ZOLARIS
SOFTWARE:
Unreal Engine 4 | Blueprints | Maya
INSPIRATION:
1st person stealth | RPG | Fallout | Bioshock | Dishonored
JOB TITLE:
Creative Director/ Lead Level designer
TEAM SIZE: 13
DURATION: 8 Months
Zolaris is a first-person stealth game about Valeria, a spirit medium bounty hunter, trying to escape a cathedral crawling with murderous cultists. The player must use their abilities to defeat the cultists in order to escape their capture. In Zolaris there are 7 different maps around the Cathedral, 3 of which the player must overcome. These locations include - The Library, The Worship Hall, The Garden, The Crypt, The Main Hall, The Chapter House, and The Mess Hall.
LEVELS
When I sat down to design some of the map layouts, I wanted to design different areas to allow the player to choose how they wanted to play the game between stealth and combat. For this reason, the Owl and Bear paths were created for each encounter zone. The Owl paths prioritized Stealth, as where the Bear paths prioritized combat.
GAMEPLAY
THE WORSHIP HALL
The Worship hall is one of the recurring area's within the game where the player must return to upgrade their abilities and gain new power-ups. When designing this location I wanted to make the area dangerous for the player to encounter so that they would have to be cautious on how they progress. The players could go fully offensive but there are also tools around the map such as the water ways pillars flammable pyres and benches the player can utilize for stealth.
CRITICAL PATH AND MAPS
When designing this location I wanted to make the area dangerous for the player to encounter so that they would have to be cautious on how they progress. The players could go fully offensive but there are also tools around the map such as the water ways pillars flammable pyres and benches the player can utilize for stealth.
WORSHIP HALL CONSTRUCTION
As I sat down to construct the Worship hall in Maya, I relentlessly changed the style to fit a space that felt open but also navigable. Once I imported the white box into unreal, I begin testing the feel of the path ways. If enemies could spot me easily if the stealth felt fun and believable. Finally during set dressing I added in new assets, church benches, to give the player more cover to hide from enemies.
