The Laboratory

Specifications

Genre: Third-person Shooter

Time: 6 weeks part-time (4h/day)

Ref. games: Resident Evil 2 & 3 Remake

Tools: Unreal Engine, Mixamo

Story
A SWAT member is left alone in a city full of zombies, and he has been tasked with finding out what caused the outbreak as well as finding a cure. His quest finally takes him to a secret underground lab where a mad scientist might prove to be a key figure for the outbreak. Can he find the answers he is looking for?

The Idea

I have loved the Resident Evil franchise ever since I was a kid, and I also wanted to make a third person action game. With that in mind, the choice of making a zombie shooter was an easy one. With this project I wanted the emphasis to be placed on level design and scripting. I played both of the remakes of Resident Evil 2 & 3 for inspiration for this project, focusing on the nest (laboratory) part of the games. I replayed those specific parts several times while studying the overall level design as well as their layout. I paid extra attention to how they used lighting to set the mood for the areas as well as the specific room designs.

Pre-production to release

I initially started out with planning out the space of the entire laboratory, including all the different rooms that is required for a laboratory to function. The first layout of the level was pretty large, including a lot of different rooms and long corridors.

After I had blocked out the level and all the rooms, I started to remove parts I thought were unnecessary. When I felt that I had a rather good blockout of the level I started to put up walls and doors for all the rooms. Following this I made a basic player so I could walk around and navigate the level in order to get a feeling for the size and proportions of the various rooms.

This is where the fun started. Taking the level from its original blockout layout to a state where it was fun to simply walk around in it. This gave me ideas for which rooms I wanted to begin the design process and what parts of the existing design I wanted to amplify.

Reception

The reception has changed a bit from the blockout and the early itterations. But the main goal of this room stayed the same.

Office

At first this room was a messhall but i later changed it to a office. i changed it because i didnt think a messhall belonged right here in the beginning. The progress with this room is that i started with the blockout tool and i changed the layout of the room so it wasnt to big. I then changed the blockout to real meshes and continued to add more and more things to it. I Didnt focus so much on the enviroment in this room but i wanted to have a felling of what the potentioal is for it.

Security

At first the sequrityoffice was a lab but I soon changed it to a security office. The security office main goal is to open up a door to the big laboratory. The layout of the security office has changed a bit from the first layout. One idea was to have a door that lead back to the start of the corridor but I changed that so the player didnt have to backtrack and just opened the door infront of the exit to the room.

Final stage of Floor2

Observationroom

At first the this room was a security office and the player had to get here to open up a door on floor one. But i changed it to a observationroom for the small laboratory. this room leads out on a catwalk in the Big laboratory where the end goal is.

SmallLaboratory

I wanted a small laboratory where the outbreak began. Theres some small details that show that something has happend in this room. But I didnt focus on the enviromental story telling but i have showed a bit of the potentional of the room.

Corridor

The long corridor when you see a scientist and a monster run past was quite long and empty so i decided to add some boxes so the corridor isnt so empty.

Level overview

Floor 1

Floor 2

Level walkthrough

Floor 1

A long tunnel with two derailed subway carts, and an entrance to the laboratory.

A bloody reception with a dead soldier lying on the floor.

A dark corridor with some flickering lights and another dead soldier.

An office with the first encounter with some zombies.

A long corridor with a server room and a medical room on the left (in the picture).

A long corridor with a serverroom and a medical room on the left (in the picture).

A picture of the same corridor but from the other end. The room in front of the camera is the security office, and the staircase that leads to floor 2 is to the left in front of the elevators.

Inside the security office, this is when the player is back on floor 1 after falling through the ceiling.

In-game footage from floor 1

(Both in-game light and lit pictures)

A corridor that leads to the big laboratory where the doctor is.

A big laboratory and the end of the game.

Floor 2

A long corridor with the staircase from floor 1 on the left.

An observation room with big windows looking in on the laboratory.

A catwalk that overlooks the big laboratory room. In-game you see a doctor that walks on the floor below

In-game footage from floor 2

(Both in-game light and lit pictures)

A laboratory room where something has escaped from the big tank in the middle of the room.

A dark hallway (in-game you see a scientist and a big monster running further down the corridor, and when running toward them the player will fall down to floor 1)

Scripting

Weapon switch

I wanted to have two weapons in the game, and I chose an AR4 and a handgun.

Weapon switch when pressing 1 and 2

Setting the mesh of the selected weapon

The Handgun

The handgun does less damage to the zombies and has a smaller clip size than the AR4.

AR4

The AR4 does more damage and has a larger clip size than the handgun.

The AR4 has also rapid fire.

Weapon function

Damage

Muzzleflash

Sound

Fire weapon

Challenges

One of the challenges I had while making the level was how to add the attack animation and attack behaviour of the zombie to the behaviour tree. I began with making the whole AI in blueprints, but after a while I switched over to using a behaviour tree. However, it was too much work to implement the attack animation and behaviour in the behaviour tree, so I left it in the blueprint for the AI.

I wanted to have the monster you encounter as a final boss. So, when you enter the big laboratory and finally go to meet the doctor, a short cutscene of the monster attacking the doctor as it jumps down from the catwalk plays and starts the boss fight.

But I encountered some problems with that idea, I could not script it to take damage from the weapon I used. So, I chose not to implement it in the game.

Playthrough

Ingamefootage