebelled and a bloody battle happened. Through assets placement, in the level, I have created moments of narrative to encourage the player to continue to explore the area and help the player form a history of the place by asking the question “what happened here?”.

Spatial Composition and Cognitive Mapping
Spatial Composition and Cognitive Mapping were the main focus of this assignment. A level is a story and we had to consider the narrative structure of the space when designing it. The spaces had to be interesting to explore and inform the player’s mental map of the space and inspire player action. To allow for the player to build a mental map of the space each major space or zone needed to have local or immediate focal points, as well as also having views of more distant landmarks. I have laid the town out so that the level utilising their existing knowledge of how towns are laid out and the environment makes logical sense with a main social and shopping area in the centre and the housing districts around the outside. I split the housing areas up by wealth as well as creating an area that can be interpreted as a military barracks.

Note: Cover, shooting, grenade, animations, and AI systems were all part of a package provided as part of the course.