Absorb

I had many different roles when working on Absorb but a very large and important task I had was doing the level design for the first area of the game and also crafting the way the game teaches the player how to play, essentially the tutorial.

Being that I also created the narrative and world building for the game, I wanted to make sure that the first area of the game fitted in nicely with the story and made sense. After brainstorming for a while I decided that the first area would be an ancient technology facility where the player character, Abidaro, is being held prisoner to be harvested for his powerful energy. This is also where the villain character of the game, Solaris, was artificially creating new inhabitants of the world by using the energy harvested from Abidaro.

 From Greybox to Gold

The following gallery is a showcase of the large amounts of progress and iteration that I did for the starting area of the game.

 The Process

Once I had decided on the theme and setting of the level, I started greyboxing different possible arrangements for the level, using ProBuilder. Because the rest of the game takes place in a mountain top area, I thought it would be cool to have the facility hidden in a large mountain cave. I also really liked the idea of the facility originally being an extremely large/tall structure but there was an accident that caused the facility to flood with all the harvested energy liquid. I thought this would be a good way to set a tone for the area but also give that sense to the player that this area is a lot larger than what the player can actually see, it’s just flooded. Originally I wanted the level to very vertical, having the player ascend upwards out of the facility to freedom. This is why I very early on decided on a “silo” like cylinder for the main starting room. My reasoning for this was because usually silos are used for storage and the cylindrical shape would more easily accommodate for a spiral like level structure, like stairs wrapping around the exterior of the silo that lead to other levels of the facility. The cylindrical shape was also a good deviation from the common square shapes you get with levels.

As you can see from the early greyboxes to the gold stage, the vertical ascension idea was scrapped. Mainly this was due to it being a bit too over scoped and difficult to pull off well for the time frame we had, so we decided to change it. I decided to do away with the vertical aspect of the level and condense it all down to one floor, with the floor you are on being the main area of the facility and all the lower levels being flooded and inaccessible.

I wanted to make sure the player could definitely see that the facility had been flooded so I decided to have all the walls be glass except for the starting silo room. This way we could have a large lake of the energy liquid surrounding the facility and the player hopefully putting together that the area had been flooded. I also added some broken elevators into the level that also looked flooded inside, to push that illusion to the player.

In terms of things I wanted to teach the player before they left the starting area of the game, in order it was: attacking/combat, absorbing enemy abilities, using absorbed enemy abilities and dashing.

For teaching the player to attack, I thought it would be a good idea to have multiple barrels filled with the energy liquid around the starting area that would glow and stand out, hopefully enticing the player to try and attack them and smack them around the room.

To teach the player that they can absorb things, I decided to make it that the door leading out of the starting room was locked and could only be opened by pressing the absorb button near the door. There was a few ways I made this clear to the player, one was that the door had tubes of the energy liquid flowing through it, making it stand out but also hinting that it was powered by the liquid. I also had a light above the door that flickered on and off, drawing the player’s attention to it. Finally, I had the idea to have “console” machine/screens around the facility that would subtly have the controls on them but in a way that looked natural. We achieved this by having art on them that looked like a scientists analytic diagrams/study sketches of Abidaro as a test subject, investigating his different powers, having some small icons/runes that represented the controls next to the art depicting the action. I placed the “Absorb” console right next to the exit door, so the flickering light would draw the player over and then they would see the console and press the button to absorb, opening the door.

As soon as the player exits the starting room, there are a few minion enemies (the weakest enemy in the game) that will attack you. By this point the player knows how to attack so they will easily kill the enemies, giving them a safe taste of combat. To make the enemy placements in this area look natural, I placed many large “Test Tubes” around the level that held all the different enemies in the game inside them, reinforcing the facility setting and hinting that these enemies were being created here. I had placed broken test tubes around the level as well to indicate that some enemies had escaped.

Finally, to teach the player that they can absorb special enemies abilities and then use that ability yourself, I set up a scenario at the end of the level where a special enemy comes out of there test tube to attack you. The enemy that attacks you is a “Special Hammer” enemy and their colour scheme is a bright yellow. At the exit of the facility, there is a very large boulder blocking the player’s way, the only way to progress is the absorb the special hammer enemy’s ability and then use it to smash the boulder to escape. The first thing that I used to guide the player, was right next to where you are attacked by the special enemy, there are two consoles within view that detail how to “parry” and then “absorb” an enemy’s ability. Because you are only being attacked by this one enemy, it is extremely unlikely the player will die, giving them a safe space to take in the information and hopefully figure out that they need to absorb the enemy ability. Once the player has absorbed the ability, to indicate what they need to do next, the large boulder blocking the exit is glowing brightly with the same colour as the special hammer enemy, hopefully providing a clue for the player, there is also a console next to the boulder that details how to use an absorbed ability.