Bryan Grode
Wack Pack
By Team Untitled
Description
Role
Level Designer
Date
August 2025 - Present
This is an anti co-op party game, where you and 3 of your friends play four unique gamemodes. With a heavy focus on a wacky cartoon-ish art style, the current state of the project sees two of the four planned gamemodes, that being the payload and death match gamemode, In payload you and your friends both work together to rob a bank while also competing to see who will earn the most amount of money by the end of the game.
Game Images
Design Work
A lot of my work on the first half of development was on the payload level and working on a full art pass for it. At the start of the project we started by using blender to create a large scale level mesh for a block out that can be used to test some of the already programmed mechanics while we waited for the meshes for the ground to be completed.
When making the level mesh in blender I would refer to the rough level idea we made on a whiteboard for the idea on what we wanted for the time between and a sketch made in Minecraft, a level design tool used in a different project we as group worked on over the summer, The goal for doing our level sketch this was was for two reasons, the first being to get a good understanding of our overall level scale and length before the initial Blender blockout, and the second reason it let me play around with a different arena ideas for the levels so I can give our 3D artist an overall idea for the original asset list size.
However when moving into the engine, the original mesh did not connect well with the grid lines, due to these issues the level had to be recreated with the road meshes that had been finished by that point. Once the level was recreated I would begin added more of the meshes as they were finished while waiting for those meshes I would also begin adding invisible walls and enemy spawners. As I did this one of my main goals at this stage was making sure we were hitting the game time range for the level
Once that was done and we had our first round of play tests the level ended up being too big so we had cut down the time to half the original time. While doing this I would begin filling the scene with smaller props and weapons for the players to use. When doing this I wanted to make sure the city felt filled like New York, with things like hot dog stands, and trees. As we continued development a lot of the feedback we got in late December, about our level size and the overall cleanliness of the city streets so starting in January I would begin the third level rework ensure most if not all the seems between my prefabs were barely noticeable.
This reset also allowed me to redo how I would approach my city block layout, before I would have really small blocks. each block had no real network in for the alleyways with each building having a random placement with no thought of any back alley props that was being added during this stage of development. So during this time I would take time creating a more realistic looking back alley network that was more mindful of the props and NPC navigation.
With the inclusion of alleyway props and the smaller map size to avoid making the map feel super short and boring, I decided to to make two alleyway path that players would enter. The main goal for this section was to have one side feel relatively normal with only two arenas with the other being more punishing with more hazards, stronger enemy encounters and an extra arena.
Finishing out this level in its current state, I would go through and add some of our newer props like cars, new weapons as well as some respawnable pickups so players had a reliant way to heal without needing to stay on the payload cart. This is not the only level made for this project click the button more if you are interested in some of the other levels.
After the main work on the payload level, I began working on one of the two deathmatch levels, that currently are present in the game. The initial concept for the level seen to the right, I roughly and I mean very roughly based on the Valorant map Split. I wanted to have the same claustrophobic alleyway spacing where you as the player is wondering through the map using various props in the level as cover. The initial concept I came up with I quickly blocked out with the idea on having a small grassy area with a large tree in the center. However after initial testing there were some noticeable issues that needed to be solved first of which being the level being way too large, moving throughout the level was a hassle and boring at times if you had not located another player, and even if you had if they had the distance you would never reach them before loosing them again.
So shortly after the playtest and discussing with my team about how best we should cut down on the levels space, and with the new propsed level size I would begin the remake of the level. While recreating the level I wanted to create a lot more narrower spaces since the alleyway sizing was still too large from the inital concept, however one thing that would stay from the concept was the road which originally contained some of our strongest weapons with little cover being a more high risk and high reward and allowed us to create a spot for people to reach to get their hands on good weapons.
Once that was done and we had our first round of play tests the level ended up being too big so we had cut down the time to half the original time. While doing this I would begin filling the scene with smaller props and weapons for the players to use. When doing this I wanted to make sure the city felt filled like New York, with things like hot dog stands, and trees. As we continued development a lot of the feedback we got in late December, about our level size and the overall cleanliness of the city streets so starting in January I would begin the third level rework ensure most if not all the seems between my prefabs were barely noticeable.
