Into the Infinite

project overview

Into the Infinite is a third-person action game featuring procedurally-assembled levels, crazy randomized weapon loadouts and fast-paced beat-em-up combat.

My job as Creative Director on this project was exemplified by the unique design concepts and varied construction of the game's many levels. A project built as a platform for our asset creators to build LOTS of cool stuff in a short period of time, Into the Infinite allowed us to show some tremendous horizontal growth in terms of content output while learning vertically about the systems available to us through Unreal Engine 4.

Into the Infinite was built in 16 weeks by a team of 13 students.

Our project's theme of alternate realities allowed us to explore some outlandish aesthetic ideas and abstract designs, like this leaning tower.

My Role: creative director

Developed the game's creative vision

Assigned and implemented team's assets in-engine

Designed, whiteboxed, constructed and polished 20 unique levels

Used Blueprints to construct or augment various gameplay systems including core mechanic conveyance and procedural level assembly
Created design documentation and assisted with team meetings and all forms of team communication

Created design sheets and several documents to guide our asset team through the design and construction processes for our levels.

project scope & design principles

Aside from my duties in communication, task delegation and documentation, my main role for Into the Infinite was to create - put simply - a monstrous yield of level content. We approached the idea of this project knowing that in order to sell the theme of randomization and replayability, we would need to create far more content to feed into the procedural level system than is necessary for a single, static experience.

Our final output is about triple the level content and total critical path length of what was expected, while keeping quality high for numerous factors; environmental density and variation, attention to lighting and scene composition, and so forth. You can see some examples of these design paradigms below:

combat encounter design

As our combat mechanics evolved, I took testing feedback into account to facilitate what players wanted to do in a given level. Here, players use pillars to defend against enemy projectiles as they choose a route to the door, or they can go guns blazing and vault over the low countertops for an aggressive play.

tutorialization & early game loop

A brief intro level teaches the player the game's inputs and mechanics. To avoid it feeling like a slog for repeat playthroughs, the tutorial jumpstarts the player's power progression through the randomized weapon table.

Set pieces & pacing

Significant effort was spent in creating set piece environments like this diner, to help differentiate the tone from the preceding level. Serving as a halfway point for the game, the diner offers a tighter combat space to increase tension as the player nears their major narrative goal.

visual design for player guidance

Landmarks exist in most levels to help orient the player and guide them forward along the open city streets. Careful attention is given to lighting and static prop placement to create avenues that draw the player toward the next combat encounter.

tech talk & documentation

Given the amount of content we needed to create, it was necessary to establish an efficient pipeline for level design and construction. Once we hit our stride after the game's vertical slice was complete, I created extensive documentation for our designers and artists to understand our approach.

Levels generally began as paper graphs, with their overall shape lending to a particular enemy encounter style, emotion or element of pacing. I would then create a detailed blockout for testing purposes to ensure it was fun, unique to our game and within scope. What followed was dependent on the aesthetic of each level; we adopted two main methods of construction.

Into the Infinite features two primary aesthetics - a 1940's Film Noir look that mimics the greasy, rain-slick streets of downtown Chicago, and a cold, decaying underworld where the fabric of reality is fraying at the seams.

Whitebox for a level prototype made with Unreal's BSP tool

I created the game's many storefronts and building facades to give some character to the world and make it feel more lived-in

To build our Noir city streets, we used a modular asset creation pipeline. Our artists fabricated several kits for use in different types of city environments with numerous types of building materials. Beginning with rough whiteboxes using little more than plain brick walls to serve as building shells, I would make several passes to implement support structures, windows and other details, signage, decals, physical light sources and various clutter to fill the space and direct the player's attention.

The main benefit of using the modular construction pipeline for Noir was the ability to quickly churn out levels that have a tonally-symmetrical foundation, which gave us room to carefully introduce landmarks and other unique elements that the player wouldn't expect while still maintaining a cohesive world.

For our underworld aesthetic, we were able to break free from the careful constraints of the Noir streets now that the player is comfortable with the game's mechanics and is edging closer to the game's dimensionally-unstable climax. To build these bespoke levels, we used a workflow that involved me creating complete prototype levels with fully-implemented materials, clutter and lighting, and then gradually phasing out the prototype assets over time.

Exporting each asset (or sometimes entire levels), our artists would create more finely-detailed pieces specific to each level and then reimport them into Unreal. The result was fantastic - the underworld levels feature wildly different gameplay spaces and tone, and a large number of unique assets and set pieces makes traversing the second half of the game a rewarding experience.

A portion of my time was spent actually "tightening up the graphics on level 3"

You can view some of the documentation used over the
course of development here:

Technical Level Production Pipeline

Procedural Level Design Document

lessons LEARNED

Procedural games are tricky. It took significant design work and planning beyond a typical linear experience to ensure all portions of the game connect and flow seamlessly with no visible gaps or bounding issues. It's also important to examine systems that ensure proper pacing of gameplay; after all, how do you teach and test players on mechanics if you don't know which levels they'll spawn in any given play session?

Beyond the design challenges presented by building a procedural world, our team starred a large number of artists and it was important from the get-go to establish a particular art style. I'm proud of my team for maintaining a cohesive feel to our visual design, but I know the changes and pivots along the way (modifying our art style and cutting a level) were disappointing hurdles to overcome. Nonetheless, I couldn't ask for a healthier and more positive team dynamic to tackle these challenges with.

In short, Into the Infinite is the most ambitious and successful project I've been a part of. It has been a wild ride, but I strongly believe this is my best work from both level design and team member perspectives. I can't wait to design another game; I never want to stop.

I became familiar with the intricacies of the design pipeline in UE4 - from whitebox to modular architecture assembly to polish, visual effects work and detail asset creation. Player guidance and game systems conveyance were the main goals at every stage of development.

One small level from the game's many possible segments to choose from when spawning the full experience. With most of the people on my team having already made games that were "one 'n done", we wanted to build a game you can play several times over and see significant new content every time.