Deus Ex Map

Platform: PC

Team size: 1

Role: Level Designer

Period: 1 week

URL: coming soon

The level is designed as a level of the game Deus Ex Human Revolution. The idea is to respect and emphasize the mechanics and systems of the original game (infiltration, hacking, social system, player power, etc.).

The map was created with the Unreal Engine 4 and the superGrid plug-in.

The goal was to create a map with a focus on navigation and contrasts.

Workflow

Here is the workflow I followed which details a little more the realization of this map.

Story

The story takes place in a zoo of augmented animals (technological transformations of the body in the game) in Thailand.
The hero must retrieve secret information that would be kept in the zoo. However, he will discover that behind this zoo, which has a clean, zen-looking appearance, lies a laboratory for cruel and inhuman experiments on animals for military and criminal purposes.

Intentions & constrasts

The intention of the level is to provoke a feeling of disgust and discomfort linked to the discovery of a horrible truth (the zoo is in fact a lab where animals are persecuted and killed).

The level sets up several contrasts that have an evolution in time. The general rhythm is shaped by this curve which represents the level of discomfort and disgust felt by the player as the level progresses.

The level is not designed to be played in a linear way, multiple options are present to pass a place/obstacle. However, the player will go through the main stages of the progression of the level no matter what happens.

Flow of the level

The player starts in the entrance of the zoo which is a calm and peaceful space, the player can move around freely without any worries, as there will be no hostile enemies in this area.

Then, the player begins to infiltrate the lab by accessing the private parts of the zoo, which has a design that begins to be radically different from the public space (bloodstains, narrow spaces, advanced security systems).

Once in the lab, it's a shock that has to wait for the player, because this is where he finds the slaughtered animals.

Zoo

Free area

Temple (inside the zoo)

Lab access area

Secret Laboratory

Hostile area

References

Before I started working directly on the map, I started a research phase where I was looking for references that would help me work on my map. Those references helped me find the contrasts I was looking for.

The zoo

Animal enclosure

Vertical and horizontal lines
Very geometric shapes
concrete appearance, artificial
Few animals

The park

Presence of nature, trees
A lot of human

The temple

Exterior

Traditional silhouette and shape

Interior

Contemporary architecture

Simple shape

Few colors

Symmetry

Lab acces area

Dark

Pipes and leading lines

"Dirty" aspect (stains on floor and walls)

Secret labatory

Hanging animal carcasses
Bodies perpendicular to the ceiling
Visual noise on the ceiling
Point of light in the background of the room

Blockout

After all its "pre-production" phases, I started the blockout of the map with simplified volumes and regularly test it in order to highlight all the problems that I had not thought of or could not see during the previous phases.
The blockout was made in the Unreal Engine 4 with the superGrid plug-in. I used a custom first person controller to simulate the gameplay of Deus Ex and made my playtests.

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