CAGD 495 - Advanced Production - Spring 2025 [Carl Moreno]

 CAGD 495 - Robot Riot - Carl Moreno [Level Designer]

• [Sprint 6] - Hello! For the sixth sprint of the development of Robot Riot, my goal as the Level Designer was to make sure each of the four levels had polished lighting, changes in map sizing, implement the latest models and work with collider issues. For this sprint, I made sure to listen to the feedback that was given by playtesters and incorporate them into the levels so that players can enjoy playing the next upcoming build. My main duty early on this sprint was getting the lighting dialed in for the Oasis level since I was having baking issues in an earlier sprint. I was glad to be able to fix any issues with the baked lighting and begin incorporating post-processing for the rest of the levels. 

The Oasis enhanced!

• For the Oasis level, the issues that I was encountering pre-fix were the lights being extremely bright and shadows portraying wrong on many models. The solution that I found was to adjust the area light to be as high as the roof so that the light would increase. Also, all of the models with incorrect baked lighting had to be switched to a generate light UV map so that light correctly reflects on the model. As I tweaked a few settings in the lighting inspector I got a pretty cool-looking baking map that I am really proud of. I made sure to compliment the bake with post-processing so that the player can enjoy looking at the emissive and enhanced color with shadow. I am planning to adjust the post-processing a little more after the beta build because it is a larger scene and one of the darker ones compared to the other three. It will all depend on the feedback from the players if they actually enjoy how the lighting is for the Oasis currently and I will make sure to adjust accordingly. 

Oasis with post-processing!

• Moving onto the Village level, this one was definitely a fun one playing with the colors of the lighting. It is a more colorful and playful scene so I tried my best to imitate a fun little suburban town with a nice park. Previously, the lighting I had went with more of a darker scene so that the street lights would pop, but after the playtest, I realized that the clouds did not match with the vibe. I made sure to add more points and direction lights in the scene as well as editing my placed reflection probes. The saturation was cranked up with post-processing so that it can give the daytime effect while being an indoor type of scene. After going through a few bakes, I am also extremely satisfied with how the lighting turned out for this scene. The Village level now feels more playful and increased lighting brings more life into the scene. 

The Village enhanced!

Player-view of the village!

• Lastly, for the Wild West level, this one was my best one to play around with because I've always wanted to work with sunset emissions and tie it with old dusty buildings. After the alpha playtest, players said that the original West map was a little too small. So I worked with Alex, the other level designer, to design a new and improved level so that players can feel more free. I was also in charge of implementing the newest models for this level and working with colliders as well. I have enhanced the lighting for this scene creating a very immersive feeling for the player to make them feel like they are roaming through the old west times. My favorite parts were working with the sun, the tunnel, and the bank. 

The beautiful sunset of the Wild West level!

The tunnel's beautiful lighting.

• Overall, this was a really successful sprint as far as polishing goes. I was also able to model a couple of things adding to the scenes such as a robot-style mock car and a Roman shield. Texturing the mock car was definitely one of my favorite things to texture for this game because of my love for cars. As we approach the last sprint, I am going to devote myself to working on the trailer for the game. I have a lot of great ideas in mind and will make sure to place them in the trailer. I am excited to reach closer to the completion of Robot Riot and it has been an honor working on the team! 

The Flea Bot mock car / hot rod!

The Village is based in the mythical state of Atmos where the bots thrive.

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• [Sprint 5] - Greetings! For the fifth sprint of the development of Robot Riot, my goal as the Level Designer was to make sure all the levels now include baked lighting, including the newest level, the west! I was able to complete the full polish for level one with all the needed props in the scene. As well as getting a really good position for the level 2 lighting, which looks phenomenal so far. I am continuing to improve the lighting with the level three Oasis, and I plan to get that finished during the next sprint. As far as the new level goes, I am excited to get into post-processing since the light bakes that I've made look really good so far.

Fully polished level one facility with new props added!

