Silicaian is a sub-RTS and Tower Defense hybrid game that emphasizes the fragility of your race of sand people. Plan out your space and resources to fend off the invaders and finally restore glory for your people.
Platform: PC Players: 1 Genre: RTS
Downloads: Digipen Games Gallery
Role:
Level Designer/Artist
-Level Design Document -
Main Objective
Retaliate
Krystonos have decimated your people, leaving you to be the last survivor. Rebuild your people(literally) and push back the invasion. Build populators and defenses to progress.
Game Pillars
Key directions that will shape how each level is made to craft the intended player experience.
Strategy
Resource Management
Combat
Exploration
Game Mechanics
Key directions that will shape how each level is made to craft the intended player experience.
For this design document, we explore some mechanics that are not implemented in the final gold product as we used an in-house game engine and some limitations are present.
1 - Base Building
2 - Base Maintenance and Upgrading
3 - Traversal
Currency: Sand(Silicaians)
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Players' abilities:
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1) Build - Players can build structures but will need the help of their Silicaians to make them.
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2) Maintaining - Purifying or upgrading structures will help maintain defense. They can also destroy structures to strategize and relocate them.
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3) Traversal - Standard movements around the map and teleportation access once the Warp Conduit is activated.
Structures Breakdown:
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1) Generator - Standard structure that enables you to build structures around it in a predetermined area. Without it, your sand count will not increase and structures will fail to work.
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2) Populator - Spawns Silicaians to aid in the building of Structures. They also serve as your currency as they sacrifice themselves to build/repair the structures.
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3) Shelter - The "Bank" to house Silicaians. While not out to build/repair structures, excess Silicaians will run back to the nearest shelter.
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4) Turrets - 2 variations(land and air) defend against invaders.
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5) Walls - Protect against invaders.
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6) Terraformer - A structure to be placed on top of rocky areas to be turned into sand so that structures can be placed upon them.
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7) Warp Conduit- certain area on the map has relics of the past that enables the player to warp from one conduit to another if it has been activated.
MISSION GIMMICKS
These are challenges or help the player will face playing this level. Apart from being a gimmick to a stage, these additional challenges provide players with lore regarding the overall story of the game.
Rocky Terrain
- Terrain is traversable
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- Terrain is unsuitable for building
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- Cleared by using magic to cover the area with sand
Crystal Blight
- Terrain is covered in crystal formations
- Terrain is harmful to Silicaian beings and structures
- Terrain is unsuitable for building - Cleared by using magic to remove the blight
Warp Conduits
- Ancient monoliths of mysterious powers
- Activated by the player
- Allows the player to warp between conduits, two or more conduits must be activated
MISSION LAYOUTS
Mission Layouts map out the flow a player will go through while playing and exploring the map. Each Section will focus on the outcomes the designer wishes the player to gain after successfully completing them. Each Section will also give an estimate of how long it takes to complete.
Start
Section 1
Establish a base of operations and regain a population.
Section 2
Defend the base against enemy forces
Section 3
Expand your reach by creating a new base
Section 4
Attack the enemy base and defend from retaliation
End
* A victory condition is needed to advance to the next section
* A defeat condition will be “Game Over”
MISSION SECTION - 1
Section 1 (5 mins)
Objective: Establish a base of operations and regain a population.
Location: Home Base
What players must learn:
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1) Moving around the area
2) Toggling normal and build modes
3) Placing constructs for Silicaians to come and build
4) Knowing the boundaries of the generator 5) Building Structures
Room 1 (2 mins)
Objective: Build Populators and Shelters [Easy Building/ Easy Traversal]
Room 2 (2 mins)
Objective: Build Turrets and Walls [Easy Building/ Easy Traversal]
Room 3 (1 min)
Objective: Maintain the balance of resources [Easy Maintaining]
Section 1 - Rooms
Victory Conditions: Population >= 50 Defeat Conditions: None
Room 1: Build Populators and Shelters [Easy Building/ Easy Traversal]
- Build Populator near Generator (1 min)
- Build Shelter near Generator (1 min)
+ With the resources shown, the player must know that he can build within the boundaries of the generator. The generator is already built
Room 2: Build Turrets and Walls
[Easy Building/ Easy Traversal]
- Build Turrets near Generator (1 min)
- Build Walls near Generator (1 min)
+ Players will be told of an impending invasion to encourage building these defenses.
Room 3: Maintain a balance of resources(population) [Easy Maintaining]
- Build more populators to increase populations (1min)
+ Players must have a set number of resources before proceeding to the next section
Section 1 - Location
MISSION SECTION - 2
Section 2 (10 mins)
Objective:
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Defend the base against enemy forces
Location:
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Home Base
Outskirts
What players must learn:
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1) Use powers to slow down enemies
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2) Maintaining structures
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3) Building new defenses
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4) Strategize placements structures according to the situation
Room 1 (5 min)
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Objective: Defend Base from invaders [Easy Combat/ Medium Building]
Room 2 (2 min)
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Objective: Defend yourself from invaders [Easy Combat/ Medium Traversal]
Room 3 (3 mins)
Objective: Maintain/Destroy structures [Medium Building]
Section 2 - Rooms
​Victory Conditions: Survive 3 waves Defeat Conditions: Generator destroyed or player health = 0
Room 1: Defend Base from invaders [Easy Combat/ Medium Building]
- Build more turrets and walls to push invading troops (1 min)
+ The types of enemies(flying/ground) will force the player to adapt and build the right turret.
Room 2: Defend yourself from invaders [Easy Combat/ Medium Traversal]
- Use the sandstorm ability to entrap enemies while the turrets attack them. (2 min)
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+ Players should know that using the sandstorm to slow enemies is not intended for actual combat. Use near turret for synergy
Room 3: Maintain/Destroy structures [Medium Building]
- Check the conditions of structures and fortify them more or purify them of the Krystal Blight. Players can also destroy them to relocate defenses. They should manage and have enough structures to keep the defenses running. (2 mins)
+ Players can expand their base to the outskirts by building generators that expand buildable areas
Section 2 - Gimmicks Introduced
Warp Conduits:
Ancient towers of mysterious powers are found around the outskirts. If the player ventures out during the events of room 3, they can spot and activate the conduit.
Activate them to enable warping between conduits (2 or more must be activated to warp)
+The level should be built in a way that the conduits are easily spotted. Players can go on without activating the conduit but backtracking would be hard.
Warp Conduits:
Player finds the first warp conduit, activating the conduit will produce a glow and prompt the player.
“The conduit is awaiting transmission.”
Section 2 - Location
Mission Map Overview
- SECTION 1
- SECTION 2
You can view the full document here: LDD
Blockout Processes
If you are wondering where is the lockout and metrics calculations this page is aimed to show the finished product and expected game feel with the art done to get players' reactions as a whole. However, testing the player's movement and scale was done in blocked-out environments as shown in past screenshots below.
Using Unity's robust terrain editor I prefer to work on the changes alongside the finished level as long as they are kept to a minimum. That way I fuse the rapid prototyping with the polishing in a coherent manner that saves tons of time.
This however requires my overall design structure to be solid at the beginning and a full understanding of how traversal and building mechanics work before putting in any gimmicks like various POIs or enemies.
View my other works:
