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Do or Die (Unreal Engine)

Level Playthrough

Summary

  • Do or Die is a first person shooter that takes place in and around an abandoned research facility amidst a zombie apocalypse

  • The player is tasked with infiltrating the facility and battling their way through hordes of zombies in order to obtain an antiserum that prevents zombification

  • The level consists of two parts:

    • An outdoor section, which has long lines of sight and large areas to move around in

    • An indoor section, which is much more confined and has decreased visibility due to numerous edges/corners 

  • The level is defined by three major combat encounters, which ramp in difficulty 

  • The FPS Game Starter Kit was used in this project

    • Weapons, objectives system, animations, door/elevator blueprints, pickups, and AI were NOT done by me 

    • I was responsible for the level design and scripted combat encounters ​

    • I did make modifications to the template, indicated below

  • Overall, this project helped me learn how to use level design to create interesting combat encounters and improved my scripting and debugging skills (specifically with wave-based combat) 

Project Objectives

  • Design a level in a way that enhances combat encounters 

  • Create gameplay that has a natural intensity ramp 

  • Use geometry to clearly indicate where players need to go

  • Create a wave-based spawn system for the major combat encounters, where more enemies spawn after a certain number of enemies have been killed 

  • Create a challenging experience where ammo management is critical to players' survivability

  • Improve scripting/debugging skills

Improvements

  • Give the level a structural art pass

  • Create a widget(s) that displays information regarding combat encounters; currently the information is displayed via print strings 

Screenshot (8).png

Level Documentation

Overhead Map (Click for Higher Resolution Image) 

Do_or_Die_TopMap
Do_or_Die_LowMap

Changes Between Documentation and Final Level

  • Found that standing on elevated positions caused issues with zombie AI; areas with stairs were adjusted 

  • Created a small room the player spawns in so zombies aren't able to immediately see the player

  • Removed jumping since jumping off stairs/elevated positions also caused issues with zombie AI 

  • Removed checkpoint as I was unable to get the checkpoint to reload the level properly

  • Adjusted wave count, enemy count, and enemy spawn points in combat encounters

  • All zombies in the level are spawned by trigger boxes; none are manually placed in the level

  • Added some walls to the outdoor section to block sight lines and zombie spawns

  • Added togglable blocking volumes to control where zombies can/cannot navigate 

Modifications to Template Code

  • Because this level is intended to be one of the final levels in a theoretical game, I made adjustments to the template code to make the combat more challenging:  

    • Zombies and chargers have longer lines of sight

    • Zombies and chargers deal more damage

    • Zombies and chargers move faster

    • Melee hits deal less damage 

    • Grenades deal more damage, bounce less, and have a slightly wider blast radius 

    • Lowered max number of grenades that a player can hold

    • Decreased ammo capacity for pistol and assault rifle

    • Decreased ammo amount in ammo pickups

    • Decreased health amount in health pickups

    • Created new pickup item for the antiserum  

    • Added a game over and level complete widget 

    • Added custom objectives 

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