A Level for Deliver Us the Moon
COPERNICUS OUTPOST I
An in-depth, long-form, post mortem video by me.
A content creator's playthrough of the level.
You play as an astronaut, accompanied by your companion droid ASE.
You're on a mission to investigate why the moon colonies have stopped communicating with Earth.
About half way through the game, your travels on the moon take you to Copernicus Outpost I.
Deliver Us the Moon is:
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A Third Person Narrative-driven Adventure
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Developed in Unreal Engine 4 by KeokeN Interactive.
I interned on-location at KeokeN as a Level Designer from October, 2017 to May, 2018.
Copernicus Outpost I is the level I held the main responsibility of creating.
More designers helped out with polish and puzzles.
Assets were created by the other developers.
Synopsis
Specifications
Project Breakdown
Level Overview
Monorail station
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Main objective: Open closed gate.
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Sub objective: Find code to Monorail Computer.
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Code hint #1: “Frank has the code”
Communal Room
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Code hint #2:
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Hologram showing Frank.
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Plaque shows where Frank lives.
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Garage
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Puzzle: Move a stairwell to reach a vent.
I'm happy with the variation through distinct rooms and gameplay beats in this level.
This is a short experience that players finish between 10 - 25 minutes:
Level Flow
Communal Room (Backtrack)
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Optional sleeping quarters collectible
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Unlock Computer
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Completes Sub objective
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Maintenance
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Use ASE to reach outside.
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Solve outdoors puzzle as ASE.
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Completes Main Objective
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Optional outdoors exploring
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Leave the outpost.
Pipes
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Use ASE to roam through vent pipes to sleeping quarters.
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Find Frank's code.
You arrive to the outpost by monorail train. Almost
straight away there's a "Bait & Switch".
A door can be seen through the train windows.
It serves as a point of interest / bait.
Upon realizing the door is locked the player will
turn around (switch) and notice a computer.
This is all to teach that the new objective is to
unlock the computer.
Guiding Techniques
The bait and switch designed to draw your attention to the computer.
Entering the outpost reveals the following:
• Signs
These contextualize where you've arrived.
• Railings
These work as leading lines towards the way to progress.
• Steps
They are in your immediate peripheral vision and draw further attention towards the new objective.
All other first impressions from the entrance.
A window will later grab the player's interest to go
down a hall.
At the end of it there is an awkward 180 degree turn that players might miss.
Therefor there's also a second window showing off
where to go next. This is further emphasized by a
collectible on the other side.
A look at both of the hallway's Points of Interest.
Another developer had started working on the outpost before me. It was a few empty rooms. I got handed the outpost as soon as I started, to refine its look and design.
These were my initial guidelines for the outpost:
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It should have a monorail station and garage.
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Show that people used to live there.
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Have signs of sabotage and an evacuation.
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The roof already has a puzzle, make the level design support it.
A vizualisation of a big room glow-up.
The Process
The story and puzzles went through multiple iterations during development. It was important to communicate with the narrative- and game designers to share the same vision.
For instance: Players were supposed to start at the garage. But due to big story and gameplay changes they would instead have to begin at the monorail station.
Therefore the Guiding Techniques I listed above, were added as damage control for the levels flow changing and important areas suddenly being easier to miss.
Original starting place.
Final version starting place.
A big theme in this game is abandonment. This is how we made the player feel that way:
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Windows overlooking the vast and lonely moonscape.
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Big rooms with high ceilings to emphasize the player feeling small.
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Having props tell of a livelier past. Emphazising how empty the spaces now are.
Environmental Storytelling
These are areas outside of the outpost, where I set dressed to tell stories.
In January of 2024 I released a YouTube video. It's
more in-depth about the design and the behind the
scenes of working on the outpost.
For that video I also created a new blockout to highlight what improvements I feel could be made.
New Blockout (2024)
A recreation of the outpost to better highlight my improvement suggestions.
Flyby of Original
Suggestions highlighted in the new blockout:
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Less clutter in all rooms.
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This is to avoid collisions with the player / camera.
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A bathroom has been added.
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The immersion could get ruined without one.
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The 180 turn before garage has been replaced with a 90 degree one.
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90 degrees feels more warranted and less awkward to do.
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Ladder to the garage has been replaced with stairs.
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The vent is now at the player's eye level and highlit by
a flickering light.-
It's easy to miss the vent otherwise as the player
has to awkwardly look upwards.
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Garage has been restructured.
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This is due to the room now being entered from a different angle. This also helps the vent pipes flow better.
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Flyby of New Blockout
The original pipes can feel disorienting because:
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You take a total of 6 turns.
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A 180 degree turn while moving upwards
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There is a shutter showing the communal room to let the player regain their mental map. But it is very easy to miss.
The new blockout pipes are easier to navigate because:
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There is a total of 4 turns.
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No turn is over 90 degrees.
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The shutter is now seen directly ahead and reveals both the communal room and where you're heading. (The sleeping quarters)
Original Pipes
New Blockout Pipes
My big two takeaways after working at KeokeN, 2018:
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Plan out the project.
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To avoid having to redo big sections.
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Not miss out on essential rooms like a bathroom.
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Be consistent. Especially with rules.
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If the game itself doesn’t follow its own rules why would the player care about them?
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I had a lot of fun working at KeokeN. I'm happy the game did
well enough that it paved the way for a sequel: Deliver Us Mars.
Revisiting the outpost in 2024 was a fun experience. It was especially rewarding to see how much I've learned since the internship days.
Reflections
Thank you for reading!
