Destroy All Humans! 2 : Reprobed

Description:

Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed is a 2022 action-adventure video game developed by Black Forest Games and published by THQ Nordic. It is a remake of the 2006 original game.

In Destroy All Humans! 2: Reprobed, players assume the role of the grey alien Crypto as he travels to various locations in an open world, including England, Japan, Russia, and the United States, to complete missions and defeat human enemies. It features a variety of alien weapons and mind abilities, including the ability to mind-control humans and pilot a flying saucer.

Responsibilities and Achievements:

• Owning the level design for 7 locations from concept to final gameplay while collaborating with Creative Direction, Narrative, Mission, Art, Code and Production Teams. As a result all 7 locations were delivered in time and of great quality. The work included:
  • Blocking out and quick iterations;
  • Scripting mission flow and combat encounters;
  • Managing level design deliverables;
  • Defining level design metrics for the game;
  • Organizing internal playtests, assessing feedback to improve design quality;
• Leading the World Design Team to bring 5 Open World Levels to live, including:
  • Setting up crowd and traffic systems;
  • Designing and implementing 17+ mini-quests for the Landing Zones;
  • Scripting ambient more than 100 NPC activities;
• Owning the hiring process for level designers: Assessing resumes, designing the level design test, evaluating potential candidates and conducting interviews. As a result:
  • I hired 3 level designers that stayed in the company for 5+ years;
• Designing and integrating Level and World Design Tools that greatly improved cross-department communication and my team’s efficiency. As a rusult:
  • A Crowd Composition Tool saved around 20 man-hours a month;
  • A Metrics Helper Tool and 3D Spatial Notes Tool greatly helped aligning Level Design and Level Art Departments;

Gallery:

Level Design Metrics Helper

I’ve designed and implemented this tool to improve the communication between Level Design and Level Art Departments;

• Once placed in a level, the tool allows to select a main character’s move from the list and see the metric;
• I’ve also built a gym level with the metrics;

Bay City | The Harbour Area

I’ve designed and blocked out this location as a part of the Open World.
It also is used in a side mission “Private Danza”. Here are before-and-after screenshots of the area:

Here is the final block-out for the Side Mission in particular. You can also check the final result in this Mission Walkthrough.

Solaris | The Blisk Base

I’ve designed and blocked out this location as the part of the Open World. It was also used in the final mission of the game;

• My priority was speed so, I didn’t do any formal documentation. Instead, I  roughly blocked out the location first and used quick overpaint to communicate intentions or explore the gameplay possibilities;
• The mission is about infiltrating the final enemy base, solve several puzzles on the way, while protecting your companion Natalya from Blisk attacks and to reach the final boss room;
• There’s a lot of environment dangers in this location: poisonous gas jets, pools and waterfalls of acid, exploding alien eggs;
• I’ve collaborated with Mission, Narrative and Game Design Departments as well as with Art and Code Departments to bring this blockout to final;

Here you can see my process for this block-out. The quick overpaint with the key mission points. And an example of doodling on a rough blockout to find good ideas;

And here is the final result;

I’ve also designed and blocked out the Final Boss fight location;

• Continuing the theme with the environment dangers I’ve come up with the design for 3 phases of the fight that utilize them:
  • Phase 1 – No danger: focus primary on the Boss;
  • Phase 2 – Low danger: Poisonous gas jets on the outer rim;
  • Phase 3 – High danger: A pool of acid right under your feet! Crypto must use the hovering platforms or little islands around the area  to avoid being damaged;

Here you can check the final result in this Mission Walkthrough:

Takoshima | The Volcano Escape

I’ve retro-designed and blocked out this location as the part of the Main Mission;

• The OG design was rather short so, the decision was made to make it a bit longer to enjoy this adrenaline-pumping moment a bit more;
• I  roughly blocked out the location first and used quick overpaint to communicate design intentions and explore the gameplay possibilities;
• The mission in a nutshell is about infiltrating the enemy base inside a volcano, pressing a button to reveal information and then escape from there while being in the middle of the earthquake and volcano eruption;
• Water down below is deadly for Crypto adding even more thrills. The water later was replaced with lava;
• I’ve collaborated with the Mission, Narrative and Game Design Departments as well as with the Art and Code Departments to bring this blockout to final;

Takoshima | Zen Temple

I’ve re-designed and blocked out this Major Landmark location as part of the Open World. This area is also used in 2 Main Missions: “Takoshima Story” and “Our Man Crypto” as well as in the Cult Mission “The Coming of Arkvoodle”;

• I’ve made the location work well with the new updated game mechanics, changed the layout and adapted it for the Mission;
• The 1st Mission in a nutshell is about escaping from the Temple after the enemy ambush;
• The 2nd Mission is about scouting the Temple in search of a photgraph under the rocks;
• I’ve collaborated with the Mission Design and the Art Departments to bring this blockout to final;

Here’re before-and-after screenshots:

Tunguska | Blisk Warship Crater

I’ve re-designed and blocked out the Major Landmark location as part of the Open World of Tunguska. This area is also a playground for 3 Main Missions: “A Deadly Reaction“, “A Hard Day’s Fight” and “The Good, the Bad, and the Furon“;

• I’ve made the location work well with the new updated game mechanics, changed the layout and adapted it for all the Missions;
• I’ve collaborated with the Mission, Narrative and Game Design as well as with the Art Departments to bring this blockout to final;

Brief description of all 3 missions taking place in the Blisk Crater: 

• In “A Deadly Reaction” Mission Crypto needs to bring 3 fuel rods to 3 gas pumping generators in the underground bunkers. In order to destroy all 3 and clear the radioactive fog above the crater;
• “A Hard Day’s Fight” Mission is about finding a vulnarability in the burried Blisk Warship and then destroying it from the flying saucer;
• In “The Good, the Bad, and the Furon” Mission Crypto needs to protect and save Natalya from the poisonous gas capsule in the middle of the Blisk Warship Crater;

Here’re the screenshots of the blockout progress:

Here’re the Missions Overviews :

Here’re the beautiful concepts from our talented concept artist and my blockout:

• As you can see this part was heavily inspired by “Stranger Things”.

And here’re my iterations for the undeground bunker:

It was a challenge to come up with the layout for the underground bunkers that will fit inside the Crater and at the same time their chambers will match the poisonous gas chimneys on the surface. Here you can see how my overpaints over the existing proper scale blockout helped me to find the right layout.

The overview of the underground bunker:

After several attempts to find the right layout I’ve finally come up with the one you can see in the screenshots below. I’ve also designed it so it was assembled from the modular pieces:

• This helped the Environment Team to save time;
• That also allowed to have several variations. of the layout without too much effort;

Here’s the Blisk Warship Crater and the Bunker in the Final Game in the Missions Walkthroughs: