Watchtower - Dead Call
Dead Call is a four part Left 4 Dead campaign created by a team of four female designers. The Survivors crash in a remote town that was broadcasting a message from a group of people there. Upon entering the town, the group finds that it’s overrun with infected. They travel from the town out towards a farm that leads up into a remote wilderness area with a lone watchtower at the top of a tall hill. From there, they travel down the rocky hills, ending up at the coast where they’re able to call for a rescue boat.
Role
Quest Level Designer
Game Engine
Hammer - Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools
Platform
PC
Development Time
4 Months, 2020
Team Size
4 Designers
Watchtower - Dead Call Playthrough
Screenshots
Roles and Responsibilities
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I worked on the 3rd level, Watchtower. The responsibilities that came with this level are detailed in my individual LDD as well as the campaign LDD. I drew up the maps for level 3 as well as detailing the challenges that I wanted to give the player within the space.
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My other responsibilities included:
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Building my map
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Creating gameplay experiences within the level space in accordance with the LDD
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Iterations were made to pickup locations as well as initial weapon pickups based upon peer and faculty feedback on the level both as an individual and campaign experience
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Coordinating with the team for building the VPK
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Playtesting the VPK for bugs and errors in gameplay
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About Watchtower
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This is the most rural of the four areas before the finale. The concept for the level is that the Survivors are hiking through a wooded area, up a narrow trail in order to assess their approximation to the coast. As they climb the switchbacks up the hill, the experience is supposed to feel vast, goliath, and lonely.
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Small pockets of story are hidden in camp areas and in the cabins where rescue closets are at. Each tells the story of different families that either got lost or stranded in the remote hillsides, just out of reach of an escape. Each small story, I wanted to have feel like survival was simply a near miss. Each one inspiring new levels of anxiety as the players come across them.
Level Design Documents
Dead Call Campaign
Watchtower
Development Fun Facts
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The shady lady came from a collective identity that we assumed after a funny naming mishap with our team folders. We embraced the name as we were the only team that was formed exclusively of women. We adopted a sense of pride in our mysterious Shady Lady identity and wanted to incorporate that into our campaign identity. For that, I created a custom logo for us and the poster designer, Minqi, incorporated near the title of the campaign.
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Helped come up with the tag line for the poster.
Shady Ladies Logo
Post Mortem
What Went Well ?
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The members of our team respected one another and kept great communication with the members that needed to be virtual.
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Problems were tackled right away, which saved a lot of time fixing things that could be problematic down the road.
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All of the leads communicated with one another and with the entire team in a transparent way that garnered investment into the project.
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We made a point of identifying goals that make things easier for multiple disciplines. Each item of the tool kit for puzzles was designed with implementation and linking elements in mind. Spaces were designed while identifying art needs so the art team wasn’t surprised by future art requirements.
What Went Wrong ?
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Levels took a long time to be built because we had a small design team and each level had a level of technical difficulty surrounding lighting and movement.
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Some problems didn’t get addressed until the end of some milestones, which was a problem surrounding the lack of early testing.
What I Learned ?
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Keep track of what’s been tested and what needs to be looked at as it’s being designed.
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Consistently update documentation so needed information doesn’t get lost.