• For level one, the Facility, I made sure to place all of the remaining props so that the level is fully complete and ready to go for the build. Everything turned out perfectly, and the light bakes came out exactly how I wanted. Looking over some feedback for the level, it seems like the Facility is perfect and players seem to enjoy it a lot. The only thing that is going to be added into the scene in the next sprint would be working conveyor belt ramps, where the player will be forced to use bot mode to travel up to the second level. It will be a great way for players to utilize their bot mode and have the level become more interactive. 

New Conveyor belt ramps for bot mode in the facility.

• For the second level, the Village, I have scaled up the whole scene, since the player was a little too short against the buildings, and added the new walls, ceilings, and ceiling lights. I also went to town and added light placement, light probes, and made bakes for the lighting. I made sure the scene had the proper colliders so that the player doesn't clip through buildings or even fall off the map. I have added global volume to all of the scenes, but I do plan to work on post-processing for the next sprint so that each scene pops. There will also be more props added into the village, which I am excited to add and populate the scene more so that it comes alive. 

Level 2 Village - full lighting!

• For the new level, the Wild West, the scene was completed by being put together by Alex, the other level designer, and I started right away with light placement and baking for the scene. I was able to successfully complete the lighting for the build for this scene, and I am proud of how it turned out. The sun emissive was definitely my favorite part of the lighting process since it really sets the tone for the level as a whole. I was also able to assist with fitting more models into the scene with their added colliders. 

Level 4 West lighting!

Amazing sun!

• As I continue polishing up the lighting for levels 2-4, I am looking more closely into the Oasis since I am running into obstacles for the light maps. I will make sure that gets finished right away so that I can dive right into the post-processing and make sure the leaves are running smoothly without any hitches. The Oasis level is a bigger scene, so I did expect it to be a larger light map, so I will make sure there is nothing overloading the scene to make the lights trip out. 

Sneak Peek into the lighting of the Oasis. WIP.

Updated light probes to fit properly in dark shadows and added light probes to the lower level water area of the Oasis.

• Lastly, I was able to complete a few models this sprint, such as facility signs and a cowboy hat. One of the facility signs will be used as a bot mode only sign that will be placed in all of the levels to remind the player to switch to their bot mode feature to travel through certain areas. We want to make sure the player is utilizing their bot mode, so this added sign should help out a lot. Overall, this sprint was really positive, and I am glad the team is enjoying the progress toward the levels. The alpha build is putting a lot of smiles on people's faces, and people are finding it really fun, which is the main goal. I am excited to keep pushing into the next sprint to improve Robot Riot further!

The Cowboy Lone Star Hat of the Wild West.

Bot Mode Sign! - to be placed in all levels!

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• [Sprint 4] - Hello there! For the fourth sprint of the development of Robot Riot, my goal as a Level Designer was to make sure the levels looked polished, such as lighting, adding and editing colliders, modeling new props, light probe wiring, and having levels one through three fully built up for playtest. This was by far my best sprint overall, and I am extremely proud of myself for pushing myself further to create wonderful-looking levels for players to enjoy. Building up the Oasis, level 3, was a bit of a challenge for me since it is a larger level compared to the first two. I wanted to make sure that the map did not feel too big to the point where it would be tough for the players to find each other. Early this sprint, I was able to fully complete the level design for the Oasis, and it turned out absolutely fantastic and exactly as I had envisioned it. 

v1 of the Oasis level!

• For the Oasis level, the most challenging part overall was for sure getting all the colliders in for every single model that I placed in the scene. For the box colliders, I made sure to create many of them so that the player is actually able to walk into buildings, and have boundaries set, and create a sense of players being able to get some high ground over their opponent. I have always wanted to build up a tropical-looking scene with palm trees everywhere, and seeing the scene come alive was definitely a dream come true. I am glad the whole team and players are able to take the time, and I appreciate the level of detail that I have spent making sure the Oasis blows their mind. I would also like to thank the amazing modelers who are on the team to assist in making the level pop more. There were a ton of great models produced this sprint, and being able to place them in the scene was a lot of fun!

