Magnet Gun Postmortem

Magnet Gun Laboratory

*Played through the level role-playing as a sneaky hacker

Role: Level Designer

Team Size: 1 (Solo Project)

Project Duration: 2 weeks [March 2020]

Link to GDD: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n9jB6Wt2FnAky2uVSAASaPTfPmuF6iks22l61yrGg2M/edit?usp=sharing

Link to Build (Read the README file before playing for controls and known bugs):

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11dUo1TChWuaLFuxlSJU66nr30sEUn3Eg/view?usp=sharing

*note: All assets used are free assets available on the Unreal Marketplace. A full list is available on my GDD, linked above.

Level Brief

I gave myself a hypothetical assignment to create a level in the style of Obsidian Entertainment's The Outer Worlds: A new “Magnet Gun” Science Weapon and enemy type have been drafted by the design team for Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds. The weapon and enemy functionality has been quickly prototyped to a usable state within the engine. While tech is ironing out the bugs of both new additions, an area has been designed to place both new additions seamlessly into the game world.

Design Goal

Create a polished level in Unreal Engine 4 that takes the player through a lab within the world of Obsidian Entertainment’s The Outer Worlds, while introducing them to a new science weapon and enemy type.

The tone of this story should fit the dark humor that The Outer Worlds is known for. I want the player to chuckle at the terminal entries, as well as the ridiculousness of the Magnet Gun. However, there needs to be that underlying feeling of dread expressed at how the nature of society in the game drove this level to the state that it is in.

For combat encounters, each should allow for multiple approaches from the players. RPGs are at their best when players can approach combat in any way they see fit. Therefore, the encounters need to be set up to accommodate various playstyles.

Authenticity and attention to detail are essential for success on this project, I view these aspects as a requirement for a good level in narrative-driven, first-person RPGs such as The Outer Worlds. It’s the little bits of set dressing that bring these areas to life, fleshing out the backstory of the levels the player is traveling through. In a first person RPG, every asset and environment piece can help tell a narrative.

Development

Scripting Base Functionality

My development began with setting up the player controls, enemy AI, and a rough implementation for the functionality of a Magnet Gun science weapon. They didn’t need to be polished (as they aren’t the focus of the project), however I needed them to be in a state where players could test the level.

The Magnet Gun’s functionality allows it to shoot two types of projectiles: positive and negative charged “globs” that give the enemy said charge. When two enemies are within a certain range of each other, they will react based off of the charges that they currently hold. Two of the same charge will repel away from each other, leaving the enemies helpless on the ground for players to take down with their base gun. Two opposite charged enemies will violently come together to cause an explosion, ending in a quick death for both parties.

First Iteration: Initial Map Layout/Narrative

After the base setup for the functionality of the prototype was set up, I moved on to start drawing out the layout of the map and writing out the initial beats of the experience.

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The player enters the space to immediately see a corpse in front of them, along with a giant robot lurking in the background.
The first room shown above is meant to introduce the player to the new enemy. They are able to either fight it head on, or sneak around it to proceed. The enemy is purposefully implemented to take a third of the player’s health with every hit, and being able to sponge a significant number of bullets. This was to enforce that these enemies are very tough on their own.
The next major point was to lead the player into the Storage Room, and have them read Ed’s Terminal Entry to receive their first written piece of backstory.
They would then notice the gun on the stand in front of them, and realize that it is most likely the Magnet Gun described in the terminal. They would then test the gun out, and proceed onwards.
Upon turning the corner, they would be immediately greeted by two of the enemies they faced earlier. Realizing how difficult only one enemy was, they would figure out that using their old gun would be difficult. Remembering the backstory of how strong the magnetism is for the Magnet Gun, they would try out its functionality, which might lead to fantastic results.
They would approach the Testing Lab with their newfound knowledge of how the gun works to take on the final six opponents.
They would read Miles’ terminal to get a full picture of the state of the lab before the massacre.

The goal of this iteration was mainly focused on greyboxing the space (with the exception of some set dressing to better explain the space), along with adding in the terminal entries for the backstory. My main goal was to see if the overall level was coherent to playtesters.

