Dungeon Layout and some process notes

[djTomServo]

Started working on my dungeon layout and got a bit carried away coming up with some process ideas (I used to be a Technical Artist, old habits die hard I guess ). My goal was to figure out some ways to make layout a bit more accurate so I didn’t have to go in and noodle with placement too much, as well as making changes a bit cheaper earlier on in the process vs once geometry is all laid out. This is based on some workflows I’ve used on other productions, and granted, there’s a bit of a trade-off in overall flexibility, but I’m a bigger fan of speed, accuracy, and being less prone to error. Thought I’d post the notes here in case anyone is interested in some workflow ideas, I think once I hit production I’m going to write some scripts to automate bits of this and create an actual toolchain, I think it could be super useful…

Step 1: Base Asset LIbrary
Nothing special here, just making simple bits of level geometry:

Step 2: Create Room Templates/“Prefabs” from Base Assets
I decided on a few preset sizes to make layout more accurate and to fit the level narrative. For this dungeon, I created three types of rooms, “Pitstops”, Combat Rooms, and Boss Rooms:

Step 3: Derive Guide Shapes from Room Templates
Using the prefab geometry to create a set of easy to layout and manipulate shapes to make layout planning quicker and easier to change based on playtest results/feedback.

Step 4: Initial Layout with Guide Shapes
Duplicate and snap shapes to the grid based on level design guidelines. For this level, I decided on two boss rooms (one mini-boss and one main boss), 4 combat/puzzle rooms, and a random number of pitstops for powerups/saves/etc.

Step 5: Place Room Templates based on Guides
Once the guides are in place, layout is just a matter of duplicating the templates and snapping them to the guides (make sure to align origins!). Right now this is a bit time consuming, but for production I’m going to learn some blender scripting and write some automation tools for this step.

Ready for object placement, materials, and lighting!

Anway, like I said, just some thoughts. Not right or wrong, just how I like working. If this helps anyone out or gives you some ideas for workflow, cheers!

[NP5]

Interesting, I don’t get it at all! lol.

What is the problem with the simple way the course does modularity?
Though I am not that game interested.

However the other day I did see in one I play at the moment a room based section where I got the impression the floor was tiled differently or offset from the walls which broke up the regularity repeat quite well.

[linusaur]

This is sick! Reminds me of when I used to do Neverwinter Nights module making. The Aurora toolset had procedural tilesets that would look different depending if the builder laid out an L-shaped corner, an open room, or a 4-way intersection.

My goal after the Blender course is to build a bunch of pre-fabs to design cityscapes with in Unreal Engine. This workflow of yours has been very helpful and great food for thought on how I can get started with this.

[djTomServo]

What is the problem with the simple way the course does modularity?

Nothing at all, the course concepts are great! In fact, I’m still using all the principles presented, just scaling them to make layout of larger areas more efficient. It’s all still based on the idea of modularity. I’m getting to the point where I feel comfortable enough with Blender that i’m starting to think about how this all works in production.

[djTomServo]

Thanks! Yeah it’s similar to alot of level workflows I’ve worked with/supported in the past, I just thought since I had all the stuff in Blender already, rather than pop out to a different program to sketch out the high-level layout I could just do it all in Blender and keep to the same workflow. I’m much more comfortable in 3d tools than 2d tools (for now, at least )