Ascended Island Design Overview

  When it came down to conceptualizing Ascended Island's design, there was a term that helped build its foundation: discover-ability. I've always appreciated the contrast between an open-ended level and a linear one; with Quantum Solutions I wanted to create a space in which the player is given free agency in where they go and how they accomplish their objective. Ascended Island is very much the latter and with it I wanted to employ methods of indirect control and intuitive level design to help guide the player from point A to B, help them "discover" the story in the world and set up conflict that occurs the tail end of the level. The design of the level was inspired by Uncharted and Tomb Raider.

  To discover the story in the world, it was important to give the level some character and the Overgrown Village asset pack provided exactly that with its modular building pieces that resembled dilapidated structural ruins.  The destroyed village is very much the center piece of the entire level and that raised a few design challenges: How do you make the village more impactful upon first sight? The answer was to create a focused experienced in which the player is hinted at its existence prior to seeing it. 

  The first two zones, the grasslands and the caves can be seen as a trek through nature. The path is linear, which came with the challenge in creating barriers that felt natural and avoided the dreaded invisible wall. Outside the caves, the player is guided alongside the river until they discover the first signs of past human activity: a partially destroyed bridge surrounded by crates and barrels. The only exit out of the zone is on one end of the destroyed bridge, which forces the player to jump across in order to progress. The purpose of the broken bridge is to imply that it had been destroyed in order to prevent others from journeying across it since its the only way to get into the village. 

  To give the first sight of the village a lot of impact, I designed the space to make the initial house (shown below) into a weenie that the player sees from a distance and can make their way to. From this location, the doorway into the nearest visible building feels mysteriously inviting. 

  The village is an exploratory place meant to ease players into change in scenery. The ruins and lack of life gives them freedom to explore without incident, that is until they get to the next village node. The golden path out of the village is very apparent but keen players will spot another leading from an elevated house to a crevice in the mountains. While its meant to be a secret path, there are a few environmental clues that will lead players' eye to its existence. Firstly the house's location is distinct, placed on a higher plane than the others. Secondly, at the foot of the house are rock platforms and fallen wood debris, implying there was once an easy means of reaching the building. Despite the aforementioned broken wood, the player can jump onto the rock platforms to get to the house and through the ledge pathway. The golden path and the hidden path both lead to the same node but the latter gives players a height advantage for the opposition they will face. 

  Up until the final node of the level, players have navigated through an environment post-destruction, from a destroyed bridge to a village left in rubble. This is all a set up for the final village node, where the player will encounter other living beings for the first time. This space was designed in such a way that confrontation was not immediate and that the player could observe their activities from a safe distance. In Uncharted and Tomb Raider there are sections in which players have to go from A to B but what stands between them and their exit are patrolling enemy forces. The same applies to Ascended Island, in which the golden exit is on the opposite side of this village node and enemy forces stand in between them and that objective. The design of the last node compliments both a stealth and attack run. As mentioned in the previous paragraph both paths bring the player to the same node but the hidden one gives players a height advantage to the enemy forces on the ground. Whether they choose to engage them from either location, they're still given the option to weave their way around the enemy patrols as every surrounding building have more than one entrance/exit. In order for the player to have a no-detection stealth run, the level needs to be flexible enough in its pathing to allow them to slip by un-opposed if played methodically.