Prodeus - Gamma Sector
Here’s a little level I created based on an original level I made for a retro shooter a friend and I were working on. Prodeus ended up releasing and did a lot of things we were planning on doing but better haha. I figured it would be cool to see how the map would have played anyway so I built it. It’s essentially a grey box with some basic textures slapped on it, very little effort has been put into the aesthetics.
If you would like to play the level, here is the P-Link
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SPOILERS BELOW!! (obviously)
Full Level Playthrough Video
Contains All Secret Spoilers!!
Some things to note. This was designed as a stand-alone level, which is why it’s essentially a pistol start but introduces too many enemy types for a “first” level. I mainly just wanted to test out a few different styles of sections/encounters and mechanics. I’m a big fan of the level design tropes present in the first 2 Doom games, so there’s a lot less focus on realistic architecture and a big focus on maze-like sections that change when you backtrack through them.
(activating windows is the final boss).
Design Thoughts
SECTION 1
The first door you come to, opens to reveal a pistol lying out in the open (next to its previous owner)
The player feels vulnerable with no weapon, giving them tunnel vision to make a dash for the weapon
The only enemy the player can see faces the opposite direction to the bigger threat, the stronger enemy behind them
Panic is created when fireballs start hitting the player from behind. This is punishment for not checking your surroundings
In the panic you may hit the explosive barrel next to the strong enemy, adding to the chaos but giving you an easy kill
Players who do check their surroundings will also be rewarded this easy barrel kill
This is a very typical Doom trap. The player grabs the key and 2 doors behind them open up, revealing 4 low-level enemies.
These enemies are easy enough to kill so as to not make it unfair on the player
Doing this early on engrains in the player that traps like this are not off-limits so be wary of everything
When the player walks back down the stairs another trap door hiding enemies is triggered. Unlike the previous trap, this one can be caught in time to make a strategic decision. I feel regular players of this genre pride themselves on their game sense and this scenario has been designed to reward alert players and punish others.
Noticing the door opening allows you to take advantage of a few things and make actual smart gameplay decisions based on your playstyle/thought process. These enemies explode on death, so letting them get close is dangerous.
Some gameplay options the player has…
Take the high ground by jumping on the ledge in front of them, allowing them to explode the enemies from a safe distance.
Back pedal up the stairs, causing all the enemies to funnel up the stairs together. Exploding one enemy will create a chain reaction killing all of them.
Wait for the enemies to get close enough to the stair entrance and jump down into the center of the room giving you max distance and safety to take them out.
I like buttons that appear to do nothing obvious in your immediate surroundings. I like these for several reasons.
They create a good sense of curiosity, forcing most players to heavily explore the surrounding area eager for a potential reward, but this is the perfect double-edged sword.
Exploration is a complementary component to one of the other reasons I like them… They spark fear. You begin to explore out of curiosity but you have no idea what potential creature you’ve let loose or whether you’ve opened up a part of the map that was keeping you safe.
The anxiety this creates is perfect for these types of games. This sense of unease is also why I enjoy using these mystery buttons to connect previously closed parts of the map in a maze-like fashion.
It’s easy to feel safe when you can confidently clear each room individually and move on but when confusing paths start opening up in random locations you can no longer be certain of your safety.
SECTION 2
The next section involves the player taking a small elevator down into a dark maze-like area
The elevator lowers you into a tight dead-end hallway directly in line of sight of a charging enemy, giving the player a matter of seconds to react to the situation
This adrenalin-fueled encounter makes the player extremely cautious of every twist and turn in this almost pitch-black maze. This is done purposefully to change the playstyle of most players to accompany the new section. While running and gunning is an option, are you brave enough?
The rest of the maze uses ceiling lights to guide the player to “safety”
A lot of these “safety” guides are misdirects to create more distrust and anxiety in the player
With a lot of tropes getting overused in this genre, I felt like changing it just slightly. This would be considered a mental reward for astute players or regular players of the genre, in my opinion, something that makes you say “I knew it!” out loud to yourself.