Tons of colliders added manually by me.

Flea Bot with the high ground, hiding between some palm trees.

• As for the Level one facility, I went back this sprint to add more to the scene since it was originally one level with no roof. I wanted to make sure that the level feels more like a large facility rather than a one-story building. Players did enjoy the first level, so I decided to take it up a notch and add in a second level to the scene so that there would be more space and action involved. I was also able to dive straight into the lighting for the facility, which turned out absolutely amazing. I was able to successfully have light probes and reflection orbs around the scene so that dark areas are able to reflect bounced light. 

Lighting added for the Facility. (Level 1)

• A nice detail that I've added for the facility was a box volume collider, which allows for the shifting colors of light, which is a huge game changer with the lights. The problem with this box volume, though, was the collider that is attached to it. The collider of the box was placed only on the second level, and it did not allow the player to shoot unless the collider was switched off. We decided to have it switched off for the build, but I will find a way and speak with the programmer to see how we can bring this back, because I really like having the color shifting so that the player is aware they are in the second level of the facility. 

Light probe wiring and box volume collider.

• I was also able to pump out a few models for the level one facility to make the scene more like an industrial feel. Unfortunately, it was not able to make it in the build, but they turned out pretty cool. I was able to model a metal scaffolding piece, conveyor belt, and suspended metal pieces for the ceiling. For the oasis, I was able to add in some sand for the two-story buildings on the upper level, which really makes the scene pop. Adding in the sand now makes it feel like a real tropical resort. 

Metal Scaffolding - Facility

Conveyor Belt!

• Next, I was able to add more to the second level, the suburb scene. I made sure to check and adjust the coliders for the scene, as well as add in extra models that needed to be added to fill up the scene more. I also made sure to have every model in the scene be set to static so that I am able to dive straight into lighting for this scene for the next sprint. Which also leads straight into what I am planning to work on next sprint, which will be to polish up the lighting even more to make the scenes pop more. I really enjoyed how level one's lighting turned out, and I plan to keep the trend up and follow the same sort of style for the next levels moving forward so that it matches up well.

Level two updates!

• I am really looking forward to playing around with the fourth and final level, which is coming together quickly by the other level designer, Alex. We were able to have a chat on the approach for the lighting for this scene, which is a wild western theme. I plan the next sprint to work on the lighting for level four, which will bring in a low-toned wild western color so that the player feels like they are actually back in the old times. Overall, everything is coming together really nicely, and I am proud to complete lots of amazing work this sprint and a working build!

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• [Sprint 3] - Hello! For the third sprint of the development of Robot Riot, my role as the Level Designer for the team pushes beyond further and expands on designing level three. Level three revolves around an oasis theme with a resort meshed in between. At the beginning of the sprint, my main focus was creating the annotated map for the Oasis so that the blockout could be worked on straight away. The process overall has been going extremely well, and I am really enjoying how things are going so far in terms of level design. Alex, a level designer, and I are producing a level a sprint and placing it in Unity right away, which is extremely nice so that the team could playtest. The model work that I have completed for the Oasis map this sprint is a Roman tunnel building, Roman tower building, and Roman ramps/staircase. Below is the completed annotated map for the Oasis level and I am really proud of how it turned out. I am going to be tweaking the sizes of the models in Unity so that the map doesn't entirely feel too large for the player.

Full Top Down Annotated Oasis Map! (Level 3)

The Oasis lower level map!

• The first piece I worked on for modeling was the Roman Tunnel Building. The high version of this model had over 20,000 faces, while the low poly version was toned down to under 5,000 polys. I really enjoyed texturing this piece since I have never really textured buildings from the Roman age, so this was a first and I am glad it turned out awesome! An issue that I encountered, that I will be looking into, is that the textures in Unity came out blurry for the model. I made sure to export the textures in 4K and project high quality textures on the base material in Unity. I will be making sure that this gets fixed during the next sprint when I am polishing the levels. I will be looking into the texel density of the UVs to make sure I am getting the most out of the texture from Substance Painter.

