NICK PARDE
PRINCIPAL / LEAD / SENIOR LEVEL DESIGNER
VIDEO PORTFOLIO
GREEN LANTERN: Rise of the Manhunters
PS3, X360 – 2011
- OVERVIEW -
~12 month production - 2 month vertical slice (one ground level), 10 month production ( for everything else)I designed, blocked out (in Maya), and scripted the third OA and third Zamaron missions, along with being Lead Level Designer on the project. Additional duties include:wrote documentation for systems (such as the rail camera and flight camera systems)working with camera programmer to make it as smooth and functional as possible, and fully support Co-op (which was extremely difficult, but something I had tackled with a different camera system in G.I. Joe).
I implementing and/or maintained nearly every camera for every level in the game (outside of the two levels I did, this was a main focus of mine for the last months of the project). I blocked out and prototyped the first flight mission (Zamaron flight level; I got all of the functionality perfected before handing the rest of the flight level implementation to another designer). I worked directly with other leads to keep focus on project and resolve global systems (weapon and upgrade types, player interaction mechanics, and many other issues), while giving LD’s direction and providing feedbackdoing a major amount of post alpha level bug fixes and scenario tweaks across the game.
Mission / Game Structure Information:
There are 10 missions in the game – 7 ground mission and 3 flight missions. Each planet (Oa, Zamoran, and Biot) had three levels (two ground, one flight) then we had a finale level returning to a new section of Oa. For each planet, the level progression was Ground level, Flight level, Ground Level. The design direction was God of War with Green Lantern. There was a focus on cinematic, fun and epic.
Third Oa mission / Prototype level
Story: These videos show off the third Oa mission, where Hal goes underground to prevent the Manhunters from getting access to the Green Energy (the source of the Green Lanterns power). While down protecting the battery, Hal learns that there is another secret battery hidden below the Green Battery, that has been hidden by the Guardians (the creators of the Green Lantern Corps). This hidden battery is the source of Yellow Energy (fear) and a core plot element for the rest of the game.This level was our prototype level for the game, and intentioannly a level found in the middle of the game. I did all of the design documentation, block out, gameplay scripting (ie enemy spawning and objectives), object placement, navigation, camera, streaming and collision.
The vibe of the level was meant to be very different from the previous Oa level (which was about a large scale war going on around you) and to make it more of an intimate experience. Since it was underground, and we had the Green Beam we could use to focus on, I decided to lay out the entire thing wrapping the path around this central object, eventually making it down to the large Green Battery where the Manhunters are attacking (I wanted the player to feel pressure and that if the Manhunters destroyed the battery, it was serious).
I added a Central Battery timer to accomplish this, but gave the player plenty of time to complete the objective (there is even buffer time at the end). I think this was successful to make it feel tense (the second video shows this well). It was important to me to focus the path and camera around the battery, so you saw the top, middle, bottom and under of the battery, so it felt powerful and important.
Hal is informed about the presence of something special. The Guardians tell him that he must find a way to enter its chamber (a simple turn puzzle where the player must line up the symbol – the symbol for the Yellow Energy). Hal opens the door, and enters a tunnel that leads him to the Yellow Battery and a boss fight verses two very large Ultra Manhunters (the player fights just one at the end of the first Oa level, this time ramping up the difficulty quite a bit; I tuned their health, damage and behaviors to make it a tough, but fair fight). The camera was tuned to always keep Yellow Battery, Hall and the two Ultras in frame, which was quite difficult, but I think it turned out well and helped the fight feel epic.
Third Zamaron mission
These video shows off the third Zamaron mission, where Hal is continuing his pursuit of the Queen of Zamaron, who was infected by Yellow fear energy at the end of the first Zamaron mission. I did all of the design documentation, block out, gameplay scripting (ie enemy spawning and objectives), object placement, navigation, camera, streaming and collision. My focus for the layout visually was to have interesting vistas and sight lines, while having a clear path.
The first part of the level was meant to re-introduce the Zamaron enemies to the player, setup more story of Hal searching for the Queen, and to allow the player to take care of the enemies in any way they wanted (including throwing them off the side of the cliffs; a tactic which offered very little experience). It then switches to multiple arena fights, while introducing new enemies and mixing in older tougher ones.
These setups forced the player to be aware of their surroundings and take on multiple enemies of different types at once. The player enters the temple and is faced with solving a simple combat puzzle, and then confronting new ‘stone warriors’ that had very high defenses, high damage, but were slow.
A continuation of the temple, entering a long organic hallway that ramps up the presence of the Manhunters. The main large room has one of the few puzzles that they player must solve in the game. The objective is to open the door at the rear of the room. To do that, you must find the energy balls hidden around the area. Also, there are ‘energy ball holders’ placed around the room that have symbols placed below them. Place those energy balls into the holders that match the ‘symbols’ on the doors. There are three doors, basically 2 symbols, 3 symbols, then 4 symbols to open the final door. The aim of this area was to show off physics and to have a puzzle moment. With very little to work with based on our schedule and resources, making puzzles and such was much more difficult than it should have been.
The level ends with an ‘epic’ boss fight against the Queen and her giant statue.