XB2001 - Level Design Document

Overview

This level is based shortly before The Siege of Vienna in 1529 which was the first attempt by the Ottoman Empire, led by Suleiman the Magnificent, to capture the city of Vienna in Austria. As such there is a corrupt politician who is working for the Templars, as he is gaining sympathy for the Ottoman Empire, who represent the Templars, and so in order to prevent the city from openly accepting the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The player must assassinate the politician to silence him in order to prevent this from happening.

Mechanics List

·  Free running- Climbing up walls, running along rooftops etc worth a note is the     quick run areas where a player can easily build up momentum and get access to higher buildings quickly.

·  Combinations in combat, players could fight whilst being surrounded

·  Hiding Places to break line of sight of chasers, eg hay bales, wells, rooftop gardens

·  Areas on rooftops to do a "Leap of Faith"

·  Eagle Vision to identify enemies and targets

·  Pursuit, cant lose line of sight of an enemy for too long

·  Pick pocketing

·  Enemy Morale, can be broken to cause other enemies to flee

·  Crowd Blending and Allies, to aid in infiltrating areas.

  

Playable Characters

You play as Lukas Schneider a young assassin from Germany sent out by the Grand Master Ezio Auditore to help break the Templar's grip on the city of Vienna.

Enemies/Allies

Enemies: Enemies within Vienna are entirely made up of the city's guard. They are well armed and armoured, however they do not know of your presence or your mission and so will only pursue and attack you if you cause trouble and attack them. However there is also a restricted area, in which you are not allowed to enter and any activity within this area will only raise alarm and suspicion, in which case the guards will then attack you if you do not leave the area. Additionally any archer that sees you on a rooftop will order you down, if not they will then in turn become hostile.

Allies: There are no allies within the level as it didn't make sense for citizens within the city to be so willing the foreigner who if anything they should have a sense of distrust towards the strange visitor.

Asset List

Hay Bales

Wells

Rooftop Gardens

Synchronisation Tower

Trees

Barrels

Carts

Fishing Boats

Quick Run Startups

Crowds

Fences

Baths

Ladders

Flags

Level Walkthrough

As Assassin's Creed is a very open free roaming game I shall look at the 2 most extreme  paths a player could take; a very direct and aggressive approach resulting in maximum action and combat, which will be path a. and a more subtler approach where a player can be stealthy and avoid unwanted bloodshed by sneaking around, which will be path b.

The level begins with the player silently entering the city at a small fishing dock, in the early hours of the morning via a small fishing boat. Prior to reaching the city the assassin has been told that he does not know the exact location of his target, a corrupt politician.

1. The player starts from the docks and immediately is granted plenty of freedom of movement and has nearby Quick Run Startups.

2. Being an open world game the player has plenty of options to move out into the city of Vienna. The most conventional and direct route being over the rooftops.

At this point in the level the player has a freedom of choice where they can choose to go to 2 paths:

3a. This is the more aggressive path the player can take if the player wishes to have more combat and take a more direct approach to the game. The player must go to the Blue area to find the Captain of the city guard, incapacitate him and his soldiers before interrogating him as to the whereabouts of your main goal.

3b. Alternatively if the player wishes to avoid unnecessary bloodshed they can head to the Pink area and eavesdrop on a conversation between a group of noble men who are slandering the "good" name of the corrupt politician and in turn reveal his location and also hint that it is possible to gain entry to the bathhouse through the viaduct. Only if the player is close enough to them without raising alarm.

4. After which the player can then move to a Synchronisation Point to reveal more locations of the map, and more importantly give the player a visual of the bathhouse structure where the target is located.

At this point the player is offered different points of approach depending on how they wish to play the game.

5a. The more aggressive players can head straight for the target building where the target is located. This will attract lots of attention especially as the player will be entering a restricted area where guards will immediately spot you and be on the alert.

5b. Although players can also follow the more stealthy, non-lethal approach and sneak up into the viaduct whilst avoiding being spotted by rooftop archers and travel up and along the viaduct.

6. Also there are crowds of noblemen and employees who go about their daily business and walk around the restricted area which the player can use to blend into and avoid detection as they move safely through the area to get into a better position within the restricted area.

7. Alternatively the player can head down this narrow street which is hidden and less open, however there is a small number of guards down there that are unavoidable and the player will have to kill them.

8a. After using the Crowd Blend mechanic to infiltrate the restricted area an aggressive player can choose when to emerge from the crowd to launch his assault on the Bath House which is swarming with guards. There would be a lot of combat at this point in the level as the level is very open and there are lots of guards who would easily get a line of sight on you as seen in the image below.

 8b. Alternatively a more stealth orientated player has the possibility of sneaking along the viaduct towards the Bath House. The player would have to be careful not to be spotted by archers positioned on the rooftops.

As the player reaches the Bath House what is important to note is that the target is a wondering person and so may move around to different locations within the Bath House or may settle down somewhere to make the game more interesting.

9b. Upon entering the Bath house the player may wish to wait and hide within the Upper Bath area and wait for the target to come pondering across and assassinate him whilst the guards are away patrolling to avoid unwanted bloodshed. Or if the player wishes they could start being lethal and take out the few guards within the Bath House and avoid raising the alarm.

9a. As the target may wonder and would most likely flee at the sight of an assassin cutting through his bribed guards, the aggressive approach will most likely force players to go after their target and fight their way through all of the guards within the Bath House and the surrounding area.

 After the assassination the player can retrace their steps or alternatively jump through a balcony into the bath in the courtyard of the Bath House and make a speedy escape, or attack all pursuers depending on the player's personal preference.

 

10a. As the player is exiting the Bath House the city bell would no doubt have been rang alerting guards to your attack, making escape difficult. As such Quick Run Startups have been positioned to make it easier for a  player to get up onto the rooftops to avoid being chased by guards.

10b. Additionally if a player would prefer to just avoid confrontation they could alternatively hide in a Rooftop Garden, a Bench, Hay Bale or even blend into a crowd.

Also note that the streets around the restricted area are much narrower and have many more corners and twists and turns to aid the player in breaking line of sight of guards and making an escape in any direction.

 

The player must then make their way north west again towards the docks where they first came into the city to exfiltrate out of it suing the same small fishing boat.

12. At last the player has either evaded or killed pursuers and arrived at the docks where they would leave the city before it went into a state of lockdown. However, once the player reaches the docks they are greeted with the sight of a slain comrade and the fishing boat on fire in the river and guards closing in whilst being led by a figure whom you do not know. End Level.

Pacing Graph