An Alan Wake Sequence
January 19, 2024 | Unreal Engine 5
January 19, 2024 | Unreal Engine 5
Project Goals
Practice architectural level design / Level Design in architectural spaces.
Build out a short level that hit the experience of an Alan wake or control level!
Practice in depth scripting to logic to handle spawning behavior of level chunks and props so they spawn out of sight.
Get it too or near as possible to a stood-up level of quality and finish.
Build it as quickly as possible within the time constraint of roughly 2 weeks.
**Stood-Up is the equivalent of White box playable. Basically blocked out and playable to the extent where the experience is clear, the fun can be seen, and has enough that it can be actioned on and taken to the next phases.
Project Overview
In Edmonton, there’s a bar called Craft Beer Market and it ended up serving as a major inspiration for this project. Largely due to finding the building really appealing, and I thought it would make for a great level space. The layout had several areas that were visually separated by small height changes, easily breaking up a large space into smaller distinct areas. The open industrial style also offered great opportunities for creativity when it came to changing the layout to suit my needs.
For this project I aimed to create an experience that was reminiscent of something you’d find in Alan Wake or Control. So, over the winter holidays, I developed a 5-10 minute experience where the player navigates a space that changes before their very eyes. Walls and doors appearing where there were none before, and statues that make the players ask the question ‘Did that just move?’.
Project Details
What I did
Built over the course of roughly 2 weeks (56 hours)
Unreal Engine 5
Level Design
Scripting (Level Scripting and BLU assets).
Assets Used
Jakob W, Interaction with ALS (Advanced Locomotion System)
Player Character (w/ adjustments to the scripting to suit what I needed)
Enemy Zombie AI
Moveable Crate and QTE blocker
Blocking Starter Pack
Breakdown / Planning
Behold, a brilliantly sketched top down
Beats
While brainstorming the beats I had a few guidelines I set for myself to ensure cohesion.
Simple - They had to be quick to execute on for quick iteration and easily done by myself.
Understood at a glance - The player needs to know they’re progressing and that they hadn’t failed and are repeating the same space.
Perceivable changes - Because this was a short experience, I wanted to make sure as many changes as possible were unmissable for maximum impact.
Interest Curve
To set myself up for success I tried to define the intensity of each beat, to make sure I was hitting those peaks and valleys appropriately.
The way I went about it here was How complex is the change, and How much does it affect the player.
e.g. Small = Statue moves when players not looking
vs
Large = Environment completely changes
Through iteration the final product ended up not aligning with this much in the end, but this helped as a reference point I could look back to if I needed to gauge what the next beat needed.
Sketches
I like to get into the editor as quickly as possible, cause I know the plan will evolve the second I start greyblocking and iterating.
So, for this project, once I had the list of beats, I did a very preliminary top down of the spaces I needed based on my references of Craft Beer Market; Focusing on how the spaces could be used multiple times, fit together in multiple ways, where changes could happen and where they could be triggered out of sight.
Blocking it out
Here I break down some of the key areas of this experience, The Puzzle Room, and The Arena. These areas are the standout spaces that define pivotal changes in the environment.
I knew I wanted a puzzle in this level, and I knew the puzzle had to be simple so that it wouldn’t demand too much of the player and slow down the pacing, since this is such short experience. I just needed something that would require the player to stop and think, just for a moment.
Process:
I had always intended to use the moveable crate as the method for the player to climb their way out of this area, but I hadn’t nailed down all the parts that would make up the puzzle. Cause just moving a crate without doing anything in-between isn’t much to solve.
The Lock before the Key - I wanted to make sure that the player was more likely to encounter the way out (the Lock) before finding and engaging with the Moveable Crate (The Key). This was a problem I wanted to solve first, because in previous iterations the moveable crate was available without needing to do anything and this caused the issue of finding the solution before the problem. I thought about a few different Ideas and what I could do, but none felt quite right. I took a step back and reminded myself of the themes of the experience, “Alan wake and Control”. That’s when I started to figure out the sequence.
The Sequence - Remembering to keep to my theme, made this part seem obvious in hindsight, but that’s usually how it goes. I decided to lock the moveable crate behind some debris that could be removed by the player physically affecting the world, much like how Alan Wake would in the Dark Place. With this idea in mind, I knew I needed an interact, but I wanted to make sure the interact would allow them to see the change AND block either the ‘lock’ or the key’. So I made the decisions to connect the switch to a generator I had made previously on another project. This simple addition allowed me to lead the player to where the exit was and solve a part of the puzzle at the same time.
Sequence.
Turn on generator, see way out
Interact with ‘push me’ switch. World Switches states, Generator room blocked, Moveable Crate room opened or vice versa
Grab moveable crate and move it into main area
Interact with ‘push me’ switch World state changes.
Bring crate to ledge.
Power Room / Factory Arena
Process:
My process for this involved me going back and forth between top down and editor to see if what I was putting on paper felt good, and then iterating as I go. For example, I’d draw out the cover and sightline blockers in the room with the red and yellow arrows, then go into the editor and place the cover to match and adjust it when it didn’t feel good on the sticks.
Moveable Crate Puzzle
Goal:
One of my main goals for this space was to make sure I was subconsciously guiding the player to the exit along with being a successful combat space. I didn’t want them feeling lost or turned around at any point.
How did I ensure that?
Differentiate the Spaces - I made sure each room had something unique about it so a player could create a mental map of the space and understand the flow even at a greyblock level.
One room had flickering lights
The hallways were long open and well lit, with a hole in the roof and exposed vines hanging down
And the last room had expose steel beams, stairs that led to a second level, and a large mechanical set piece in the middle.
Cover Pulls the Player Forward - While placing cover I was very mindful with how it would influence the players decision.
Cover Angle to influence the direction with more favorable fronts where I wanted to lead the player.
More cover towards the direction I wanted to lead the player, inferring a safer an option. Less cover In other areas, leaving the player wide open and it being more of a risk to take those paths.
Wayfinding - Light played a major role in guiding the player towards the exit in this arena. The hole in the roof with the vines is intentionally placed so the directional light is able to highlight the moveable blockade, and every room, has a sightline that aligns with the flow of the space so the player likely to see it no matter the path they pick. The three images on the right illustrate this point.
I originally wasn’t planning on having any combat in this experience, but as I built it out and iterated, the escalation just felt right.
I first started by getting a sense of the size of space I wanted in the engine. Increasing the playable area and adding rooms till it felt “right”. Once I was happy with the size, I created a top down and went into the Ideation phase. What are my fronts, what avenues am I presenting to the player, how am I guiding them to the goal.
Scripting
Thought I would share some scripting just to provide an example of style and organization. I like to keep my scripting as clean as possible either as I go, or making sure to find time to go back and clean it up so others can easily parse through it.
This example is some of the level scripting. This logic is from when we first start the experience and where we first notice things getting weird. Statues being in places they weren’t or doors appearing where there wasn’t one before.
Right click + Pan to scroll through blueprint. CTRL + Scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
Watch Me Build It!
As a developer I like to lead with honesty, transparency and integrity, so here is about 32 hours of footage recorded (sped up to 8 hours) of me building out the experience. It includes greyblock, scripting and copious amounts of playthrough testing and iterative process.
Unfortunately not all of it was recorded due to corrupted files (curses OBS!) as well as me forgetting to press the record button when I start only to find it’s been several hours and it’s still on pause.
