"Chenonceau" Intro | peixotorobin.com

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During my year of study at Rubika France (2016) I joined a team of 5 to participate in the Imagine Cup game development competition. For its first phase we had to submit a PowerPoint presentation for a concept we wished to build from in the next phases. We called ours "Beasts". The team was composed of two designers, two game artists and one game programmer. My main responsibility was the level design.

I am currently working on a level set in a post apocalyptic France, in the region of the Chateaux de la Loire. It concerns the Chateau of Chenonceau in particular. Its mechanics are inspired by survival and third person shooters games. The Last of Us being the main inspiration. I am using Unreal Engine 5 to create it.

My main goals on this project are :

Practicing making coherent, "lived in" levels. That goes from simply providing plausible furniture as covers to creating believable reasons for the level's structures and what is happening.
Challenge myself artistically to collaborate even better with artists. To make designs that are easily upgradable into visually pleasing pieces (or unpleasing, or else, if that's the intention).
Improve my scripting skills and my knowledge of Unreal Engine or any other useful software.

The following is a video showcasing parts of its introduction, before the arrival of the character to the Chateau :

A few notable aspects of my work thus far :

Introduction To "Chenonceau" - Playthrough, Multiple Options (17min)

Introduction To "Chenonceau" - Playthrough, Multiple Options (17min)

Lire la vidéo

Beat 1 - Cinematic Introduction

The cinematic introduces the players to the post-apocalyptic setting and the temporary goal of hunting a wild animal.
It also makes the character cross a valve, represented by a fallen tree, in order to guide and lock the players when they gain control.
The visual language, present on the platforms of the critical path is first introduced as well, consisting mainly of a yellow piece of cloth.

Introducing the setting

(Click to zoom in) In the first shot the character walks on a road being reconquered by nature. The players can also see decaying cars in the background.

Encounter with a wild animal

The cinematic and its dialogues help establish that hunting is important to the character

Running after the boar

Running after the boar composition

The spot where the character climbs the fallen tree introduces the yellow-ish visual language that will be reinforced throughout the level.

Jumping from the valve

Jumping from the valve composition

The cinematic gives a glimpse of the following geometry and forces the players through a valve to guarantee the path taken.

The players gain control

Exploring around the new objective, the house.

Finding a "secret" entrance to the garage

Obtaining the axe as a reward

The axe increases the range and speed of assassinations

Exploring the back of house

As the players discover the new areas, they can construct a mental map that will be useful later on

Exploring the garden

Remembering roughly the placement of the foliage can be important

Noticing the platform leading to the interior

Composition guiding the players to the entry

The tree serves as both a justification for the hole and a line leading to it.

Pushing the trash bin to solve the puzzle

Use the trash bin to climb to the platform

Beat 3 - Exploration

With the house clearly set as the new objective, the players can explore the area to solve the environmental puzzle required to get in. Exploring is also rewarded with different items like the axe that will improve combat effectiveness. Here, the design goal is to incentivize the players to get familiar with the area before the combat. Furthermore it serve as a low intensity point in the rhythm of the level, which will serve in setting up the emotional rollercoaster intended in the next beats.

Reaching the second valve

To create a plausible platform I used a fallen tree to curve the gate as needed. The angle of the terrain guarantees that it can only be climbed one way.

The boar flees as the players approach

Second valve composition

To indicate the way forward, a mix between compositional lines, movements and visual language are used to attract the players' attention.

Climbing the gate

Running after the boar

Funneling of the path

Vista of the next area

Composition of the vista

Different techniques are used to direct the players to the newly revealed house

Beat 2 - Chase & Reveal

The players follows the boar through a bordered, muddy path that leads to another valve, this time, a damaged gate. Here, I used the boar's movements at specific points to catch and guide the player's eyes.
The borders also serves as a slight funneling to enhance the effects of the house's vista
that follows. Its goals are mainly to help get familiar with the area and the objective, to convey a sense of openess and be visually interesting for mood variation. For this I used different techniques such as framing, viewpoint elevation, god rays and compositional lines. I also changed the fog density to add to the other contrasts.

Beat 4 - Hunt Ending

Inside the house the players quickly triggers a cinematic in which the boar appears again. When it ends, they have been set up to make the perfect shot. Shooting triggers the animal to panic, run away and open a door.
To follow it, the players must push back some furniture through a Quick Time Event. It is placed to slow the players, so that it feels like the animal will escape again. It also make

the arrival of people due to the sound more plausible. Downstairs, the character will comment about the blood caused by the wound. It is used to create a sort of breadcrumbs path to the animal.

