Overview:

 Destroyer, a Crysis 2 single player level, pits the player in a large scale urban war with multiple fronts against a private military called CELL, and the alien Ceph forces.  In downtown New York City, CELL and Ceph forces battle out in the streets over a small park that contains an anti-aircraft gun (AA gun).  US Marine forces investigate the area attempting to locate the AA gun.  Assuming the worst, the US Military contacts Prophet, who is a few blocks away from the park, to determine the outcome of the Marine squad, locate and disable the AA gun, allowing for safe medical evacuation.

Design Goals:

• Create an intense action packed level
• Script a multi-staged boss fight
• Script intense WOW moments that add to the action of the level

Development Time: 6 weeks (20 hours a week)

Map download redirects to a shared zip file in Google docs, on the page that opens in Google docs go to File > Download.

One of the two pinger bosses lurking over the Anti Aircraft Gun in the park.  A light amount of fog is used in this area to add mood to the boss fight. 

This small room is a visual reward for those who like to explore.  With such a large level, providing small exploration rewards creates the urge for further exploring.

Small scripted encounter between a heavy Ceph fighter and 4 CELL forces.  Thanks to the AI factions, this area provides an opportunity for the player to watch opposing forces fight each other.  The player can choose to join in the fight or wait and see who wins.

Survivors/Stranded.  This medical tent provides a brief moment of environmental storytelling.

LEVEL SCRIPTING

The video is a brief scripted moment in my Crysis 2 level, Destroyer.  This script provides an intense WOW moment that knocks the player down.

Goals of this scripted moment:

• Force player to look at explosion, regardless of how they approach the vehicle
• Slow down time during explosion
• Blur Screen and play explosion sound
• Knock player back away from explosion

Overview of the FlowGraph explosion sequence.  This can be further broken down into 3 sections: Initial Trigger, 0.25 Seconds Later, and 1.00 Second Later.

Initially hitting the trigger forces the player to turn and look at the military vehicle.  The force look takes less than 0.1 seconds for the player to completely turn.  At the same time, a bomb threat detection is played.

At 0.25 seconds, the explosion particle effect is triggered, the time scale slows down to 10% normal speed, and the screen begins to blur.  Also at this time, the player begins the knocked back animation, and because the player was forced into looking at the vehicle in the previous section, the player is propelled in the normal in relation to the explosion.

At the 1 second mark, the blur fades, the force look is disabled, the time scale returns to normal, and a faint heartbeat sound plays.

Boss Script

Using the LOGIC: AND node and two bosses, I can fire off a script regardless of which boss the player kills first.

Helicopter Intro Cinematic Script

This is the script for the intro cinematic.  The goal of this script is for the player to be able to move the camera freely during the cinematic from the first person perspective.  

The section labeled “Camera Rotation” takes the player’s controller/mouse input and applies it to a camera that is attached to the helicopter bay.

The section labeled “Play Sequence” starts the cinematic sequence.  The trick to the camera control is that the sequence has a director group and a camera group, but the camera has no data in the track view, thus allowing the player to move the camera around during the cinematic.

The section labeled “Animations and Sounds” plays the helicopter blade animation and the chatter that pilot speaks.