Welcome to the third chapter in the Darksburg Dev Diaries! Where today we will be talking to Lucas and Lary, who make up our amazing level design team, about all the work that goes into creating the world of Darksburg.

"Gameplay wise, it was really important to have a style that reads well from a top-down camera with large chunky shapes and smooth edges. Our style mixes handpainted details and material work to get nice reflections on surfaces. Our main game inspiration are Heroes of the storm, Battle Chasers and League of Legends and Diablo 3."

"At first, we talk about what we want to do with the level. What are the key elements going to be ? What setting do we want to explore ? When we’ve settled on something, we start drawing rough paper sketches, to define the global progression of the level, and how the different parts articulate around each other. Then we do more refined paper sketches, and we actually start building the level architecture, the obstacles and the paths.

When the sketches are ready, we move to the engine, using grey blocks to build the layout. At this point, we begin to check collisions, making sure players and enemies can move to any point of the level, and we also verify that the important things in the level don’t get hidden by the layout and the blocks.

Afterwards, we start including gameplay on the level: Zombies, Revenants, events. This is the first time the level is actually tested a lot, to make sure that things work as intended, and we do several retakes if need be, because we want to validate the level before actually doing the environment, to not waste time and resources."

"We always make sure to create a different atmosphere for each level. We’re playing with many elements like the fog, lighting, weather, colors.. All of these play a huge role in the final mood of a level. A bright daylight conveys a different feeling than a foggy rainy nighttime.

It’s really important to accentuate what the level design is trying to accomplish. If an area is made to be claustrophobic for the players, we’ll avoid open vistas. If there’s a place/area to defend, we’ll make sure to highlight it and tone down the rest."

"Every level has to feel unique. We always try to come up with new challenges, things the players haven’t seen before in the game. We also look for “Wow Moments”, memorable events or locations that are either fun or challenging (the haybale and the shark are such moments). However, the biggest issue design-wise is to manage the level pacing, so that players neither get bored nor overwhelmed. Just making sure the overall flow is nice and enjoyable.

There is also a tension between the level being plausible, credible (so that players can understand and relate to what is happening), and the level being interesting, challenging (so that they have fun playing through). While designing the level, we make concessions regarding either, to make sure the overall result is the best of both worlds!"