Inside the bedroom right before the short cinematic

The cinematic set up the players for the perfect shot

At this point the players are prevented from moving their aim too far away by an increasing resistance.

Players are slowed by a QTE

The players can get familiar with the ground floor

The boar's final sprint opens up the door of the greenhouse

At this point the players have access to the house from the garden

Following the blood trail

Blood is dispersed to create a "breadcrumbs" path

Beat 5 - Combat

When reaching the boar's body a cinematic is triggered again. The players are introduced to an armed group of people approaching the location. Alerted by the gunshots, they are looking to get revenge on somebody. Enemies and internal dialogues are used to make sure the players do not perceive them as friendlies. The players start the encounter hidden in the foliage, allowing for observation and tactical planning. To oppress the players and reinforce the perception of the valve, enemies are spawned in front of it as well.

A cinematic is triggered as the players reach the corpse

Enemies spawning and walking toward their patrol area

Enemies are also spawning from the way back

I added these because I realized that some players did not perceived the gate as a definitive valve. I kept this solution because I feel like it is quite oppressing for the players to feel surrounded as well.

New access open at certain timings

The enemies open the doors and the curtains on their way, adding more transitory spaces. If the players get inside, the remaining ones will open to surprise them.

Approaching an enemy to execute him silently

It is much more comfortable for the players to try to reduce the number of threats silently first.

The interior of the house is ideal for close quarters combat

It is filled with high and low covers that combine very well.

As a compromise, it is vulnerable to flanking

Most covers in the house have blind spots. Additionally the players cannot see where the other enemies will come from, potentially saturating their positions.

The swimming pool is a stealthy crossroad

It allows the players to reach important areas for the stealthy approaches, where multiples enemies are vulnerable. However, if the players are caught, they are the ones disadvantaged in a gunfight.

The garden beyond the swimming pool is suited for a long range assault

It is also an ideal area to execute enemies and prepare the terrain. The only compromise is that it can be difficult to switch from the different high covers if need be.

The design intention for the combat is to allow both stealthy and action-first approaches, or, a combination of both. For that, the environment proposes diverse options that fit more or less the different types of gameplay. Each has pros and cons to avoid dominant strategies to emerge, but a few more ideal positions have to be "earned" by the players. The goal is to encourage movement, planning and high risks - high rewards situations. "Earning" a position can be summarized by having the players go through risky "skill tests", like successfully sneaking up through a path full of patrols, or fighting their way through multiple, heavily armed enemies.

Here is how I would classify some of the main areas of the arena :

The starting area has a lot of foliage but very few covers, additionally the patrols have a good visibility on each other. Thus, encouraging the players to move around stealthily.

The interior of the house is ideal for close-quarters combat because it offers a lot of concentrated low and high covers. The downside is that it can be flanked from many sides and the players cannot see it coming. To reach it, the players must go through exposed areas around the openings, and the walls occlude the heavily armed patrols (rifle instead of pistol) behind. Another option is to beat the enemies to their patrol position as shown in the video, but that also means rushing into the unknown.

The swimming pool garden is ideal for long range combat and assassinations. The visibility is great, it contains a lot of foliage to sneak around and many enemies patrol towards vulnerable positions. Furthermore it can hardly be flanked with the wall behind the back. The downside is that it has only a few, spaced high covers. To reach it, the players must sneak through the house and terrace, or go through the furthest area from the starting point, or go through the area with the highest concentration of enemies.

The level allow for both stealthy...

It is crucial for the players to be able to identify and take advantage of the vulnerable spot created by the patrols' path and pauses.

...and action-first approaches

The players can "earn" the battlefield's positions that suit their playstyle the best. The exterior for long range and the house for close-quarters combat.

Designing the introduction

Reconstructing the Chateau & other modelling work

The most important part of this process was using a software called RenderDoc to generate a 3D asset of the Chateau using google map 3D data. Then, using Blender I was able to create a .fbx out of it and import it in Unreal. The result was unfit to be used in the final product since it was still very rough, however, it gave me a very interesting reference to start working from the realistic scale and proportions. To complete it, I integrated 2D screenshots of the satellite data to work on the environment surrounding the castle. With everything directly in the engine, I was able to produce a rough blockmesh using BSPs and the modeling tools that were integrated later on in Unreal Engine 5. Other than that, I used personal photos and street view data as an additional reference for details.