This is an overly long dark hallway with a clear glowing object at the end of it. A typical carrot on a stick to cause player tunnel vision. But I made this far too obvious on purpose for those with a complete lack of trust and sure enough, you will be met with a trap door that reveals this glowing green creature.
I chose this guy on purpose to mess with people who were expecting a trap door and also to cause a tense situation for those who weren’t expecting it. My hope for players who were ready for something is that their over-eagerness to prove they knew something was coming would make them shoot immediately in close quarters without registering the enemy type, causing them to meet the same fate as those who weren’t expecting it.
SECTION 3
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The player ascends an elevator into a well-lit zone. This mimics the descent into the dark maze you just came from, letting you know you’re finished with that zone. The environment feels a lot calmer as I feel contrast is important. Intense stressful action all the time can be exhausting and just make you not want to play.
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The player can look through a window at un-alert enemies. Allowing them to come up with a strategy before engaging. Although certain players may notice this perfectly placed crate and vent combo, with a suspicious arrow pointing up.
Investigating that vent will reward the player with a rare item and a clear vantage point for taking out enemies while avoiding damage. A nice change of pace.
The player enters another room containing a few loose enemies
The main focus being the 2 forcefields either side of the player containing trapped enemies
There’s a button clearly keeping a Key captive and it should be pretty obvious grabbing the Key will open the forcefields
With this obvious series of events presented to the player, they can make strategic decisions based on the enemies they observe behind the forcefields
The clear display of enemies gives the player a false sense of security that the final enemy they see will be the last
After the final enemy dies a small swarm of explosive enemies is unleashed upon the player as a final layer of stress
The player is rewarded with big health
SECTION 4
Section 4 leads the player to an ascending set of stairs that blocks most of their view
As they move up the stairs they’re immediately met with laser lights from snipers on a platform across from them
If the player has a good eye they’ll notice some barrels on the platform to easily take out the snipers
Otherwise they’ll need to make a run for it and the sudden multiple other laser sights from the hidden snipers to the left and right will send the player into a state of panic, funneling them to the 2 safety points in succession
The “safety zones” will draw in some loose enemies causing the player to move from cover point to cover point once again
While players will never play exactly how you would like them to, I’ve designed this encounter in a way that seems to work most of the time. Between the constant fear of the sniper beams pushing you from cover to cover, the strategically placed enemy lines of sight and the health/ammo pickups creating a sub-conscious pull, this section plays out pretty much as intended with a lot of players.
Enemy group 1 spots you as you come up the stairs and forces you to back into cover spot 1
You kill them and sprint directly to cover point 2 to avoid sniper fire, you turn around and realize between the sniper fire and walls you’re boxed in as you begin to get swarmed by enemies
Your brain is pulled towards the glowing path of the health/ammo pickups
As you move past the pillar you spot a heavy machine gunner, the sniper beams are directly on you, you panic and sprint to cover point 3
Enemy group 4 begins to move in but you’re preoccupied with what the heavy machine gunner is doing
The encounter becomes an intense game of cat and mouse between you and the machine gunner, if you don’t move strategically and position yourself well, you will be forced into the sniper fire, or swarmed by enemies
When the Heavy Machine Gunner dies it drops its mini-gun, which is going to be extremely helpful in dealing with the final wave of enemies that appear on the Machine Gunner’s death.
A swarm of exploding creatures and their mum are going to zerg rush the player in a final effort for this encounter. If the player catches this early by seeing the trap door open, or hearing the sound, this is more like a fun reward where the player gets to mow down creatures with a mini-gun and fill the screen with orange goo, unfortunately, if they don’t catch this early they’re going to be surrounded and have to show enough trigger discipline to get a safe distance to kill them.
The player is finally rewarded with a gun that can easily dispose of those annoying snipers
SECTION 5
This is the final section and it needs some work. It’s currently pretty basic and ends with a kind of uneventful fight. I will continue to develop this level as time goes on. There’s one puzzle-based secret and one final secret that leads to some pretty lackluster backtracking in this section. I will cover those in the secrets section.
