Moonbase - Quake Singleplayer Map
Moonbase is a singleplayer Quake map inspired by the Alien movies as well as other horror games. You wake up to find that everyone of your crew mates have disappeared and all you find left are invaders infiltrating your research.
Play here.
Overview
This was my second project using the Trenchbroom level editor and I had a really good time designing this level. I was much more comfortable using the editor and it made going from concept to actual creation much easier. The one thing I wish I had was more time, as I would've loved to add more detail and small storytelling elements that informed the player on what occurred before they started playing.
Takeaway
Work Samples
I began by working on a bubble diagram to get an idea of how I wanted the map to be laid out. The player would begin at the sleeping quarters of the moonbase and would have and would go through multiple different paths until reaching the final area set on a crater of the moon where they would face a swarm of enemies.
Map Layout
After completing the diagram, I began by choosing which rooms I want the player to have encounters with enemies. I started with the research lab area and designed the layout in a way where the player wouldn't immediately get spotted when they entered the room, giving them some time to breathe and learn their surroundings.
The walls and pillars can be used for cover while the tables and obstacles placed down are there to hinder the players movement and make it just a little more difficult for them to dodge bullets. In the final version, I added an extra Enforcer enemy as some of the play-testers felt that it was too easy. I proceeded then to start designing the next area, the Moon Garden.
The Moon Garden is designed to be a small mini boss arena that is exposed to the surface of the moon. The gravity in here is low, and this gives the player the ability to dodge the Shambler in the air, but if the player decides to stay grounded there are plenty of “Moon trees'‘ and bushes to take cover in.
Above the garden is a balcony, where scrags were placed but later replaced with enforcers after play testers found them difficult to kill.
Greyboxing
This is a screenshot of what the Moon Garden looked liked early on in greyboxing. Here we can see the Scrags (labeled monster_wizard) that were in the first couple of iterations. In hindsight it’s easy to see why they didn’t really work out, flying all over the place and taking the focus away from the Shambler. Playtesting was crucial to bring this area to a standard I was happy with.
In the first version of the greybox, there was no low gravity and the trees were the player's only cover. It was quite difficult for being one of the first enemy encounters in the level. So to address those issues I added more cover in the form of small bushes. The play testers enjoyed this layout much more and with the lower gravity added, the room gained character.
This is the Communication Room. With the way the room is laid out, the enemies cannot see the player when they enter the room. The middle enforcer walks back and forth up the stairs and a pillar blocks his view of the player.
Depending on the position the enforcer is facing, the player will either be able to sneak up on the enemies or be caught off guard. This is one of my favorite rooms in the level as it really has the essence of a room a Moon base would have.
After the greybox was complete and I had most of the gameplay scenarios laid out and play tested, I continued onto texturing and lighting the level.
Texturing & Lighting
I wanted the general vibe of the Moon base to be eerie and mysterious so I gathered a bunch of textures that were dark and "futuristic" and tried to match the lighting with that same vibe. In the electronics room pictured above, I have some blue lights coming from the electronic walls and some small lights on the ceiling. This is one of my favorite rooms just because of the ominous atmosphere.
This is one of the side rooms in the research lab, I added some glowing lights beneath some "captured moon samples" to add to the “alien-y” effect and also had some glowing liquid in glass beakers. This room has a broken monitor screen that flickers to indicate to the player that there is something important (the golden key to access the next room) there.
I wanted the textures to make the player feel like they were really in a moon base and I went to find textures that really immersed the player in the level. The research room is scattered with computers that show different topography data.
I am a huge fan of environmental story telling and giving the player bits of information that keeps their mind wondering what happened before they got there.