With the cargo ship level, we introduced the player to a sci-fi world in which a mystery crate becomes a gateway to greater adventure. As we move on to a second level, we need to answer a few questions:

For me, the answers came from my entertainment influences. I am an avid reader of science fiction, as well as cerebral horror by authors like H.P Lovecraft. As a gamer, I enjoy games such as Dead Space, Mass Effect, and FEAR. So to pull from those influences, my thoughts turned to the crate containing some artifact plundered from an ancient race. This artifact somehow caused the disappearance of the crew of our cargo ship. However, an inspection of the crate left us with a clue: the name of an import/export broker based on a mining station not far from where the player found the abandoned freighter. Heading back to the bridge, the player sets a course for the space station.

Like all good things, we will start this level with a sketch on paper:

Just like our cargo ship, we start our space station on paper

For the space station, our design is centered on communicating the story to the player and providing a tense and foreboding atmosphere. Like the cargo ship they arrive on, the station is completely empty of any other human life. However, the area provides us as designers with ample opportunity to tell a story through scripted events.

Looking at our map, we can plan ahead and designate different areas as points where we can increase the player's sense of tension and direct the player toward the ultimate goal, the broker's stall in the marketplace. Since we want to avoid obvious clues such as signs and text prompts, we can designate some areas on our map for scripted events. These are areas where we will use Blueprints to communicate to the player and give clues as to the next step of the story. In a space station, these might be automated announcements over the PA system (audio clues), collapsing corridor sections due to damage (using triggered particle events), or creating vistas for the player to marvel at that also highlight the next goal (using level geometry). Let's take a look at the map. The player starts in the landing bay and has to progress through the airlock and security check. Here, we could use light, sounds, and some particle systems to create a malfunction that the player has to escape. Not deadly by any means, but it does communicate that there are no station staff present and that routine maintenance might have not been done in a while. Next, the player walks on to a promenade walkway. This could be an opportunity to present the player with a vista of the larger space station and highlight the location of the broker's shop down below. This communicates to the player that they need to find a way down to the market and makes them think that the level is much larger than the playable area. The player will then move over to the elevator, but this will malfunction as well and crash to the bottom of the shaft and force the player to take the stairs. When they finally enter the broker's stall, they should be on edge and ready for anything. Feel free to create your own interpretations of our scripted events and even add a few more.

Now let's move on to whiteboxing.