The player has cleared the ground floor at this point and opened a gate previously blocking a path
They find a switch that lowers an elevator behind them
They take the elevator up to a room containing the exit
Some enemies are up there but you can just funnel them into the doorway and cheese what was already a pretty average room
You see the exit level button at the end of a suspended bridge
The player makes their way toward the exit thinking they are in the clear. Just before the button, there’s a trigger that opens an extra layer to the sniper nests from before, revealing 4 Heavy Machine Gunners that immediately start firing causing you to retreat to cover. Players can just sprint to the exit here, but there are some clearly valuable pickups on one of the platforms making it clear you can get up there, piquing some player’s curiosity.
This encounter needs some more thought put into it. Currently, the player’s best options are to use the sniper they acquired previously and as it takes 2 charged shots to kill the Heavy Gunners, you need to charge and peek shoot a total of 8 times, you aren’t really in danger this whole time as the Gunners take a while to start firing, so it’s more tedious than enjoyable. If the player has run out of sniper ammo it makes it much harder to take out these gunners and there’s no good way to close the distance on the ones further away.
I plan on adding some kind of blocker to the exit button and opening up the platforms more, revealing a better grouping of enemy types. You will most likely have to traverse a new path leading through the platforms that takes you to a switch to unlock the exit button.
Secrets
For the most part, I always want to make sure that the existence of my secrets is somewhat obvious, how you unlock them is the part that requires exploration and problem solving, I’m happy to hide something behind a false door but I want the panel to be pretty obvious. I never want there to be an expectation set that literally anything could be a hidden door, all that’s going to do is force players to run along every single wall of every single level spamming the interact button, completely slowing gameplay and becoming a horribly tedious exercise.
1
The player begins to walk down this hallway but hears noises from above or sees a fireball fly past
They will spot either the items on the platform or notice the open area leading to a part of the map they were before that clearly wasn’t open
This part of the map would have been open earlier when the player hits a button that seems to do nothing
Following the path and jumping across to the platform will reward them with akimbo SMGs
2
The player activates this elevator to reach the floor above
The only way back down is to drop back into the main lobby outside of this room
If the player re-enters this room or looks through the window, they will notice some armor under the elevator
If the player presses the button again while under the elevator they will be damaged by the elevator, everyone hates this and I need to change it.
3
At the end of Section 2 the player can clearly see into a room with items in it
As this is just a small box, it should be pretty obvious to the player that one of these walls is a secret door
On the opposite side from where the player first looks in, they will find a secret door
Entering this room will trigger other areas of Section 2 to open up
4
One of the areas opened by Secret 3 releases an enemy from a small space
The small space has a health pack in it
The back wall of this space has a unique texture with emissive areas on it.
This is a secret door that reveals armor
5
When players enter Section 3 they will see this crate next to a vent
This reveals a secret small pathway with an item in it
The player now has a good vantage point to take out enemies
6
Before (or after) players grab the yellow key they can jump onto the glass case and open a small door to reveal a super shotgun
(Not a secret but you can trap yourself in the glass case by hitting the button to close it and sprinting under it. I would like to do something more with this, but treat it more like an Easter egg than a secret and reward players for their curiosity)
7
After players attempt to cross the bridge to the exit and the heavy machine gunners appear, they will notice some valuable pick-ups on the newly opened platform
Unfortunately from opening the gate to lower the elevator, the gate, in its open state, will now be blocking the player from reaching this platform
The player will have to lower the elevator first and then lower the gate but due to the eagerness of most players to lower the gate, they end up leaving the elevator up and confusing themselves for a second
This is very simple but it requires these things to be done in a specific order that isn’t entirely obvious at first which creates a small puzzle section
8
Right at the beginning of the level there’s a metal grating with a rocket launcher hidden under it
At the end of the level, one of the 4 pillars holding up the exit bridge has a yellow trim around it
This will open to reveal a button that when pressed, opens a wall between this section and the first section and unlocks the metal grate covering the rocket launcher
Picking up the rocket launcher will spawn 2 strong-flying enemies
This is a pretty underwhelming fight and I would like to add some more mechanics to this