First Series of Playtests

Below is a video of the state of the level for the first round of playtests:

*note: In this iteration, the enemy AI would not move due to a bug

After my initial level layout was completed, I grabbed three playtesters to go through the experience. As stated earlier, I was primarily focused on gathering feedback on the overall layout of the level, along with how well the playtesters understood the history of the lab through the terminal entries. The major takeaways from the playtests are:

None of the players thought they were able to sneak around the first enemy.
One playtester completely ignored the Storage Room and didn’t find the Magnet Gun.
There was confusion as to why the engineer who made the Magnet Gun would be working in what looks like a supply closet.
One playtester who is extremely familiar with the game, he commented that the terminal dialogue was lacking in the famous “dark humor” The Outer Worlds is known for. He mentioned that the entries should play more into the Corporatist rhetoric that is prevalent throughout the society in the game.
Why are there only two people working in the lab? The terminal mentions that there is a team of people, and a lab of this size wouldn’t have only two workers.

As shown by the takeaways, there was quite a lot of content worth iterating on for my second iteration.

Second Iteration: Revise Script, Revamp Level Layout, Begin Set Dressing

To address the narrative issues from the playtest, I changed Edward Finch (the creator of the Magnet Gun) to have been assigned a janitor role from the aptitude test. This grounds the reasoning behind why he is prototyping in a supply closet, and plays up the jealousy he would have of his older brother who is chief engineer. I also played up Ed’s eccentric personality a bit more to sell his character better to players. In addition to changing Ed, I went on to paint Miles in a much more arrogant light. I wanted him to better encapsulate the egotistical and single-minded nature of characters whose only goal is to climb up the corporate ladder. For instance, Miles should care more about paperwork on human's deaths than the deaths themselves. This would make Ed’s character a bit more likeable as well. Link to all terminal entries.

While on the subject of Ed, I added a bright light and the corpse of Ed in view of the player when they turn the corner towards the Storage Room in hopes that it will be enough to attract them to walk into the room. Players missing the room with the new gun was a huge problem, which was a top priority to address.

Based on the feedback on the lack of other lab members, I decided to revamp the level layout as well:

The Engineering Office was added to give a location for other lab engineers within the space. The Testing Lab was moved primarily to give more room for the Engineering Office. Additionally, this change adds more suspense for the player when they walk down the hallway from the Storage Room to it. Making them turn a 90 degree angle at the end of the hallway to see the Testing Lab allows for more of a surprise for the player upon reaching it.

I also added a third terminal within the Engineering Office, documenting personal thoughts from one of the lab workers. Dave adds a comedic input into the terminals, talking about using stimulant pills to keep up with the ridiculous workload Miles was giving him for the prototype. His second entry is formatted to show his feeling of defeat by the world in his current state, using only a few words per sentence (seen below).

With the level layout feeling more cohesive, I focused on set dressing to make the space more authentic. For example, I decided on adding stimulant pills to Dave’s entries as I found pill bottles within the assets I am using to populate the space. I placed knocked over stimulant pills underneath his desk to visually show that he was ingesting pills at a staggering rate.

The first terminal entry specifically mentions that Dave hid his stimulant pills behind a metal container in the corner of the room, so I hid a bunch of pill cases there for the curious player. I also threw one case of pills underneath another engineer’s desk to let the player know who was stealing the pills amongst the team.

These set dressing pieces directly reinforce the design goal of “creating little stories to add authenticity to the world”. They make an otherwise boring office space into something more dynamic and lived in.

Apart from Dave’s set dressing, some other various pieces include:

1. Adding several dead bodies in the long hallway to play up the massacre (with one being crushed under large, metal crates). The crates also serve as cover for the player to use to avoid and sneak during the latter two combat encounters.

2. Adding cover by the left and right hallways for the first encounter. This was both used to give the player options to hide as well as incentivize sneaking around the enemy

3. Changed the stool at Miles desk to a padded chair to give a visual reference to the “comfy chair” both Dave and Miles speak about in their terminal entries.

