Information
Technical Design
- Traitor Tester
- Optimization
- Technical level design
Level Design
- Layout
- Environment design
Details
- Solo Project
- Gamemode: Trouble in Terrorist Town
- Duration: 3 Weeks
- Platform: PC
- Engine: Source Engine
Fun facts
- First official map with a functioning Traitor Tester
Download
Trouble in Terrorist Town
The game is about a group of “terrorists” who have traitors among them, out to kill everyone who’s not a traitor.
Layout
As I first started on this project, I had planned to incorporate both outside and indoors areas. I wanted to create a flawless seam, where players could perform quick kills and still hide in plain sight.
To achieve this I worked a lot with uneven surfaces, foliage and larger props that obstruct vision. This makes it hard to tell what just happened and who the traitor may be.
The map is shaped as a rectangle and uses lights to create safe space for players. The middle part is less well lit and feels more dangerous. But it is also the fastest way to travel across the world. Sort of like a double edged sword.
Playtests
As I iterated and playtested on the level I noticed how people grouped up towards the left side of the map. Just about where the X is marked on the picture. This made it hard for traitors to kill, as people remained grouped.
To work around this I implemented more indoor connections to the mentioned area. Also added windows and wallbangable walls, to make the area less safe.
The level still felt slower paced compared to my previous entry, so I started working with the idea of having a specific valuable gameplay element somewhere. This became the Traitor Tester. It is located at the very top of the level and can be used to check what role a player has been given.
This instantly changed the levels gameplay loop. All players suddenly started running away from that area from the very start. This to not risk being caught as a traitor early in the round by the Tester. The level became way more dynamic and all of the playable space became used more frequently.
Traitor Tester
Once the button is pressed and a player is inside the Tester the light either show up as Red or Green. Indicating that players Role.
Traitor Escape
Traitors can while being tested, press the panic button and fall down into a traitor room.
From the Traitor Room, the Traitor can teleport to other T-rooms or right into the action.
Destroy Tester
By shooting the Testers Generator players can break it. This prevents it from operating.
This is a great tactic to use as traitor, since you then can’t have your role revealed by innocent players.
Optimization
The level uses a combination of optimization methods. These are all done to maintain a high framerate, especially on full servers. The typical TTT server can usually host up to 30 players at a time. So every small optimization we can do improves the experience significantly.
The methods include, prop fading, areaportals, sectioned level design and hint/skip brushes(visleaves).
Areaportals
Areaportals are used to calculate what the player can currently see in the next room/area. It is used in this case to disable props and brushes from rendering when they no longer have vision of the areaportals entry/exit.
Visleaves
This showcases one of the visleaves that calculates what the player should render. These can be manually set up in editor, to help the game know what rendering is required at that section.
Sections
The level is broken down into sections. This means that the visibility lines are blocked by building and skybox brushes. The screenshot shows only world geometry (brushes) that tells the engine what content to use when building visleaves.