WRIGLEY FIELD
A The Last of Us inspired experience
PROJECT GOALS
With this project, I set out to create an engaging and varied single-player experience, with a focus on encounter design that can be approached both through stealth or combat.
I also wanted to create a space with a memorable set piece for the player to explore. One that could tie in with the tone and world-building of TLOU’s post-apocalyptic america.
DETAILS
DEVELOPED OVER: 4 weeks half-time
ENGINE: Unreal Engine 5.2
TEMPLATE: IWALS v.3.0.1 by Jakub W, with minor modifications and additions by me.
PACKS: Assetville Town, by Assetville, Unreal Marketplace
GAMEPLAY LOOP
The gameplay elements that I wanted to focus on were Exploration, Stealth & Combat
EXPLORATION. Where the player traverses the world, gaining a further understanding of the setting and the stakes at hand, as well as gathering resources.
STEALTH. Where dangerous obstacles are presented but can be circumvented through clever use of the environment .
COMBAT. Where direct confrontation with the enemy is unavoidable, but can be overcome through various tactics.
NARRATIVE
Set in the universe of The Last of Us, Wrigley Field is intended as a mid-game experience, part of a fictional DLC taking place during the first game. The narrative focuses on a community of Fireflies operating out of post-apocalyptic Chicago.
Strange aircrafts have been seen flying over the city, their existence implying an unknown faction with both resources and infrastructure. When one of these planes crash outside of the Chicago Quarantine Zone, the player is sent out to investigate and acquire the plane’s blackbox and flight plans.
OVERVIEW
PART 1
1. Establishing Shot
2. Traversal
3. 1st Zombie Encounter
4. 2nd Zombie Encounter
5. Stadium Exploration
6. Crash Site Reveal
7. 3rd Zombie Encounter
8. Crash Site Traversal
9. Accquire Target
PART 2
10. 1st Raider Encounter
11. 2nd Raider Encounter
12. Final Raider Encounter (End)
GUIDING THE PLAYER
USING COMPOSITION
I wanted to ensure that the player at all times knew where they were heading. Without the use of UI.
Working towards this I established the location of the end goal (the stadium and plume of smoke rising from the crash-site) within the first few seconds of gameplay and made sure that whenever the player enter a new area, the level’s composition, colour coding and leading lines straight away point them towards the next short term goal.
REWARDING EXPLORATION
While the level is a linear experience I still wanted to make space for exploration and find ways to reward the player for interacting with the world. I decided to go about this in two different ways; Mechanical Rewards and Narrative Rewards.
Mechanical Rewards present the player mainly with ammo pickups, spread out between the player’s two weapons (handgun and rifle).
Narrative Rewards serve as locations with additional environmental storytelling or pickups that reinforce the setting.
ENCOUNTER DESIGN
"THE DOOR PROBLEM"
I ran into the issue of a space having both too high prospect and refuge in the level’s first encounter, where zombies roam a blocked off street.
I approached this by first presenting the player with a clear overview of the space - but without the zombies. When the player begins going down a flight of stairs, I run a sequence of the stairs collapsing and the player falling. The sound attracts nearby, but hidden, zombies. The player is now disoriented and holds less prospect, but hidden and still able to capitalise on their high refuge.
WHY BACKTRACKING?
Wanting to get as much oomph out of the stadium as possible, while maintaining a reasonable scope, I decided to make use of backtracking. The player gets to explore and experience the space first through one set of circumstances and then revisit it through another.
E.g: Giving the player a chance to enjoy the high ground of being up in the bleachers, shooting down at zombies, only to flip the circumstances on them later, when the raiders take advantage of the same location and the player has to make their way up.
THE OPTION OF STEALTH
Being able to at least partially stealth through an encounter is something I personally love and I wanted to explore that in sections of this level.
Some encounters, especially towards the end of the level, has to be dealt with through combat in order to up the pacing, but making use of covers, high grass and how encounters are presented, I’ve done my best to encourage the player to explore a stealthy approach, taking out enemies without directly engaging in combat.
THE PROCESS
PRE-PRODUCTION
BUILDING OFF A FAILURE
I had previously built a level with a similar concept for an assignment at TGA; an airplane having crashed in a baseball stadium, but wasn’t happy with the end result and decided to revisit, reenvision and rebuild it from the ground up.
My main issues with the original piece was partly in the encounter design and how I made use of the stadium as a traversable space, so these were things I knew straight away that I wanted to prioritise.
RESEARCH
Finding a strong visual as well as a narrative foundation is always important to me when approaching a new project.
I set up a pinterest, put together moodboards and started researching the layout of Wrigley Field Stadium and its surrounding area. I also started testing out various features and metrics in engine.
I quickly realised that while I still wanted to maintain Wrigley Field as a setting and main reference, I would have to make compromises with the interior layout to better facilitate the gameplay experience.
SKETCHES
Armed with my references, concept and analysis of the original piece, I began sketching out the experience, wanting to have as much planned out as possible to make the blocking out stage expedient.
While the over all layout remained the same for the most part, my initial plan of how the player would traverse the space changed quite drastically over development.
ALPHA
BLOCKOUT
Getting some sort of rough blockout out as quickly as possible is always a priority. This allows me to straight away try out the spaces and start to get a feel for the general composition and level flow.
Beginning to playtest already at this stage is paramount and I like to keep the project in a blockout for as long as I can, in order to easily reiterate on spaces as gameplay and features are added and modified.
BETA & POLISH
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VIEW FROM A WINDOW
ENTRANCE TO THE STADIUM
FLOODED BASEMENT
REITERATIONS
A COMBAT SPACE
One space that in particular went through a lot of changes was the baseball field and the player’s first encounter with the human raiders.
I wanted the player to reach their initial goal; acquiring the black box and flight plans and then be forced to fight their way back through the stadium, now facing human enemies armed with ranged weapons instead of mindless zombies.
This initial encounter however just didn’t work and I was feeling stuck with it. Continuous playtesting and invaluable insights from both my educator and fellow students eventually helped me reach the final product.
Please use the arrows to flip through the process.
PLAYTHROUGH
REFLECTIONS
My goals for this project was to further explore encounter design and to work towards an experience akin to what you might find in a traditional AAA third person shooter.
In hindsight, I think I might have cast a slightly too wide of a net wanting to explore both combat, stealth and exploration in one experience - one with a very specific set of narrative and architectural boundaries at that - but I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and definitely learned a lot from it.
I am extremely thankful for the amount of playtesting I managed to get in, as it provided invaluable insights during each stage of the development process, but especially towards the combat spaces as it gave me the tools needed to iterate and improve on them a lot.
If I had the opportunity to continue working on the experience, I would like to further develop the gameplay around the actual crash site and make more use of the (perhaps still burning) wreckage, as well as explore the possibility of the player traversing other fun and varying sections of the stadium; VIP boxes, dressing rooms, merch stores etc.
Thank you,
Victor Majorin