Gameplay Planning and Revised Overhead Map

North Brother Island


The level I am working on for class is the Tuberculosis Pavilion. It is near the beginning of the story - possibly the first level featuring the main character, Kyle. He has arrived on North Brother Island and is searching for clues to the possible cure for the NYC outbreak. He begins his search on the first floor of the Tuberculosis Pavilion.

In this early level, he begins with basic skills and objectives. They are as follows:

1. Super Easy Stuff
Running
Jumping
Picking up items
Using a flashlight

2. Normal Easy Stuff
Using the flashlight to scare a ghost away
Locate the key to open a locked patient isolation cell
Consult the directory to find the location of the doctor's office (this is information to lead to the next level of the game)

3. Slightly more challenging stuff
Find antidote vials to increase health and/or keep from declining health due to outbreak infection

4. Vaguely complicated stuff
Find all of Typhoid Mary's diary entries in order to appease her ghost and turn her into a helping character instead of a nuisance

As the game progresses beyond the scope of this level, Kyle will have helper characters, more complicated puzzles based on gathering more information and research to cure the disease - he will also have more antagonistic enemies and platforming challenges, but for now I'm keeping things simple.

The level is open, so the pickups can be gotten in any order, but the ghost cannot be approached until all of her diary pages are gathered.

The rooms here are labelled in blue, pickups and objectives are in red

Exterior of the Tuberculosis Pavilion - this level is only the first floor
Walls and windows are in place - props and textures to come

This level is indoors, but here is a first attempt at sculpting landscape

ET15 Assignment 03: Gameplay - Levels, Objective and Map

Title: North Brother Island

Game High Concept: An epidemic has begun spreading in New York City. Epidemiologist Kyle Ransom’s mentor was working on a cure when he went missing. The mentor’s clues have led Kyle to North Brother Island and the ruins of the former quarantine zone, asylum, and rehab facility that once held Typhoid Mary (Mary Mallon) and others against their will. He must work to solve the island’s mysteries and find the possible cure for this new disease.

Setting: North Brother Island, East River, New York City, NY, near future

Level objective: Kyle must find where the research doctor’s work was left behind. He’ll need a key to reach the research area of the old doctor’s quarters. His secondary objective is to find relics of Typhoid Mary’s to appease her ghost and gain her assistance.

Items: Vaccine sample vials, Medical journal notes, objects formerly belonging to Mary Mallon (diary pages) a hospital directory to find the doctor’s research clinic.

Obstacles: Kyle gets infected at the beginning of the level when he enters the tuberculosis pavilion - he must find the vials of antidote to survive - the disease is on a timer. The ghost of Mary Mallon haunts the hallways. If she catches him, his health declines, unless he has picked up her artifacts. Once she has all of her artifacts, she will give him the key to the research lab. Decayed floors can collapse if stepped on, so they need to be avoided.

Actions: Walk, run, hide, pick up items, shoot light to keep ghosts away

End goal: Find out where the research room is located and get the key from Mary. 

Level Map of the Tuberculosis Pavilion

End Room

Workroom

Typhoid Mary in the infirmary

Spiral Staircase

X-Ray Room 

Theater

Exterior of the Tuberculosis Pavilion

Current Satellite Photo Over Original Planning Map

Assignment 02: Game Level Inspiration and Level Blockout

Source Image for Level Blockout

Facing toward the camera in the source image - looking through the walls of the room out onto the bridge

POV of the original source image

There's a very tall spiral staircase now inside of the building adjacent to the camera

More stairs inside the central building leading up to the walkway above

I am going to set my level in North Brother Island, in the East River of New York City. After serving as a quarantine hospital in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, and later a drug rehabilitation facility, it was finally abandoned. It is currently in a state of decay and overgrown ruin, and the eerie history gives the island a creepy atmosphere. Since Typhoid Mary was one of the island's more notorious residents, I want to work her into the background of my story.

ET 15 Assignment 01: Game Level Critique

My favorite game level is Chapter 15: Sink or Swim in Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception. It is completely bonkers, and even when I’ve played it through and know what’s coming, it is still just so exciting.

U3: Drake’s Deception is an action-adventure platforming game, but what sets it and the Uncharted series apart for me are the focus on solid storytelling and character development. The game plays like an Indiana Jones movie.

Chapter 15: Sink or Swim takes place on a massive cruise liner commandeered by Rameses. Our hero, Nathan Drake, has followed the pirate Rameses to this ship in the middle of the ocean in order to rescue his kidnapped friend and partner, Victor Sullivan. He finds that he’s walked into a trap and the level begins in a cargo hold, where Nate is surrounded by various gunmen. Water is pouring in through a hole in the ship’s hull.

As Nate shoots his opponents, water continues pouring in, and the ship begins listing, until it finally turns 90º, dumping Nate into the water and turning everything from this point forward on its side. This disorienting gravity shift combined with the increasing threat of the floodwaters pushes this level forward with an exhilarating momentum. I’ve never played anything like it.

Also, it's gorgeous.

Nate traverses along hallways, climbing vertically what used to be horizontal, and leaping upward through doorways, releasing the occasional tidal wave and triggering close escape runs. He rides an elevator horizontally, breaking through its glass walls and falling onto a massive chandelier in the ships multi-story ballroom. The former-ceiling-now-side-wall is made of glass, of course, because it is holding back millions of tons of sea water, and oh, there’s a crack in it. After Nate makes his way down to the new floor, survives the chandelier falling around his shoulders, and reaches a relatively stable-looking hallway, Rameses returns and shoots the glass wall, dumping in a horrifying amount of sea water. WHEEE! Nate manages to escape by the skin of his teeth and leaps out into the ocean, before washing up ashore sometime later, ending the level.

Concept art demonstrating the new remodel

The first section of this level is 3rd person shooter, then the focus shifts to platforming acrobatics and interacting with the environment through interactive cutscenes, swimming through submerged areas to find an escape, and running from tidal waves.

Because Nate doesn’t find Sullivan on the ship, and still wants to go looking after the cruise ship ordeal, this level really emphasizes his commitment to helping his friend. His own mortality isn’t enough to stop him. A recurring theme throughout the game is the question of whether the risks Nate faces are worth the rewards, and after surviving this cruise ship ordeal, it seems like a valid concern!

The art direction in this series, the adventure and exploration, the death-defying platforming, and mostly, Nathan Drake himself, are what I love so much about these games. This particular level has such a cinematic feel, and the novelty and cleverness in the design of a rotated, sinking world are what stood out to me. After finishing the game, when other friends would play, the cruise ship is the first thing I ask about. It is just. So. COOL.

Part 1

Part 2