#Blocktober 5 — Sebastian McBride and Mariusz Kubów

[RyanSchou]

This month we’re participating in #Blocktober, highlighting the work of our talented Level Designers. For our last post, Sebastian McBride and Mariusz Kubów share a behind-the-scenes look at the main quest “The Killing Moon”.

As with most of the Space Port, the Maglev station went through heavy iteration — I think I made about 5 radically different versions of it. Knowing that this would be one of the last locations in Phantom Liberty where the player would engage in heavy combat, I pushed for a more circular approach when considering movement. The location had to have a very nice flow to it and interesting, yet simple traversal loops were the top priority. All of that is focused around the control booth which I knew would be both a focal point in the space but also integral to the quest flow. — Sebastian McBride

The Viewing Gallery offers a unique gameplay experience of moving through a location while under suppressing fire from a helicopter flying nearby. It serves as an example of how sometimes we keep on iterating on the location's fundamental elements — like its layout — deep into the production cycle and way past the blockout stage. In this case, I wanted to have more player engagement during the beat and a bit of Kishōtenketsu-type structure (initially the chopper pinning us down with gunfire was the only obstacle there), so the level flow had to be adjusted to incorporate that.

There's also the Rule of Cool in play here, as the rocket hanging under the ceiling was added late during the development to add more dynamic elements to the environment, totally-not-just because I've prototyped a big, swinging object and I thought it would be cool for the turrets (or even V) to shoot it down accidentally. — Mariusz Kubów

Sebastian McBride: https://x.com/darthsebious

Mariusz Kubów: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariusz-kubow/

 

[Bartinga2077]

As with most of the Space Port, the Maglev station went through heavy iteration — I think I made about 5 radically different versions of it. Knowing that this would be one of the last locations in Phantom Liberty where the player would engage in heavy combat, I pushed for a more circular approach when considering movement. The location had to have a very nice flow to it and interesting, yet simple traversal loops were the top priority. All of that is focused around the control booth which I knew would be both a focal point in the space but also integral to the quest flow.

Did this level twice now, and both times the last mob proved very difficult to locate. At some point I thought that the gig bugged out, but seemingly you need to traverse the entire level before he spawns.

But yeah, cool level. Heated fire exchange. Love it.

 

[Oksiki]

I enjoyed The Killing Moon a lot, there are great things in it I could go on about. But since we're talking about the final stage for the most part, I wanna mention that I loved how concentrated the final stage feels yet it happens in such an open space. It's a linear, straightforward level but it's also vertical and there are no walls or ceilings surrounding the floor where the control tower is. Which makes you focus on defending the control tower and gives you enough rooms if you wanna have a versatile approach, while admiring the view of the spaceship and Night City, If you're not too busy, that is.

It gave me the experience of playing a tower defense and FPS at the same time, which I wasn't expecting but I totally appreciated. The final stage combined with intense combat and Contra la Luna playing with the spaceship ready on the launch pad makes you really feel like this is it, the expansion is near the end. Props to these level designers because I feel like they don't often get enough praises for this game and new levels in PL definitely improve the game.