This might be a short one this week as I’m in the middle of the final level creation and redesign for the game, and it’s construction in Unity using Pro Builder. Lot’s of good progress made though and I hope to have some cool stuff to show next time. I’m hitting a bit of a wall as this section is difficult, but I think I can push through.

Last Week

Last week I was working on paper maps for all of the levels and areas in Echo Terminal. I expected that to take me at least a week, but after that was done I was going to move on to roughing those areas out in Unity. I’ve ended up doing a bit of a mix here. I have the maps 75% complete, some of the later level designs aren’t quite finished and need more work. However, I have 2 (out of 5) areas created in Unity, using Pro Builder.

Pro Builder

If you don’t know it, Pro Builder is a really good tool for making simple models and layouts inside Unity. The idea is to use it to prototype levels, then replace it later with final artwork. But for my needs it will work for the full scale development, as I’m working with low poly environments. I have even used it for props in some cases, as you have complete control over the UVs. Overall it is super powerful, so if you are using Unity but don’t know about it yet, I would give Pro Builder a look. It is built in, but isn’t pre-installed, so head to the package manager to get it.

Here is a shot of some of the layouts that I have done so far:

echo terminal pro builder layout

This wireframe shot may be hard to interpret. But, if you look carefully you can make out door frames, rooms and a person to give an idea of the scale. This is about 20% of the final map, so there will be quite a lot to see.

Because of how the game works, you don’t directly explore, and some rooms might remain unseen for the whole game. What I might do though, is add a scientist mode where you can just walk around and explore the facility properly, pre horrific event. There might even be some cool back story in there!

This Week

For now, adding new modes is a distant dream. I have levels to make! Expect to see more pro builder, more paper maps and hopefully the next time I write a dev log I will have all of my levels mapped out, and will be making sure things like doors and lights work.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it. As ever, if you want more behind the scenes stuff, head to Discord, following the link on the left.