Team: Frankfurt Level Design Team

Notable Information: ➣ Level design brings the environment and gameplay design together to make meaningful spaces for the player to experience the game
➣ The focus of this team is to create a cohesive environment through all facets of the game
➣ Things like elevators and transit items also fall under the responsibility of this team
➣ Principals of Level Design:
ㅤ✦ Readability: Clarity in the environment, making sure players understand where they are going and what they have to do
ㅤ✦ Flow & Leading Lines: Making sure the different factors flow together well and have a path that makes sense but isn’t underwhelming
ㅤ✦ Options: Giving players choices in how they tackle different situations and get to their end goal Clustering: The act of bringing objects together to make environments more realistic and make things seem like they belong
ㅤ✦ Scale: Making sure the size of environmental items and transitioning from different-sized items make sense. Considers items like foreground, midground, and background
➣ This team has a similar development flow to ships, going through items like whitebox and adding additional environmental levels while working with teams like art design
➣ This team’s work isn’t done once a “level” is released, they have to go back and do maintenance and updates similar to gold pass work on ships
➣ Level design has a high degree of collaboration with other teams for items like audio, lighting, etc.
➣ The goal is to have a smoother flow in stations and learn from things learned on Stanton stations
ㅤ✦ Trying to eliminate things like elevators and convoluted transit paths
➣ Outposts are meant to have a clear identity and use case for combat, socializing, etc.
ㅤ✦ Outposts are intended to encourage ground vehicle usage, particularly for trading outposts where you will need to load vehicles with cargo
ㅤ✦ Pyro outposts, regardless of their identity or purpose, can turn into combat locations at any time given the nature of the system. This requires the outposts to be focused but flexible
➣ Level design ends up being “greater than the sum of all its parts” due to the player experience that is created when all the different deliverables come together
ㅤ✦ This does introduce a reliance on other teams for that cohesive player experience
➣ This team is focused on shifting from a larger focus on aesthetics to being balanced between playability and aesthetics, this will help locations feel more like they truly belong and are a living part of the verse