What is Pillars of Eternity? 

I made a visual prototype of a dungeon map for Pillars of Eternity. 

Pillars of Eternity is a top-down role-playing game where the player fights in turn order or real-time battles as they travel the around on a world map and into different dungeons.

In pillars of eternity the player can look around them highlighting lootable items by holding down Tab, open new paths or complete puzzles with the help of skill checks these can be anything from swimming, breaking down walls or climbing.

An important part of the game is that the player can speak to ghosts or memories of long-dead people each of them have a story to tell with anything from a detailed description of a scene in their memory to a full-on conversation with the player.

When I start thinking of a level design project be it an entire tower or shopping mall I tend to look for inspiration in different things, music, Pinterest or even other games for this example where I made a dungeon for Pillars of Eternity I thought "Ice Dragon ghost"

Analysing

First, I needed to do some research on the game thinking of things like "how do you deny-affordance to a player in a top down RPG game, and how do they lead the player in different paths.

I first looked into the different paths the player could take, how they denied the player and where they had enemiesto get a deeper understanding of how they created dungeons.

Looking at the different props in the dungeon I looked to see if they had a deeper meaning or if they were just there for show.

I also looked into different media for inspiration on rooms and layout of dungeons to see what rooms would be nessessary to make the dungeon feel real. 

Starting of the Design

I drew a quick sketch of a dungeon in paint keeping to the Narrative of an Ice Dragon ghost haunting this ruin, but why?

I quickly thought up a narrative that was easy to work with having the inhabitants of the dungeon murdering the child of the actual Ice dragon and stuffing its soul in a crystal giving the Ice dragon a reason for being down here and then having them lock it in the last giant chamber of the dungeon where it died and becaome a vengeful spirit.

Something that I wanted to make clear to the players was the path that the dragon took going down into this dungeon with ice, claw marks and death following the path it took leading all the way down to the last chamber.

This was important to show the narrative in the level design and also worked very well as breadcrumbs and affordance

I then changed some things around added more narrative to the rooms the senarios acording to the gameplay of Pillars of Eternity

Then going into Unreal engine 4 I re-created it and did the last changes to the level.

During this process I also planed out the golden path for the player and how I would lead them through the level.

The Yellow path is the planed out golden path that I planed the player will take the first time they enter this dungeon taking them through most of the dungeon getting all its lore and combat encounters.

The Red path is the quickest path that players can take if they have the right tools and skills in the party, it goes straight to the key items needed to finish the dungeon and is the quickest.

While the Orange paths are optional and/or dead ends.

Breadcrumbs and affordance

Showing the player where to go goes hand in hand with the Narrative to me both are great tools to emerge the player in the world of the game while also making the upcoming danger, and the correct path to take apperant.

Yellow = Claw mark breadcrumbs.

Purple = Ghost path told to the player as breadcrumbs that tells the path to the key to the player.

• The claw marks are used as a Landmark and breadcrumbs to show the path to the last room and also as an indication of what awaits the player at the end of the dungeon.
  
  
• There is a secret path leading to the workshop that will be noted to the player by ghosts giving the player visions of what they did before they died, this one in particular will be a man dying from injuries using the secret path and then closing it behind him trying to escape but collapsing from his injuries.

• I used large round doors to help show the path for the player towards the last boss room leaving all side paths as small square doors to make them less interesting compared to the larger round doors.
  
  
• lootable items such as bodies, chests, tables, and other things are placed everywhere in the map to invite the player to explore if they want to and get rewarded for their time.
  
  
• Claw marks and ice show the path to the player leading the player on the golden path and also indicates upcoming danger.
  
  
• Ghosts will help tell the story of the dungeon and show the player the way that they have to take through text that explains how the dungeon ended up in this state. I use these ghosts so that the player never gets lost if the take the golden path or make their own way through the dungeon, all ghosts will always point towards the right place.