Tim Davies - Level Design
ABOUT
Far Cry 5 is an action adventure FPS set in a fictional area of Montana, Hope County. The protagonist is a sheriff's deputy who has been tasked with the arrest of Joseph Seed, who believes that he has been chosen to protect the people from the end of the world. In attempting to capture Seed the player is forced to go on the run and several of the law men are captured. The player must then work with the remaining locals in order to build resistance and take back Hope County from the Seed family and the followers of Project Eden's Gate.
JACOB'S TRIALS
As the player gains resistance in the Whitetail region they will begin to get the attention of Jacob Seed, the lieutenant in this area. His role in the Seed family is to build an army through indoctrinating the strongest inhabitants of Hope County.
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At various levels of resistance Jacob will capture the player in order to put them through this process. This occurs 4 times with each trial becoming slightly more difficult from the last.
The video shown is the 3rd trial.
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LEVEL BREAKDOWN
The prime focus of this mission is to create gameplay which mimics the indoctrination process through repetitive actions. The player stops questioning the purpose of the trials and is more focused on the quick twitch style gameplay, This is reinforced by the memorable positions of the enemies and the added time limit . The player is rewarded with extra time by performing kills, headshots and takedowns. Loading screens were also removed wherever possible through script in order to give this fast gameplay.
Ultimately, the player should be trained into killing a friendly NPC before they realise who he is.
Room 01
Similar to a wild-west duel, the gameplay inspiration for the first room is a quick draw.
The first room matches the hotel room in which the player was indoctrinated. It should feel like an out of body experience, waking up.
The player can clearly see and pick up a revolver in the middle of the room to kill the enemies. Extra space was given to allow a clear and obvious path to the weapon and free movement when killing the enemies.
Room 02
Sticking with the wild-west theme, a saloon brawl was taken as influence for the second room. This allowed for elements that provide verticality.
The style of this room is taken from the remote log cabins commonly found through-out the northern regions game world.
The player is given an SMG to encourage close-quarters combat. I’ve set up multiple battle fronts to create a sense of progression within the room. There are various routes the player can take. The most direct path is also the most exposed. There are also opportunities for takedowns both from above and below.
Room 03
This maze room was inspired by The Shining. The player was originally given a melee weapon, but playtests showed they always kept the SMG from the previous room. There were also early plans for a glass ceiling so players could view the layout from room 1, but this did not fit the art style and players often did not understand what they were looking at from above.
The in game inspiration for the maze was based on the inside of the Veterans Centre. Unfortunately the full production of the interior of this location would not fit into the timescale of the project.
At the start of the room the player is given a shotgun and the choice to go left or right. Multiple enemies will jump out at the player as they approach their position as I'm looking to provide "twitch" gameplay.
Room 04
The goal for this room was to increase the engagement range from the previous rooms so using a paintball field as an example, island cover was used. with dangerous but quickly accessible cover in the middle and safer, slower routes along the flanks.
The outside of the Veterans Centre was used as the theme. This was still visible in game.
This room gives readable choices to the player and maintains the verticality as enemies remain on the balcony to shoot down. There is also a good variation in combat ranges, as the player progresses through the room and the enemies fallback. Originally the enemies would zipline into cover however, this was slightly unreliable and did not fit into the room once its scale was reduced.
Room 05
The purpose of this room was to add as much verticality as possible and give multiple routes to the exit.
although the initial gameplay was intended to use the firing while on a zipline mechanic. The the speed in which the player travels on a zipline was too fast for it to be enjoyable.
The vertical theme and multiple staircases were taken from the Grandview Hotel. The hotel also has an iconic fireplace so that element was included too.
This room contains a lot of lateral battle fronts and the enemies have the high ground. As the player ascends they must clear the enemies to their side before progressing upwards. Once a line is broken the enemies have little cover to their sides.
Room 06
This section was design to be as trippy as possible, similar to falling down the rabbit hole.
This transition space is a recreation of the steps which go down into the Wolf's Den, although it is slide to maximise the pacing.
Great care was taken with the lighting and FX in order to make jumping through the window as inviting as possible to the player. Yellow light has been used through-out to encourage the player through the rooms.
Room 07
Due to the narrative of the missions once in the Wolf Den, there was less freedom in terms of tailoring rooms to weapons and play styles. The rooms must now match the real world versions as closely as possible while still being slightly distorted.
The shelves of the store room were used as inspiration for the cover in this room.
This room is considered a transitional space and therefore additional narrative elements were added. It was kept as simple possible as the player may be a little disoriented from falling down the hole. The LMG was placed to be directly at the player's feet when landing down the hole.
Room 08
This room is based on the Rec room in the Wolf's Den which is the living quarter for the location.
The room need to be slightly expanded to provide more cover for the AI. The player was given an LMG to promote a more frenzied approach without having to reload. Early versions also had destructible cover to promote this, but if left nothing for the AI to use in a relatively small space. This is the point in the final trail where the player is actually killing real people. Before enemies would disappear in smoke but now they ragdoll as a subtle hint
Room 09
The corridor is based on the main corridor in the Wolf's Den.
Multiple covers were stepped down the corridor to allow both the enemies and player cover as they progress through the space.
Side rooms were added and linked to form a helix to allow an alternative, safer but longer path for the player and allow enemies to jump out.
Room 10
This area is based on Wheaty's workstation. As the player progresses through the 4 trials this area gradually becomes more populated to resemble the real version.
This space is deliberately kept very simple to allow breathing room for the player before the final kill. The enemies spawned here are allowed to enter the corridor should they desire. The simplicity also gives an opportunity to have additional narrative elements as it is viewed from straight on from the corridor.
Room 11
The final room is based on Eli's control room. The table was removed to allow freedom of movement.
The lighting plays a key role in this room. The final enemy is back lit their face is slightly obscured and their shadow can be see before coming round the corner. This room is also kept as simple as possible, the prime focus should be on killing the final enemy. In the last trial hopefully the muscle memory of the player will still make them kill the final NPC, despite it being Eli. Had budget allowed I would have had an option to interact with him for players that were immune to my brainwashing.
Tools of the Trade
Tools of the Trade was one of the first missions to reach a high production level of quality. It was taken as the gold standard by the lead studio, Montreal, for how to introduce a character.
The main purpose of the mission is to expose the player to the new fishing mechanic and so a variety of difficulty of fish were used.
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The mission itself is relatively simple as the player must scare Skylar's boyfriend into giving back her rods by shooting his belongings. After acquiring the rod the player is taken to a lake to learn how to fish.
It was a lot of fun creating the shooting gallery and triggering Dylan's reactions . The main design challenge came from integrating a large amount of dialogue, some of which was interruptible by the player's actions. By also counting shooting the RV as scarring Dylan it is ensured that the player can complete the objective his stuff is already damaged before accepting the mission. Additional ammo was also added to the area in order to help complete the task.
The Grandview Hotel
During the earlier stages of the project I was responsible for the mission at the Grandview Hotel. I took it close to L2 before the very capable hands of Anthony Panecasio took ownership.
During my time on the mission I designed the objective structure and used Lake McDonald lodge as a reference for landscaping the terrain and creating the hotel layout in grey block form.
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Art by Oleg Lovtsov really captured the essence of the location while adding the Eden's Gate layer, who were using the hotel to process residents, indoctrinating them into the cult.
