3D Procedural Levels

The level design process for Monaco 2 was unique from the level design of other games due to our custom 3D procedural levels. My work included:

• Scripting with a custom JSON like data structure to create instructions for valid room placement
• Thought for how different room shapes could tessellate in valid but varied arrangements
• Attention to 3D orientation possibilities
• Placing and weighing markers for valid weapon, mob, and objective locations
• Collaborated with Lead Designer Andy Schatz on game play features

Shipyard Level

Monaco 2 players are scored based on the number of coins collected per second. Levels are designed to force players to reconsider the optimal route between different seeds. The Shipyard, perhaps more than any level, was designed with variability in mind - the map is wide and tall, and verticality is mainly used only to provide challenge rooms with useful weapon rewards, or basement passages which provide shortcuts but require coins to unlock the door.
The players begin on the far left side of the map and must make their way to a shipyard on the far right and then back again. There are always at least two somewhat direct routes: a road and a series of water front docks. Both are dangerous routes which are light on coins and contain at least two high security check points. Players can sometimes find power switches locked behind expensive coin doors which they can use to temporarily disable the security at these check points. Along the road, themed areas are randomly spawned including a warehouse, junkyard, police station, and one or more factories. These provide the possibility of shortcuts and the promise of coin and weapon rewards. This level also offers a very high number of pickaxes and TNT, which allow players to create new underground tunnels and blow up security doors, windows, and turrets respectively.
Below are a few example seeds marked up to improve readability. Yellow indicates the road and dock, Red highlights checkpoints, Green shows the junkyard, Blue the police station, and White shows factories.

Three different seeds in Blueprint mode.

The basement level of those same seeds.

Screenshots of the same seeds from the Objective viewer.