Level Design |
When we initially designed the game, we decided that player immersion was one of our key goals. It is why we chose a HUD-less feedback system for the player, and why we chose to leverage the capacity of the Unreal 3 engine to stream levels in and out at runtime. We have a total of 11 distinct levels (not counting our front-end map) which are streamed in and out as needed. This allows us to transition from the present day "surface ship" to the underwater wreck site and then to the Queen Anne's Revenge in the early 1700s without forcing the player to endure a single loading screen.
Our levels consisted of:
- A "master stream" level which contained the majority of the Kismet sequences for the artifact restoration and flashback sequences
- The present day recovery vessel, which we commonly referred to as the "Surface Ship"
- The underwater wreck site, the current home of the Queen Anne's Revenge
- Four layers of the wreck site which change over time as the player uncovers more of the wreck
- The Queen Anne's Revenge itself
- The Protestant Caesar, which the player is able to fight and sink during one of the flashbacks
- A level representing Charleston harbor, the location of Blackbeard's notorious week-long blockade
- The place where it all ended: Beaufort Inelt, North Carolina, where Blackbeard ran the Queen Anne's Revenge aground