So to keep that aspect alive I would take the cut down map and create two sides of the map. This way players can be spawned on either side have a meeting point where they would for sure find strong weapons and then be able to use those weapons to fight the other players immediately after finding them. On top of that with the two sides I decided to add a small parking lot where some more strong weapons, shop and drive-able vehicles which would as act as another high risk high reward area where you would need to dive over a nearby fence perfectly to avoid being killed in the closed off funnel
Once the basic layout of the level was established I would begin filling it up with the various props from the city payload level. However with that I would begin add some of the new alleyway props, like electrical boxes and dumpsters to begin filling out our space and for cover I would use large construction dumpsters to start which if used right you could hide inside of if you wanted to go for a more ambush strategy. A player interaction I was found of in another level concept that was made.
Finishing out the level in its current state I would begin adding new cover which was made of propane trucks. Which if hit enough times will blow up and potentially kill all those around the truck. Another change at the end was another slight downsizing since playtests revealed players never traveling down half of the map despite the multitudes of weapons or shops down the section.
Before working on my last map in the games current state I took over finish what one of the levels on of my team members started which they had to do due to a immense work load. When getting the level it was in the state pictured on the right when I began working, The first thing I would do was to finish the setup of the space as all that was left was to finish the training room where player can learn to fight with our weapons as well as remove the old seating stands which would be replaced with its own unique model. I would reuse the stage model to make a place for our players to fight the combat dummies with a line of some of our weapons in front of the stage.
Not only that I would push back the backside of the level mesh in blender allowing me to create a new area where I placed two vehicles starting with two van and later making it one van and tricycle that way our players could learn the driving mechanics. I would also line one wall with shops and the other with some of our breakable props so within this space while they waited to get ready in the main gameplay loops they could learn all the mechanics that we want them to interact with.
Not only that but I wanted to make sure that all of this kept the same feeling and behaviors that we as a group wanted this project to bring out. That being chaotic and mischief, which had been going on since the start of this project and so to ensure the new space reinforced this I upped the amount of weapons present within the lobby so our players still felt the need to attack their friends.
The last thing I would do for this level before moving on to the last level was update all the textures in blender so they match the new path I had made with the level.
The next main level I worked on was the Graveyard level, being based off a forest level originally designed by another member of my team. That same member would also originally take on the task of making the level but due to their work load I would take over with only whats pictured on right as my starting point. The initial idea we came up with as a group for the design of this level was based off of the old Scooby-Doo cartoon from the 90s. Which is way the levels main lighting leans more towards a greenish hue, the first goal of the level was to finish out the level mesh in blender, the main goal was to create a large area for the actual graveyard portion as well as large scale mountains to act as high ground and to block the edges of the world. After that I would begin my focus on the broken mausoleum and creating corridors for the players to battle in.
I would do so by using a mixture of trees, bushes, and invisible walls to create those corridors to fill that space. I would also begin placing some starting weapons so playtesting could begin shortly after the initial blockout, I would witch my focus back on the mausoleum I would begin using some of the tree models I would begin placing it on some of the broken sections of the model. I wanted to give the impression that the trees themselves were the reason the building fell apart and opened the coffin releasing its contents.
I also wanted create a evil sense from the coffin within the center so in order to do so instead of using the usually orange lights, I used a deep red light that I made originate from within the now open coffin. After finishing the section I would move over to the graveyard section of the level I would use my same methodology to create section which contains two corridors which leads one of two openings that lead you back towards the mausoleum. In this section I would also begin placing some tombstones within the trees to give the impression that the site had been abandon or uncared for.
I would also begin place pumpkin props that can be destroyed in the level, one of the carved pumpkins after some discussion as a group felt it would be for a great gag if we made one explode and so when doing so I made one explosive so if players used that knowledge they could destroy one and snag a free kill or use it to escape. I would also make 4 holes in the level mesh in that section 2 of which where players can spawn from and the other two set to become a future hazard that has yet to get implemented.
After that I would make use of a new drive-able vehicle known as the broom stick in level in doing so however I needed to create a height barrier to players couldn't fly into the void or unplayable locations in the level. Originally as well there was another portion of the level that lead to the back end of the Mausoleum however after some initial testing rounds I had learned the level was way too large and needed that section cut down so players could find others and engage in the main gameplay.
By this time however I would run out of time on the projects deadline for the class and so it never reached past the state its in now. However this project is not yet completed and will be continuing down towards a full steam release, In it I intend to continue filling out this level more with some more old and new props.
