[Level Design Studies] The Last of Us - Bait&Switch Study

Get the level design brief here.

Get the code here.

Ready for Whitebox

What I have learned:

• Details are very important to tell the story in the right way
• Putting a warehouse near boxes helped a lot in making the place more believable
• The explosion I used as excuse to start the level had to be reflected somehow
• Moving the first restaurant obstacle to the right helped a lot in creating a meaningful choice

Second Iteration

What I have learned:

• The starting point is pretty dark and claustrophobic. In the Brief I talk about an explosion, so I have to change that to clearly represent a visual explosion which separates Joel and Claire
• The first part of the Alley is pretty boring, those boxes we don't know why they are there. IDEA: replace building with cargo building and trucks. Let the Player explore that trucks finding some note of a dinner invitation for the two lovers
• Fix the  position of the first cover inside of the restaurant (floor 1) for it to frame better both the Clicker and the Bath door. Shorter and on the right wall.
• The corpse from top is barely visible, add blood using two cilinders rescaled in Z. Add more gravity. Also the bath can be indicated with blood. Also open a space in the middle of the big cover right at the side of She's corpse.
• The player can kill runners from top. They may feel smart, but they lose the adrenaline. Hide the Runners and let them appear later with an animated scene.

First Iteration

What I have learned:

• it is important to put a blockout in a context, to better communicate the vision
• spaces should be 1/3 bigger, in order to fit in TLOU metrics
• Add more drama and narrative respecting Naughty Dog Style