BORDERLANDS 3
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During these 6 months of internship in the beautiful Gearbox Software Quebec studio, I had the opportunity to work on the Unreal Engine 4 in order to produce different levels. Here is an overview of what was done on these two projects.
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DLC 1 - Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot
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On the first DLC, I was in charge of one of the maps of the game called The Compactor. The level takes place in a dump in the Handsome Jack casino.
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In order to give this dirty and messy aspect of the map, the whole environment is based on scrap material and dirt.
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The challenge was to propose a very irregular terrain (to respect the artistic choice of the dump environment) with quite varied fights with more or less intensity.
There are fights where :
- The enemies have the advantage of height.
- More open places but with void.
- Long-lasting fights that require more concentration.
- Close combat.
The idea was that each player profile could find its own type of gameplay by creating varied fighting rhythms.
The player will be able to face different types of enemies such as "Loarders" (robots) with multitple abilities, "Bandits" and bosses.
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In addition, we have worked on the secret passage / hideout aspect in order to hide chests containing powerful equipment and other loots. Even going as far as puzzle jump to challenge the player on his ability to understand the level and mechanics of game design.
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DLC 2 - Guns, Love, and Tentacles
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On the second DLC, I had the opportunity to take care of several maps. The visual identity of the DLC is based on the Lovecraft style.
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I have been more active on the close combat maps and a little less on the more open maps.
What was really interesting was that some of the battles took place in interiors such as archives, museums, spaceships and manor houses.
The challenge was to create sufficiently airy combat zones with a well worked out artistic composition so that the player could have the space to move and fight without hindrance.
The understanding of the metrics was essential to create these maps because some characters have abilities that have a direct impact on the environment. One character can climb into a mecha (giving it a big hitbox that needs to be managed) while another character can summon companions. Add to this the loots, FX, the interactive objects, the work was really formative in terms of space management.
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Moreover, the appearance of enemies also took place through portals, which sometimes required finding solutions both in level design and level art to ensure that these appearances were made in a fairly natural way.
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In the same way as in DLC 1, the creation of secret places was put forward to reward players who devote time to exploration.