Radiant
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It would be nice to have a central place to discuss level design for Eye of the Tempest. Simply put, this is a first-person RPG under development by Crystal Shard, and I've hit a rather bad writers block in terms of level design. The game is in the same style and genre as the classics Lands of Lore and Eye of the Beholder, and looks more or less like this,



I'm aiming to have approx 20 levels in the game, which consist mostly of monsters, puzzles, and traps. The three main areas of the game are a rather large forest (and its S'Sirthe protectors), a mine inhabited by none-too-friendly dwarves, and a Regency city with underlying catacombs. Yes, this plays in the same game world as Leylines does.

Questions and discussion welcome. Several of the forum regulars should have an editor already from earlier this year. I'd prefer not to have the test version publically available, but if you're interested in helping just ask in this thread.

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= Radiant =

Danjen02
Level: Roachling

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Just 20? That seems kind of small.

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Tim
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Perhaps you could say which problem you exactly have with your level design?

Is it the storyline, the graphics, the wall block placements, the monsters, the balancing, the items, the varieties between levels, or is your level editor that bothers you?


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The Stew Boy
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So, are the textures, the room heights and brightnesses all fixed? Is mapping for this just putting blocks on a grid?
(I've never actually played Lands of Lore or Eye of the Beholder, although I've looked up screenshots on Google.)
How does the actual gameplay work?

Danjen02
Level: Roachling

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@Tim: I believe that he's referring to just level design in general.


@Stew: Mapping is just like SubTerra - choose a wall type, and just plug it in. It supports scripted events as well.

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B.J.Earles
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20 levels does sound a little short.

I have one level that is sort of finished. It would make a good part of the catacombs. It might need a little tweaking though.

Radiant
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Tim wrote:
Is it the storyline, the graphics, the wall block placements, the monsters, the balancing, the items, the varieties between levels, or is your level editor that bothers you?

It is, primarily, the level design. Wall block placement is the easy part; the hard part is putting up triggers. Basic triggers would be a door that opens when you push a button, or a trap that shoots fireballs at a regular interval. Through combining such things with the script system, you can make very elaborate things. This is also a variety issue, of course.

Monsters tie into this. I would like to make tactics important; for instance, there can be monsters that keep their distance and shoot you, or that sneak up to you, steal an item, and run away. Monsters may resist certain attacks, and so forth. What I'm trying to avoid is the Might-and-Magic syndrome where everything is simply defeated by running up to it and bashing it until it dies.

The Stew Boy wrote:
So, are the textures, the room heights and brightnesses all fixed?

Yes. It's retro design.

B.J.Earles wrote:
20 levels does sound a little short.

I suppose. But it's a start. I would prefer to have a released game and open up room for expansion packs later, than to simply not have anything to show to the 'Web at large.


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Danjen02
Level: Roachling

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Ah, expansions would be a good way to go, yes. I forget, were there lava squares? Because you could totally make a lava moat with ranged guys around it.

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Radiant
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Pretty much. There's water squares which you can't pass (unless you have some kind of levitation), as well as fire squares that damage you when passing through (unless you have resistance).

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