Nexus 7 is a 4-player death match level that I developed during my second year at NHTV IGAD in Breda, the Netherlands. The level originally started based around the movie Blade Runner. I took inspiration from some of the amazing environments portrayed in Blade Runner and after some brief design on paper quickly started working on my level in UDK. My goals for the level were clear; Simple, fast-paced, with well recognizable geometry and a good amount of verticality. While the map is casual in nature, I made sure to implement several ninja-paths for the more advanced players to discover and play with.
Below is a quick video of a path a player might take through the level:
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKVhfq_Q4Dg”]
Download the whitebox level here. Keep in mind that it was made for UDK. Also available for download is my iteration document for the level here.
After the course finished, this level was chosen as one of the top 10 of the year and was picked up by a team of student artists. I helped adapt my whitebox to be more suitable for their art style while making sure the gameplay was kept intact, and afterwards tested the level at various points to help give them feedback. Other than that, I had little control over the development and the art team was mostly left to their own devices. It turned out very pretty, but in the end some of the choices made had a negative impact on the gameplay. The level became too cluttered and some of the geometry did not achieve the goals I originally had in mind with the whitebox. This was likely caused by a want of the artists to have as much from the movie as possible in the level and a lack of control of the development on my side.
Below is a ‘trailer’ for the level:
[youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wIB8F7VQ9Q”]