STRAY BAY
PROJECT INTRODUCTION
Stray Bay is one of the first promoted, supported, developer funded custom campaigns for The Anacrusis. Made for and with the community, Stray Bay was one of the first featured maps for The Anacrusis to deliver a fun and high quality experience that showcased that Modder’s have potential to make amazing campaigns and maps for the future of the game. With the release of Stray Bay, the campaign was the first and only custom map to be released to Xbox, Steam, and Microsoft. It was also added to the official playlist for The Anacrusis. Stray Bay was just the first-step to showcase a solid stepping stool for more amazing maps from the community.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Design the Level Layout for Stray Bay
- Design multiple levels that could be played from start to finish and participate in various weekly playtests
- Decorate & Set Dressed the interior and exterior of the levels
- Work with the developer team at Stray Bombay to offer Critical Feedback in making the modding tools accessible and friendly to new users
- Created a trailer and do self-marketing with advertising across social media platforms
PROJECT DETAILS:
- The Anacrusis Custom Mod
- Total Team of 3
- Role: Level Designer & Game Designer
- Unreal Engine 5
Designing The Layout
- I was given super early access to the modding toolkit by the Stray Bombay developer team. Here they used a modified Unreal Engine 4 Editor, with all the features of the normal engine, as well as some additional things such as GPU Lightmass for rendering lighting. I created a new level inside the editor and got right to work for my very first campaign.
- A lot of the flow & gameplay space was designed in mind to use as fit as many set-dressing assets as possible. I had access to 1000s of custom Unreal Engine assets to tables, to giant turbines, to generators, and especially some awesome and custom materials!
Custom Materials & Texture Editing
- I designed a ton of Custom Materials & Textures for the campaign, as well as adjusting them in Photoshop. These textures were imported and replaced some of the default textures the game had and I modified specific items inside Unreal Engine 4 to give them a brand new & different look for players who were familiar with the base game.
- Most of these custom textures were to help with the Environmental Storytelling of what used to happen at the Stray Bay. With the community’s love for cats, I just had to put in my own pet Shop with some awesome cat decorations along the green wall.
Communicating with the A.I. Director
- I was in charge of importing the Actors and Blueprints in order to set up the A.I director for Stray Bay. These actors were required for every single level as it was what built the A.I navigation, enemy spawning, item spawns, and the ability to start and finish the level.
- Working with the Director who placed the enemies and did the encounters for you was the most Challenging Part when it came to making the levels for Stray Bay. You had to cooperate and communicate to the director where you wanted the Special Aliens to spawn, where loot shouldn’t spawn, and of course a lot of Blueprint actors to communicate to the Director the best and fastest path for the players to go.
