The new Pirate Docks level is coming together nicely! It’s come a long way from the initial blockout.

Day one

Day one blockouts for levels certainly aren’t pretty. They tend to be a mashup of ill fitting models and materials stolen from other levels and Unity primitives stretched and scaled into submission with a mere hint of the final intention.

The aim here is to scratch-the-itch of the idea. Plop some models down, run the game and see where it’s failing. Mostly, that means running around a level and testing the flow (which would be a nice post on its own).

This particular blockout proved problematic as it was too spread out. The idea of town, docks with cargo loading and a ship meant that we didn’t have enough space for the show piece, which of course should be the pirate ship!

Tweak, Test, Repeat

Once the blockout feels good and there is some basic flow in the level, I can move onto set creation. This is another blockout, but with the unique elements of the level and with greater focus on final look and positioning.

It’s an iterative process at this stage and a lot of fun. 

• Export blockout / update it in Unity

• Test the level to check the collision is correctly placed and flows well

• Tweak the blockout and repeat

Marching Forward

After blocking out all the set elements and feeling confident that the level feels balanced and fun to move around in, I can commit to making the final models and materials.

I’m still expecting changes to come out of testing with bots and real players, but they should be small and easily managed.

The pirate themed levels have been a crazy amount of fun to make and I expect them to be popular challenges and battle levels alike.

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