Sniper Elite: Resistance
I always liked the Sniper Elite franchise. I'm a fan of stealth games, ever since the original Hitman and Metal Gear Solid introduced me to the genre. So, working on a Sniper Elite game was a great opportunity to create the kind of experience I enjoy.
I joined the project late in development, and was asigned to the Propaganda Mode of the game. This meant taking levels made for the Campaign Mode and trimming them down to fit a specific challenge. These challenges went from traditional Stealth runs to Marksmanship or even Destruction. My job as level designer involved selecting the area of the map that best fit the intended challenge, selecting new starting points for the player and the NPCs, and orchestating the routines of the latter so they'd enable the completion of the challenge under a certain time.
Since the game was already in the late stages of development, my technical background was extremely valuable to learn quickly how the proprietary engine behind the Sniper Elite franchise worked. I was expected to produce working levels and finish those that were mostly done in mere weeks, with limited support from Code and Art.
That meant alterations to the layout of the campaign or creating specific conditions to fit these maps was severely limited. I had to design around these limitations for the most part, finding new and interesting ways to repurpose areas meant for a different kind of gameplay.
Some levels would demand a lot more emphasis on the scripting side of things. For example those meant to test Marksmanship, where the player is expected to quickly select targets from a fine fine-tuned set of NPCs going about their routines. Others would require me to be deeply intimate with the way the AI worked, to make sure the player always had a chance to survive while completing a Destruction challenge that's directly opposed to the game's core ruleset.
Working with fixed layouts and a strict set of challenges I needed to accommodate in the levels that were assigned to me, while also learning the engine and integrating myself into a team that had been working on the game for years was challenging, but I'm happy with how the game turned out in the end.
I particularly like the way the propaganda missions force the players to come up with a plan before they fire a single shot, and then adjust that plan as the mission unfolds. This is a nice contrast to the short-term planning we usually see on the Campaign maps, and it's where most of the challenge of scripting the NPC routines comes from. As we needed to entice players to do the things they needed to do to complete the challenge before the timer ran out.
I always liked the Sniper Elite franchise. I'm a fan of stealth games, ever since the original Hitman and Metal Gear Solid introduced me to the genre. So, working on a Sniper Elite game was a great opportunity to create the kind of experience I enjoy.
I joined the project late in development, and was asigned to the Propaganda Mode of the game. This meant taking levels made for the Campaign Mode and trimming them down to fit a specific challenge. These challenges went from traditional Stealth runs to Marksmanship or even Destruction. My job as level designer involved selecting the area of the map that best fit the intended challenge, selecting new starting points for the player and the NPCs, and orchestating the routines of the latter so they'd enable the completion of the challenge under a certain time.
Since the game was already in the late stages of development, my technical background was extremely valuable to learn quickly how the proprietary engine behind the Sniper Elite franchise worked. I was expected to produce working levels and finish those that were mostly done in mere weeks, with limited support from Code and Art.
That meant alterations to the layout of the campaign or creating specific conditions to fit these maps was severely limited. I had to design around these limitations for the most part, finding new and interesting ways to repurpose areas meant for a different kind of gameplay.
Some levels would demand a lot more emphasis on the scripting side of things. For example those meant to test Marksmanship, where the player is expected to quickly select targets from a fine fine-tuned set of NPCs going about their routines. Others would require me to be deeply intimate with the way the AI worked, to make sure the player always had a chance to survive while completing a Destruction challenge that's directly opposed to the game's core ruleset.
Working with fixed layouts and a strict set of challenges I needed to accommodate in the levels that were assigned to me, while also learning the engine and integrating myself into a team that had been working on the game for years was challenging, but I'm happy with how the game turned out in the end.
I particularly like the way the propaganda missions force the players to come up with a plan before they fire a single shot, and then adjust that plan as the mission unfolds. This is a nice contrast to the short-term planning we usually see on the Campaign maps, and it's where most of the challenge of scripting the NPC routines comes from. As we needed to entice players to do the things they needed to do to complete the challenge before the timer ran out.
