Family Heirloom -
Dying Light Developer Tools
Trailer
Details
“Family Heirloom” is a single-player level developed in Dying Light Developer Tools where you help a survivor find the reminents of her family’s legacy.
I emphasized parkour, multiple routes, and the fun of cutting down zombies with a very sharp blade.
Team Size: 1 Developer
Software: Dying Light Developer Tools
Development Time: 120 hours / ~3.5 months
Level Focus: Level Design
Design Goals
Power Fantasy
Multiple Routes
Easy Parkour Traversal
Multiple Routes & Exploration
Parkour and traversal is a focal point of the game, so I wanted the player to choose how they wanted to engage with the combat and challenges in the level. There is a chokepoint in the middle of the level, forcing all players to bottleneck and reach the same point before branching out again.
There are three main points all players have to reach, the beginning, chokepoint, and where the player recieves the main weapon. Other than that, each player can choose which route to take to reach these objectives.
Easy Parkour Traversal
I made parkour forgiving, finding ways to return up to higher ground, but also placed ranged enemies on roofs to pressure the player onto the low ground to engage in combat.
I wanted the player to engage more in combat, so I making parkour painless was the logical step. I made parkour seemless so the challenge came from the designed combat experience, not the secondary challenge.
Power Fantasy
Because I found the blades to be the most fun in Dying Light, I wanted to make emphasize that satisfaction of cutting down a biter with a katana.
I made the first half of the level an easy/medium difficulty with basic starting weapons and at the halfway point of the level, the player recieves a khopesh — a long, blade that cuts down biters with a single slice.
On the way back, the player then faces more enemies and more difficult enemies. I did this because I want the player to test out their new weapon as well as feel more powerful because they are defeating more difficult enemies with ease.
Post-Mortem
What went well?
I knew the design goals from the get-go and did not stray or feature creep as development went on
Most of the level was developed in an exterior space, which the editor does very well so building out the parkour areas and environment was quick
Scaling the difficulty once the player recieves the khopesh was the right decision and focusing on the power fantasy
Players could not engage with most of the combat encounters, not connecting with the goals I want to hit. Going back to the level, I would put more forced combat areas and/or reward the players that engage in combat more
The level is quite simple and people have expressed that they wished it was longer. I would make the ramp up to a harder difficulty more gentle instead of how steep it turned out to be
What needs improvement?
What did I learn?
How to create “beauty corners” and framing a scene I want the player to see
Creating areas with multiple routes and giving the player more gameplay choices
How to build for a movement-based game and create a level with parkour and combat together
