PARALLAX PLAZA
Design Goal
Our goal with this project was to create an FPS map that utilized lots of verticality and encouraged using various angles and vantage points to fight across elevations.
Personal Contribution
I created the A side (the red side) as well as created unique sound effects for the weapons, player movement, and environment interaction. I also created the background music.
Tools Used
Unreal Engine 5 PureRef
UE Blueprints
ProTools
FL Studio
FireAlpaca
White Box
Points Of Interest
Major vantage point near player spawn
Confrontation area with several points of cover
Several points of entry to the Red side, and egress into no man's land
Weapon pickup is backlit so that players can see it while mounting the stairs
Lower floor has lots of obstacles to break line of sight and force players to move around the space
Layout & Preproduction
For the layout of my section, I wanted the first floor to have a different game feel from the second in addition to being very visually different. This way, each area could act as a landmark while offering different play types.
The first floor is designed around tight angles and close combat, favoring use of the shotgun. The second floor is roomier and focuses more on vantage points and sight lines, favoring the use of longer ranged weapons like the assault rifle.
Here are some early iterative sketches I created before settling on the final design
Sound Design
My goal for the sound design of this project was to create punchy, fun sounds that give effective feedback to the player. I primarily looked to inspiration from games like Ultrakill and Halo, for their weapon sounds as well as their interactions and their soundtracks.
Music
A cyberpunk world is incomplete without some kind of kickin' electronic soundtrack. For this project, I used FL Studio to create a looping song to accompany the futuristic setting.
While composing the main track, I had to carefully consider my choice of instrumentation, especially with the percussion, to make sure that elements of the song were clearly definable from important gameplay sounds like gunshots.
For shooting range track, I wanted to create something simple but interesting as well as on theme. Since the shooting range is the "lobby" of this game, I didn't want the music to be as complex as the main level's as to further differentiate the two spaces.
Post Mortem
This project was a great exercise in having both a consistent theme across different areas, as well as a consistent game feel. My team worked hard to make sure each area felt cohesive and part of the same design philosophy, while still feeling unique.
During this project, I also got to experiment with new ways of implementing sound effects through gamemode blueprints and animation sequences. The most difficult part was composing the music so that it felt on theme and energetic, while not being too distracting for players.