LEVEL DESIGN
This was the first game that I worked on, where I was the level designer responsible of two of the game's main missions. This page is mostly dedicated to one of them, Breakout, with only photos in the gallery with the second one for now.
Breakout is the second main mission on the planet of Kijimi where the player has to find and help Ank escape the Ashiga Weapon Factory.
Tools: Snowdrop
Date: August 2024
Team:
Quest Designer : Raluca Picioroaga
Artist: Jens Peppler
The Breakout mission in Star Wars Outlaws is an adventure that begins with Kay Vess infiltrating a heavily guarded Weapons Factory. Her mission: to rescue the skilled safecracker Ank while evading detection from patrolling guards and droids. After successfully reaching Ank, Kay is tasked with acquiring her Lucky Charm, a precious heirloom crafted by her late husband. However, before they can escape, Ank decides to take a more direct approach, blowing up the door to her workshop and forcing Kay to follow and protect her through the factory.
The courtyard is comprised of two main paths, left and right. These two paths are intersected by a few smaller pathways, creating a bigger interconnected area.
I wanted the two paths to be different from each other, this is why the left one is mostly focused on traversal and evading just two enemies, while the right one has more enemies that requrires a bit more careful planning.
The fan room is the place where you first see Ank while she has a discussion with one of the guards.
In this room I really wanted a small puzzle that required the player to move to a specifc spot and then send Nix over to help you turn off the fans that allow you to continue towards Ank.
World logic wise, this is where the Ashiga Clan was depositing the finished explosives, so this is the end of the production chain.
This room has a patrol on the middle, which is a Droid that can't be distracted with Nix, so the player needs to be careful and time his moves or he gets spotted.
This is the main "part" of the Weapon Factory, the entire production floor where the Ashiga are creating weapons. Since the alarm is already triggered by the Ank explosion, all the workers are already out, and guards are patrolling around.
Since no one knows about Kay she can sneak around, this is why the first platform can be "resolved" both stealth and full combat.
For this I really wanted Kay to get ambushed by the enemies, by having no NPCs and then just as she entered this space, they would come out of cover and shoot you. This is also the place where Ank gets "stuck" and needs your help to disable a forcefield.
Sadly it felt a bit too weird not seeing any enemies, and the final version still keeps a part of that idea. There are three NPCs patrolling around and if you get seen, some more reinforcements come in, but this space can be played stealthly too now.
Here Kay gets "stuck" while on the elevator and needs Ank to turn on the power to that elevator again.
While that happens, two waves of NPCs just appear on the main platform, so this is a long range encounter, but if the player times everything right, the two waves can be killed by shooting some exploding barrels.
This last part is a dynamic fight, with Kay fighting the enemies on the other side of the rail tracks without actually reaching the other side.
Also world logic wise, Ank actually travels the opposite way of how the normal production takes place, since this final part is where the Ashiga are storing the raw materials.