Textured Roman Tunnel Building!

• The next model that I worked on this sprint was a Roman tower building followed by some Roman ramps. The Roman tower building's textures came out pretty good in Unity and I am satisfied with the turnout with the smoothness applied. I also made sure to separate the windows from the piece so that I could get working see-through windows so that the player could utilize. I want to make sure that all of the buildings in the Oasis scene have some type of open door so players could see each other if they are a bit far from each other. I had a lot of fun modeling this piece and I have to say, it is my favorite piece I have done so far. To save resources, I made sure to use the pre-existing modeled and textured pillars that Andrew has made so that I can add them to my Roman building models as a prefab in Unity. 

Textured Roman Tower Building!

• As all of the latest models were pushed onto GitHub, I immediately began building the Oasis scene so that the team could start playtesting it. I am really enjoying how everybody's models have turned out so far and it makes me very motivated to build the scene together. As the next sprint approaches, I plan on finishing building the Oasis scene with added colliders so that I could send it off to the programmers to start placing spawn and weapon positions based on my annotated map. Once the Oasis level is complete, I also plan on polishing levels 1-3, making sure that it looks more complete. As well as working with early post-processing and lighting. Overall, this sprint was very productive for me and I am proud of the work that was completed! 

Model Placement for the Oasis began! -featuring the bots hanging out with each other!

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• [Sprint 2] - Hello, for the second sprint of the development of Robot Riot I have been tasked with pieces that focus on the level design for the second level. At the beginning of the sprint, I had a great kickoff getting assigned exactly what I needed to work on next. The team focused on planning for the second level, which I got to work on right away with the assistance of the other level designer, Alex. The process has been the same as the last sprint which is working well so far as I take on the level designer role. We have now got the ball rolling and lots of great work is being produced on the level design side, and I am on the right track based on this sprint's work.

Gas Station model! (w/ no pumps)

• As mentioned, the focus was to pump out items for the second level which is suburban neighborhood-themed. The first model that I focused on for level designing purposes was a simple gas station. I really enjoyed modeling the canopy piece because I was able to express my creativity and design the gas station how I wanted to look visually while following the restrictions placed by the lead. I did not encounter any problems while modeling the gas station, I was able to get the proper sizing so that it looks proper. As I got to Substance Painter, I was able to successfully create a good bake to my liking with the addition of ambient occlusion. I decided to create color IDs for this model since I felt like there were a lot of parts included in total. I really had lots of fun texturing this piece I also decided to add a trash can with an image of trash in it to add to the level of detail. As well as some graffiti tags to make it seem more like a lively public gas station in the neighborhood.

Gas Station Textured!

• The next top priority piece was the fountain centerpiece. I made sure to model the fountain to look very elegant but not so crazy that it would have a ton of polys. The high version that I created of the fountain piece had over 10K faces, which I knocked out of the park because it looks amazing as a centerpiece. The piece is going to be placed right in the middle of the street on a round-a-bout curb. The UV-ing process was not too difficult as I made the proper cuts on most of the edges of the model. As I baked the model in Substance Painter, there were no issues that prompted me and I was able to successfully texture the piece with ivory colors with some ambient occlusion. The only difficult part that I encountered while texturing the fountain piece was trying to make the water look cartoony without looking so much like blue ice. As an extra addition, I decided to add the head model of the flea bot so that the centerpiece would stand out more and give the level more life. 

Fountain Center-Piece!

