The Triskelion Mission
Editor: Dying Light Developer Tools
Process: Agile with Milestones
Tools: Adobe Illustrator for Maps, Microsoft Word for Documentation
Design Goals:
Smooth Parkour Sections
Sense of Urgency
Guide the Player
Project Summary
Design Goals
Smooth
Parkour Sections
Sense of
Urgency
Guide the
Player
Smooth Parkour Sections
When approaching this level, I thought about what part of Dying Light I enjoyed the most. The answer was the parkour.
When designed well, it really shined in the game, and I wanted to make something similar.
Someone who played the mission of Steam called it “a good challenge map” which really tells me I did exactly what I set out to do.
The level is set up by the story as a means to help establish safe zones in this trifecta of buildings situated near each other. There are 2 parkour sections that the player makes it through that scale in difficulty as you make your way through. Culminating in a final leap of faith into a trash pile to flip the final switch that stabilizes the safe zones.
Sense of Urgency
I initially wanted to use the game’s timer system to push the player to finish this parkour challenge map under a certain amount of time. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t good enough for what I wanted to do. So, I switched things up.
I added Volatiles to the path that activate at key moments that push the player to make their way through the buildings and establish the safe zones as quickly as possible.
Guide the Player
The core goal of this level was always to have a parkour level that pushed the player as smoothly and urgently as possible to the end.
You cannot do that without good player guidance.
From more obvious things like arrows to subtle things like blood streaks to audio cues like the generators humming in the room where the player flips the switch; I focused on guiding the player through every path.
Each switchbox even reorients the player to face the direction they need to go to progress to the next section.