UDK Alcatraz Level References

Satellite Image of Alcatraz

Map of Alcatraz

Mapping Quake

The 1st level of Quake starts with a slipgate that transports you to a room where you can pick up ammo and armor, but there is nowhere to go but to a lift that takes you to down and lets you off outdoors. There is a building ahead across a stream. There is a marine and a dog on the other side of the screen. They both will try and attack you without explanation, and you most likely have to shoot one or both of them to get by. There are secrets to find outdoors, like the underwater tunnel, but that ultimately leads you back to where you started. Inside the building, the movement is linear but the path doubles back on itself to utilize the environment. More marines are inside and will shoot you if you don't shoot them down first. The pathway spirals down and back around, ultimately forming a giant loop, which seems to be a good way of using the space of the level efficiently.

Alcatraz Game

Game Type

Single Player game.
Stealth FPS genre.
To be made using the Unreal engine (UDK)
For ages 14 and up.

Story

You have been falsely accused for a crime and imprisoned. Your goal is to seek revenge on the person who framed you. You first need to find out who framed you through the first levels. Your secondary goal is to escape from prison. Our environment will be based on Alcatraz and named "The Rock"

Game World

The entire game world is the is the island of Alcatraz. The player navigates through the holding cells, the sewer system, and various levels that occur throughout the island. The time of day will be dark and after hours when everyone's asleep. When you escape it is sunrise. The feel of the map is quiet and abrupt. The pacing alternates between slow and quick as you use stealth to avoid being caught. Light will be the main method of guiding the character.  When you make noises, it will cause reaction noises from guards that you need to deal with. Very Few lights will be on. The visual trademark of our game world is the historic Alcatraz prison with the view of the golden gate bridge and San Francisco in the background.

Gamplay

We are concentrating on creating an interactive Alcatraz experience. The main gameplay is navigating the maze of the island prison while keeping stealth. The player would find their way out of prison through a series of secret passageways.

Objective

The objective is to escape from prison and learn any last things about being framed and who was involved, then break out of prison and regain your freedom.

Concept sketches

Visual Refernces

Google SketchUp Level

Perspective View

FrontView

Side View

Top Down View

The environment for this level is a cottage in the woods by a stream. Something has contaminated the water and caused all the flora and fauna in the area to grow tremendously and act aggressively. Now the creatures of the forest pose a threat and must be taken down.

The player would explore the surroundings and defeat the giant creatures found within while avoiding the contaminated waters. The goal would be to find the source of the corruption and cure it, restoring peace and harmony.

lessons learned from Halo 2

1. You can turn 30 seconds of fun out into an entire game by repeating it over and over again.
2. 160 pages of (120 minutes) cinematic for 20 hours of game play is too much cinematic.
3. Game levels must be able to accommodate different abilities, such as how the player in Halo 2 navigates the sentinel headquarters by walking, where as the sentinel can fly.
4. Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is the biggest trade show in the game industry so it is important to have a demo to show there to get people excited about your game.
5. High quality graphics makes the frame rate go down, which decreases the quality of the animation and the timing with the music. Overemphasis on the graphics can lead to a polished game with lesser quality game play.
6. New features such as giving characters the ability to interact with vehicles can improve a game.
7. Every element added to the game, as well as highly detailed graphics, can slow down the frame rate.
8. It is important to generate enthusiasm for the game early in the game's development in order to sell as many games as possible during the holiday season when it is released.
9. If your game has vehicles, the players should be able to get into them and use them.
10. Deciding to focus on detailed real-time graphics can cause a project to miss deadlines.
11. Using live reference is the best type of research.
12. People like to play games together and socialize, and good games foster this.
13. It is important to keep the scope of the game small enough to be able to complete, it may be necessary to cut out parts of the game. 
14. Level diagrams can'te be changed once set.
15. The time line should schedule a lot of time near the end for play testing and bug fixing.
16. Give your voice actors detailed background stories.
17. Having a fixed deadline forces team members to finish and gives a goal to work towards.
18. All the different elements of the game depend on each other, but are created by the different departments and it can be chaotic to combine them into a functioning game.
19. Plot holes make a game far less enjoyable.