Iconicjourneys.LifeBeyond Good & Evil - AC 2 Level Design

Beyond Good & Evil

AC 2 - Open World Level Design

Platform: PC & Consoles
Team Size: 1
Role: Level and Narrative Designer
Tools: UE4, Inkscape and Lightworks
Period: 40 Days
URL: https://bit.ly/3AqeX3q

Level Walkthrough

❖ Why I made this level ❖

About a few months ago, I decided to play the whole Assassin’s Creed (AC) franchise from the very start. Finished the first two main titles and in many parts of those two games, I was indirectly asked so many times a question by the game narrative, about the concept of morality to do certain side objectives like saving civilians from Templars. While doing missions, I encountered many civilians who went mad and sacrifice themselves to high people’s due to despair. In the whole two games, every main character wants to make this world a better place with their philosophies and believes including the Assassins. So everyone in their mind was good and evil for the others that’s why I called this level “Beyond Good & Evil”.

The thematic lore of this level was inspired by the most influential work of the three great philosophers Søren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger.

The idea was to explore the key themes from these three philosophical giants like despair, morality, existentialism, solitude, selfhood and reason of being with the help of game dynamics under an unauthorized narrative because in the end its all depend on the player chooses to do something or not to.

❖ Narrative & Settings❖

There was a dream sequence in the second AC game where all of the game settings shifted into first AC and you got to play as Altair character but your memory was from Ezio and in reality, it was all from Desmond subconscious when he was dreaming. So I did a different approach and tried to expand that particular sequence to its full extent. The setting of this level is set in AC 2 where you will be playing as Ezio Auditore da Firenze.

Continuously putting Desmond on the Animus, first with the Altair and now with the Ezio which somehow impacting the subconscious reality of Desmond. So the same as this portrayed in the game but this time you will be playing as Ezio and will confront Altair in the dream as a non-playable character who will ask him to decide what is good or evil by playing missions mapped out in the open world.

As of now, we all have experienced the architecture of the first and second AC games. So, the world-building of this level is also inherited from the real subconscious memory synthesized from Desmond real experiences. So the look and feel are little from Florence, Venice from AC 2 and wild countryside like areas from AC 1. It’s the same as real life as you see different things and get a dream about it when you sleep about those same things and your past experiences.

So this whole narrative revolves around you playing as Ezio guided by Altair and shows an ongoing and overgrowing conflict between civilians, Templars and Assassins.

Hence, the idea was to create an immersive experience that completes its narrative by symbolic architectural design, characters behaviours and their activities.

Objective: Ezio had to complete all the missions and escape the dream.

❖ Gameplay❖

Before we talk about world-building and architectural design, had to mention gameplay because all the world design is completely impacted by gameplay and narrative.

To give more agency to the player there is an addition of a branching quest-based system between Ezio and Altair to the existing game mechanics which will set the course of all future events in the missions and level.

If the player reaches the die state then he will respawn every time into the map but always in a random location to keep the realism. For example, if we dream and somehow die or are lost in it then we keep popping into different locations into that same dream.

The map system will be the same as in the current game with different viewports mapped out in the dream world. The player can do missions in any order he wants.

All the missions will be given by Altair and he will appear as a ghost form and the voice over from him will be audible randomly in the whole gameplay.

❖ Word Building ❖

As we know this is all in the Desmond dream so there was the freedom of creating any kind of world layout that has been experienced by Desmond till this dream sequence to keep the things closer to his past encounters and experiences.

After finalizing the narrative and missions, there was an idea of creating a world that can fit all those aspects including the dream that is hovering over us in the whole gameplay. So, the open world has three key elements that contributed to the world-building:

Countryside area from which player will spawn for the first time.
A complete city with tall buildings to give the feeling of a dream where all the missions are mapped out.
These two areas are surrounded by an ocean where one cannot see a thing to a mile away.

All these three elements were idealized because of the narrative needs which we will talk about later in the document.

Before doing any work in the editor, there were several iterations of pen and paper prototyping of general geometry of the world and game space area without anything in it just a walkable space. Started out by researching many countryside areas and walking in the streets of Florence.

Iterations of general level layout

References for the world look and feel

Before putting anything in the blank game space, the overall missions design was finalized, each one has its corner in the open world with beautiful vistas. Around those missions, the city and countryside area is filled with different buildings and biomes.

Top Down level layout

3D General level layout

As we all know that the character navigation and traversal is the most important mechanic in the AC games. So, to all keeping in mind, the various building was blocked out in a way that supports all the navigation mechanics both on the ground and the roofs. Many things were kept in mind and some of them are as follows:

All the building walls are surrounded by windows so that players can climb up on the roof from any direction.
The distance between the two buildings was kept according to the value of the character jump so he can jump around upon the rooftops.
Most of the buildings were placed closer to give the player the feeling of a dream, hence the whole ground traversal area is more of the puzzle with narrow streets connected from every direction surrounded by huge buildings
Buildings were designed and placed according to the mission narrative, gameplay, scope and size.
Countryside area is a symbolic architectural representation of freedom and peace so in that particular landscape player can go anywhere even climb up on the mountains but as soon as the city area starts it's all surrounded by the boundary on the edges which you can’t escape that indirectly shows the hold of Templars on the whole city. The only entry and exit are the main city gates.