Screenshot of the asset generated with Google Map Data

(Click to zoom in)

Short video of the POV of the character as I was testing the scale

Early steps of using the "Google Map 3D assets" to produce a rough blockmesh

At this point, I was reproducing the shapes by overlapping and hiding the assets to evaluate the work in progress (it is a little bit shifted on the screenshot to make sure it shows). I was also using Google street view to make sure the asset was compliant.

Google map data of the Chateau

Using the data to produce the environment

Early tests of colors and grid materials

I produced a material using world location to generate a grid matching Unreal basic units (the usual blockmesh guideline for artists). I was also able to give it different colors according to my needs.

Evolution of the blockmesh

Evolution of the blockmesh

As I recreated it, I made sure to adapt the relevant parts to my game metrics. This was especially tricky, since it is an existing building, changing anything could shift a chain of other elements, thus, compromise the fidelity of the whole. Regarding this matter, the interior was probably the trickiest as it contained most elements to be adapted.

Balconies, walls, windows... everything had to be adapted to the cover and shooting systems of the character

Entry of the chateau in the blockmesh

Photo of the real entry

One of the main rooms

The Chapel

Currently I am in the process of adapting the castle to my post-apocalyptic setting. The idea that excited me to work on it specifically was that, with its very particular positioning on the Cher river, you could easily imagine an ingenious community transforming it into a sort of hydroelectric dam. Additionally, the gardens could be turned into orchards, stables, permaculture farms or housing, while the old fortifications and moats could be used to set up efficient defenses.
As a challenge though, I know that with climate change, the real castle already has problems when the level of the Cher river is too low in summer. Its foundations on the water use a similar system as in Venice, which requires big wooden pillars to remain underwater to not rot away. Therefore, I found interesting the idea to play with this phenomenon, to imagine what would the castle look like, as well as the Cher's valley, without the maintenance they are going through today. Thus, the partial collapse and the banks regrowth.
I'm still testing, revising plans and placing all the elements. However, I can say that I really enjoy thinking about what I would do if I was in their place and, I am excited to create interesting ways for the player to discover all of it.

In engine VS Google street view

My personal picture of Chenonceau VS In engine

Wikipedia vs In engine

Using BSPs and the modeling tools again, I modeled other interesting structures to fit the needs of the levels. I also used in engine landscapes modeling tools extensively for organic terrains and level boundaries. A few of those structures are the introduction's house, greenhouse, swimming pool, terrace, gate...the castle's water wheels, wind turbine, crane... I also created a few procedural assets using construction scripts to accelerate the process, it mostly concerns very repetitive assets like fences, metal sheets roofs, ladders and stairs.Making almost everything myself was a choice to practice. I also wanted to see if I was able to execute on any idea, regardless of its complexity in terms of representation skills.

Introduction's house and greenhouse

Swimming pool, terrace and crashed tree

Damaged Gate

Top view of the introduction level in engine

Scripting

The other area where I progressed the most is probably scripting. To achieve the coherent result I want, I have to combine a lot of very different systems. It goes from changing weather during the playthrough to using AI systems, create spawners, patrol paths, change them according to events, handle animal pawns and animations...the list goes on.
I had never used that many aspects of Unreal Engine simultaneously before, and this has improved my overall knowledge of the software greatly.

The 2 most important/challenging parts are probably :

First, design and script chain of events that are more efficient in controlling the player behavior and especially manage fail states. With this design, there are certain areas where the player is given some degree of freedom before he does what is intended. Therefore, I need to create robust trigger systems that are taking as many possibilities into account. These experimentations already taught me a lot about the differences between design theory and actual implementation in engine.
Second, and that's is by far the trickiest, retro-engineering other people's systems from marketplace assets and such. This has already taught me a lot about all the different ways you can achieve the same result in Unreal Engine. Most assets are just not plug and play, and require sometime a lot of modifications to fit the design. However, when the communication and documentation are weak, it can become very complex to find how all the pieces fit together. This recurring problem pushed me to learn a lot about good debugging practices as well as exploring nodes and systems that I had never even heard about.

Final Gallery

*This project has no commercial ambition. Most of what it contains has been produced by myself, but I also use a few Epic Marketplace and Sketchfab assets as well as music from The Last of Us games. I modified them slightly for my purposes but if you want to check out their work :
-IWALS, from Jakub W
-Polygon Apocalypse and Farm packs, from Synty Store
-Dreamscape Meadows, from PolyArt Studios
-The Last of Us Part 2 Combat OST, from Naughty Dog
-River Tool, from Shadersource
-Low Poly Farm Animal, from Radik Bilalov

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