• The next thing that was on my radar after the fountain model, was getting the sidewalk modular pieces together. As the level 2 blockout was finished by Alex, I was able to view the blockout and get a sense of the street for sizing reference. I modeled the sidewalks to look simple and nothing too crazy, similar to normal suburban neighborhood sidewalks. I made sure to texture the sidewalks with a concrete material with a second material on the side for the curbs. I also decided to put in a teeny bit of dirt generators and added some cracks to add to the level of detail. As an addition, I also decided to place some graffiti tags around so that they could match the gas station. I did not want to go overboard on the graffiti because then it would make it seem out of place for this kind of scenery. 

Sidewalk Pieces textured with some graffiti!

• As the next sprint approaches, I plan to keep the ball rolling since there are two more levels to be made. I am currently working on the lighting with the two scenes that we have currently so that I can start placing all the current models together to make the levels feel more complete. My goal with the lighting is to make sure that the ambient occlusion stands out with the models. A playtest was conducted during this sprint and I am prepping to make changes to the first level based on the player feedback. Overall, I can say this was a really successful second sprint and I am proud of the team and myself over the great material being pushed out!

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• [Sprint 1] - Hello, for the first sprint of the development of Robot Riot I have been selected as the team's Level Designer, the start-up process I think has been extremely successful. I was tasked to design the first annotated map for the levels so that the team could begin playtesting as soon as possible. This process has been different from my previous Level Design roles since this is my first time doing Level Design with a larger team, and I am excited to blossom my level design ideas with the team. It will be great since the team has selected a second-level designer to pair with me and we will be able to collaborate further and create fun levels. As I was completing the first annotated map, I made sure to show it to the team's lead to make sure that everything was to their standard and playable for the playtest. 

The Facility Annotated Map!

• I took my time designing this facility level to make sure that the player had sufficient mobility and is able to fight their opponent right away without having to look for each other. The design of the first map was inspired by Call of Duty: Warzone's Gulag map in which the players face off in a 1v1 style design in a compact area. The team has chosen this design as the first level so that players get a feeling of their abilities and weapon damage. For Sprint 2, I am planning on adding more to this map such as health kits, charge-up abilities, and of course any tweaks to the pieces. My goal for this first sprint was to make sure that the annotated map was created, approved and immediately built within Unity so that the team could playtest right away. 

The Facility Map in Unity!

• As the map was approved, the map began with the block-out stages in Unity so that both myself and the other Level Designer had an idea for the fitment of models in the scene. I begin right away modeling some of the modular pieces such as a main wall, ramps, and pillars. I made sure to texture the pieces in certain colors whilst following the requirements placed in our designated Asset List. For the first level, most of the main colors followed a blue, dark gray, and gray monotone to simulate a real facility. I added a bit of grunge generators as well to make it seem more realistic. For the pillars, they would serve as an extra defense for the player so I textured them to seem like there are hazards in the area and caution strips. There will be hazard items placed in the future sprint that will be scattered around the level and I think the hazard logo will be a great addition to assist the player in finding hazard abilities. 

• For the modular walls, I made sure they were no larger than 4 meters tall since that was the given number by the lead. I enjoyed texturing this wall piece because I liked how the ambient occlusion turned out. Once the lighting is added to the scene, the wall piece will shine more, complementing the grunge and making it seem like it is a busy facility. Another modular piece that I modeled this sprint, was ramps. These ramps are to change the height of the level allowing the players to have a high ground against each other to allow them to be more competitive. As I put the level together into Unity, the flooring became a bit of a challenge since I did not expect to deal with straight-placed floors mixed with diagonals. I was able to adjust well and have the diagonal pieces just slightly lower than the straight floor pieces to combat z-fighting. 

The Facility - Center area! [Red block indicates player spawn, Green block indicates weapon spawn generator]

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  Currently, I am working with the producer and lead so that I can continue tweaking the first level in Unity. My goal is to make sure the level seems fair and there is a good amount of weapon spawners and health placed around. As well as adding colliders to the pieces so that the player does not fall through the map or phase through any objects. So far, I am enjoying the level design role and I am eager to design more amazing maps for the team! 

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