Clare Zhang
Level Designer | Level Artist
Dying Light Level - "Underground"
The level “Underground” is a single-player level designed for Dying Light, and the estimated gameplay time is 12 minutes. The player needs to explore the dark subway station and sewer area in order to find a way out of the underground area.
Gameplay video
To enhance the horror experience of this level, players won't carry any weapon when the level starts. In order to fight with zombies, players must explore the level with a flashlight and find weapons to protect themselves. The available weapons in the level are all pretty weak and won't deal high damage to enemies. There are many optional spaces and vertical designs to make the layout more complex and engage players.
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Design Goals
1. Level Layout: Encourage Exploration
2. Pacing Control: Melee combat with weak weapon
I want to create a challenging and rewarding experience for players. With weak weapons, it is more important to dodge or hide instead of fighting with enemies face to face. Most of those enemies move relatively slowly and won't chase players if they are not attacked. If players have trouble fighting with the strong boss, there are alternative paths for them to hide and leave.
3. Environmental Hazards: Electrified Water
Before entering the sewer area, players must go through a small office room with electrified water. Players can only keep safe by landing on wooden platforms. This hazard also will help players deal damage to zombies and lower the combat difficulty.
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Postmortem
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What Went Well:
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Dark and horror atmosphere
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Jump scare with sound effects
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Balanced combat experience
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Environmental aesthetics matches the Dying Light game
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What Went Wrong:
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Flashlight?
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I wanted to enhance the horror experience with darkness so I tried to disable player's flashlight and force them to get used to the darkness. However, based on feedback from my playtesters, without the help of a flashlight, they can not see those details in my level and get lost easily because of the limited lighting. So I decided to add back the flashlight and adjust my level to fit with different lighting properly.​
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Level Scale
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The level was too small at the early milestones. I explored several ways to extend the gameplay time and gradually add more optional rooms for exploration. Adding more enemies also force players to spend more time on the level and want to get more pickups and weapons.
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What I Learned:
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The flashlight is not a bad thing for a horror level. With the proper level design and lighting design, players can better experience the horror atmosphere the way they want.
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Creating surprise with enemy jump scare: It is good to spawn enemies and make them attack players while players feel safe. With this strategy, player's tension will be raised immediately and react to the threat quickly. ​​
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