Second Set of Playtests

After finishing the first pass of set dressing, I wanted to get another set of playtests through the level to test whether my changes have helped with issues revealed in the first iteration. Out of the four people who tested this version, two were returning testers and two were newcomers. There summary of the playtest was summed up as followed:

Half of the players took the sneak approach to get behind the robot.
No one missed the Storage Room (thankfully).
One player found the hidden pill stash by the metal boxes and verbally chuckled (unfortunately, no one noticed the one under the other desk).
3 of the 4 testers audibly laughed and made comments about Dave’s terminal entries.
2 of the 4 testers audibly laughed about a line from Miles’ entry pertaining to his successor getting his literal seat with the promotion.
2 of the 4 testers ended up “dying” in the final area (dying is in quotations because nothing actually happens when your health drops to zero).
Every playtester was able to summarize what transpired in the lab after reading through all of the entries, with 3 of them asking whether Ed purposefully made the auto-mechanicals turn violent towards everyone.
All playtesters commented how sad it was that their society drove Ed to try (and fail) to break out of his assigned position by any means necessary,

These playtests helped reinforce that my iteration had succeeded in solving the narrative issues the initial level had. As for the level layout, there were no comments about any confusing aspect of it. While not everyone may have “found” the pill stash or put together that the clutter was because of Ed’s refusal to clean up, I wasn’t expecting everyone to notice. Those set dressing pieces are there to reinforce worldbuilding for those who like to fully immerse themselves.

Third Iteration: Final Touches and Combat Encounter Revamp

Other than adding finishing set dressing touches here and there, I changed two aspects of the layout of the level. The first being a hallway that connects the entryway to the Engineering Office, shown below:

I found it a bit awkward that the only entrance to the main office of the lab required the team to walk around the long hallway when the office is so close in proximity to the entrance. In my opinion, that simple addition immediately made the level feel more realistic. Since I wanted the player to follow the beats of my level for this prototype, I had the entrance blocked by a locked door that required a lockpicking skill beyond the player’s current skill level.

I thought adding in opportunities for more playstyles within my level would give it a more complete feel. Therefore, I decided to implement a Hack shutdown functionality on the robots if the player gets close enough while sneaking. This shuts them down, freezing them in a stunned animation.

Moving onto combat encounters, this change stemmed from a conversation I had with a professor when reviewing the level. He mentioned that the final room feels a little too cramped to allow the player to be successful in using the weapon against so many enemies. This made me retroactively notice that less than half of the playtesters were able to complete the level without dying.

If this were actually in the game world, players could simply use a health regen item to heal themselves up if need be. However, I still agreed that the final area seemed to be a little too cramped to allow the player to fully navigate around the Testing Lab during the fight. Therefore, I doubled its width and increased the ceiling height. I also added several cover/platforming crates for the player to utilize. This gives the player a lot more breathing room to move around the space as they try to take down all six auto-mechanical bots.

The placement of the crates within the Testing Lab allows the player to use their agility to out maneuver the robots, or try to get the high ground for a better shot. In addition, the crates set to the right of the entrance gives players an opportunity to sneak to shut down one of the six robots, giving an advantage to those who begin with a stealth approach.

To accommodate more player choice into the second encounter, I rearranged the crate placement to allow the player more options to approach this combat encounter:

This small change gives the player many more options to approach this formerly restrictive combat encounter. Players can fight the two robots head on, sneak around them to disable their movement before striking, sneak around them entirely, etc. With this revamps to the latter two combat encounters, players now are given several ways to approach every encounter within the space.

As seen in a few images above, the final touch I added with a lighting overhaul. I added alarm lights both in the Testing Lab and at the end of the hallway. This plays up the anticipation for the player in reaching the climax of the story. Of course, I made sure to add a piece of storytelling with this change:

A Lab Member ran to hit the emergency alarm before his untimely demise

Some more of my favorite screenshots with the new lighting:

Wishlist for future add-ons

Add a large door to block the Testing Lab from the player. I would require the player to either have the ID card on the floor under Dave’s desk, or have a high Lockpicking skill to break in. This would make the final room’s anticipation much greater, and most likely lead to a more powerful climax.
Give the player a safe area to test the gun’s functionality. This could come in several forms, one being having to force open a shut door using magnetism. This would have led me to revamp the Magnet Gun in some way to accommodate its use with more than one enemy, which was out of scope for the time I had remaining.

3. I would have also loved to focus on possible puzzles or platforming using the Magnet Gun. A physics- based weapon such as this could lead to some very interesting level layouts that focus on its use. Of course, these implementations would have to be minimal if placed into The Outer Worlds itself as it is only one weapon of many that the player may not even end up using.