Project Overview
Airlock is a 3rd-person action/tower defense game where players defend their ship’s power core from the invading aliens. The concept itself was built to satisfy the typical requirements of a third-person tower defense while also trying to have a unique mechanic the player would have to focus on; in this case, it's power.
Map Concepting
The setting of a spaceship was chosen because of the potential maps that could be designed for the interior. Ships lend themself greatly to level design because they have a clear outline of the space and enough restrictions to prevent from overscoping too much.
Initially, the map was simple with two paths to the command bridge and four closable doors.
Once I figured out the outline of the ship, I looked at the scope and timeline to see how many rooms could be achievable. Then, I tried to place all of the rooms in a way that made sense for the bounds of the ship.
This map design was still rough, but it gave me an idea of how the first blockout needed to look.
First Blockout
The first blockout focused on smooth transitions from room to room. It was straight-forward, lacking any of the diagonal or non-rectangular shapes found in the sketch; this led to some of the door locations changing to better accomodate the angle changes.
Enemy Pathing
A nav mesh volume was projected onto the map to designate where the enemy could travel. Once the bounds were layed out, enemies were then told to navigate to the Bioreactor.
Once enemies reached the Bioreactor, they would drain power from it by standing near it.
Doors
Initially, doors would drain power as long as they were closed, and the player could only close two doors at a time.
However, after some trial-and-error, this was changed. Doors, instead, use 20 power flat to open and to close.
Turrets
Turrets were one of the first things concepted for the game mode. Most classic tower defenses include a turret or something similar, so I figured out a way that they could fit into this environment.
Here, turrets can be activated via the control panel and will drain 1% of power for every second they are active.
Map Redesign
With the power changed to be the most central mechanic of the game, the map needed to be slightly edited to reflect the change.
The backside of the power room was redesigned to connect to the main hall to allow for direct enemy pathing to the Bioreactor.
The Core of the Game
Power quickly became the main mechanic of the game and the central resource. With things like doors and turrets relying on power, I needed to make the resource more scarce. This led to me adding enemies draining power upon reaching the core.
A Solution to Power
With so many things using power, I needed to add a way for players to get power back. With the core of the game being a power reactor, I settled on using an enemy drop as a power boost.
Biofuel was added to be picked up by the player and deposited at the bioreactor to gain some power back.
Adding the Mines
Though they were concepted early, mines were the last thing added to the game. With only the limited turrets to counter enemies, players needed some other way to stop enemies. Thus, mines were created. The player has access to five mines in the first wave, ten in the second, so on and so forth.
Conclusion
What Went Well
Through this project, I gained a greater understanding of blueprinting and the technological aspects of game design.
I was able to turn initial concepts of design into functioning in-game systems that interact with the environment.
The way the wave system is assembled makes it so waves can be infinite and unique as long as the player keeps the power up.
Moving Forward
With the systems and design flushed out, there's the opportunity for an aesthetic to be added.
The most viable additions to this project would be a focus on new UI that better showcases the important things the player needs to focus on.
Additionally, it would be helpful to include text to explain mechanics to the player. The best thing that can be added to this project is an aesthetic way of communicating information to the player.