❖ Mission Design ❖

There is a total of nine missions and the player can do them in the order he wants. All of them are mapped out at different locations in the open world. So in here, we will talk about each one of them in detail with their narrative and design philosophies.

After meeting Altair ghost, he asked Ezio to go to these seven locations each has its mission and meet him outside the city bridge after completing all of them. If the player didn’t go there then Altair ghost will appear wherever he was after completing all missions.

Mission 1 - “Despair” : The name of all the missions indirectly states the lore of that particular sequence and presenting a key philosophical theme for the player to analyse and understand.

[narrative] Few people didn’t follow anybody and went into a state of despair about who they are and what’s their reason for being. So either they went mad because they didn’t know how to live or just fighting, harassing the city. So this mission shows that those who were following nobody either went mad or found themselves living in solitude. Hence it puts up a question in the player mind that who we are if we don’t follow the beliefs and ideas of others. In this particular context, the other will be the way of Assassins or Templars.

[gameplay] In this particular level, the player has to go to the location by navigating through the world and then he had to analyse the situation about what's going on. After analysing that area the mission will be completed but the fight between civilians is still going on and it's player choice to go between them and break the fight or fight back in defence.

Mission 2 - “Dark Abyss” : This is a similar mission to the first one Despair with a change in locations and characters. The name justifies the psychology of those fighting civilians that they are lost in the deep darkness.

[narrative] The plot is the same as the previous mission.

[gameplay] This is also the same as the previous one.

Mission 3 - “Dizziness of freedom” : This mission justify the hold of Templars on the city and as a result, the free will from the common civilians is fading away as that hold gets strong over a while.

[narrative] Templars are harassing civilians for no reason and at some places, the civilians needed that harassment because of their activities. So Templars are doing their best to keep the city environment good. But at someplace they are harassing for no reason and for this mission that is the particular case.

[gameplay] Player has to go to this mission location, observe the situation and after that mission will be complete and he has an indirect choice created by the narrative symbolically to interfere with them and stop the fighting or move on to the next mission.

Mission 4 - “Morality” : This one is similar to mission 3 but with a change in location and a little bit of narrative.

[narrative] After their body and mind fell into the darkness of despair some of the civilians went mad and starting harassing the city for their amusement so, Templars here are stopping them with force. So this mission is forcing us to think about what is right according to our morals, Civilian who went mad because they didn’t want to take orders from anybody or Templars who are stopping those civilians by force.

[gameplay] Player has to go to this mission location, observe the situation and after that mission will be complete and he will be faced with an indirect choice created by the narrative symbolically, first to interfere with them and stop the fighting or second to move on to the next mission.

Mission 5 - “Herd Instincts” : This one is more of an observatory mission instead of an action-packed one.

[narrative] The head of Templars started to give civilian reasons why their actions are reasonable and good for the betterment of this world. As the name suggest they want a herd that follow their rules even they didn’t know that they are part of the herd in themselves.

[gameplay] Player has to go to the mission location and hear the complete sequence from the head Templar.

Mission 6 - “Eternal Beings” : As the name suggest this mission tells the importance of being free and in peace with our mind, body and soul. This one is also an observatory mission.

[narrative] In this mission the preacher is preaching about finding oneself by living in solitude and close with nature. So afterwards one doesn’t need anyone to follow, he will find his purpose and idea in the form of anything that needed to be done.

[gameplay] Player has to go to the mission location and hear the complete sequence from the preacher.

Mission 7 - “Greatness” : This mission is set in the countryside area and as the name clarifies it represents the peaceful life of civilians living on that side of the world.

[narrative] When people did choose their way of living instead of living by the rules of Assassins or Templars they were happy and fulfilled with the life they have.

[gameplay] Player has to go to the mission location and observe the complete area in 360 which is showing civilians farming, painting and working.

After completing those seven missions in any order that the player wants, Altair ghost will appear if the player doesn’t go to the bridge after completing them. At this point, the player has experienced all those missions and Altair will give Ezio to choose from two choices – Follow the Assassins way or Templar way.

If he chooses the Templars way then he is happy with the current situation of the city and will exit out from the dream back to Desmond.
If he chooses the Assassins way then he has to go to the guarded fort and steal the Apple of Eden.

Mission 8 - “Apple of Eden” : In this mission player has to go and steal the Apple of Eden.

[gameplay] Player has to go to the mission location and complete the mission by stealing the Apple of Eden.

Mission 9 - “Amor Fati” : As the name suggests, Ezio will understand the acceptance of everything that has happened in one’s life and he calls it fate.

[gameplay] After steal when Ezio reaches the hiding spot in the countryside, he will again have two choices to choose from – Use the Apple of Eden according to his own will or hide it for good. After doing any action Ezio will exit out of the dream back to reality.

So after completing all missions and escape from the dream world - the player, Ezio and Desmond will have three questions: