#gameleveldesign

Level Maps: Final Draft

The Shop

As mentioned in the previous post, I had to redesign the level maps to be more historically accurate, and also have a more intuitive design!

To jog your memories, this is the first draft of the shop map, which looks like any regular diner, but not necessarily from the 1980s!

After some research and discussion, the final level map we came up with looks like this!

As you can see, this map looks much more vertically stretched out than the previous one. This allowed for more space for the players to run about the shop, as well as accomodate for more tables of varying sizes! Customers would come in from the walkway and there are no doors, so the whole entranceway is just open-air and anyone can enter from anywhere, much like in the 80s’. 

The kitchen and storeroom have also been integrated to fit into the same map and have also been given a slight revamp.

The Kitchen

This is the old level map of the kitchen

It was very horizontal and quite cramped, and the chef in the kitchen would feel like they were disconnected from the other players.

When we did research, we found out that most of the kitchens during the 1980s were very open-air and in close proximity to the shop and customers, so we adjusted the kitchen to fit this observation.

This level map was a little more detailed, and showed the look, feel and placement of the equipment needed for the kitchen. It is a lot more open, so the chef will feel connected to the players still and instead of passing ingredients over a glass panel, the mobile players can now place their ingredients on the ingredients drop-off table! The chef can still place the completed dishes on the dish counter for the servers to take and serve to customers, and it is all done without a glass panel so it feels a lot more personal and the gameplay feels more interconnected!

For close-ups and details of the actual shop environment block-ins, do check out @theboynoodlet​ ‘s blog! 

Level Maps: 1st Draft

Hello everyone! I am Aixian and I am in charge of game and level design, as well as programming for @noodletsstudio‘s project!

Today, I will be sharing with you my initial drafts for the level maps for our game, Yi’s Eatery!

The Shop

This first draft of the shop was done on 29 March 2020

This was my initial vision for the shop, we hadn’t done much research at this point, so this was how we first thought the shop would look like. It gives off the vibe of a rather generic cafe, maybe a level that you would be able to find in Diner Dash! 

The Kitchen

Since our game is a cross-platform VR party game, the VR player takes on the role of the chef, and will be situated inside the kitchen! As such, we wanted to separate the kitchen from the players, so that the players can focus on their customer service while the chef does their cooking.

However, after a couple of team meetings and discussions, we found that this layout doesn’t exactly suit the 1980s’ vibe we were going for, and a lot of the placement of furniture was very unclear as well.

That’s why I decided to give it a revamp after we discussed and did some research on the aesthetics of coffee shops during the 1980s’, as well as consulted @thecatnoodlet​‘s national archive ;)

I’ll be posting and explaining my process behind the revamped level map soon, so don’t forget to check back in!  

P.S. While you’re here, why not check out @theboynoodlet​‘s 3D environment block-in? ;)