2 Hour Challenge: Deadbolt Zombies

Ok second level, keeping it simple and doing another smaller indie game called Deadbolt. Combination of a puzzle and shooter, sorta adjacent to hotline Miami if you know of that one but it's a side on camera and has cover mechanics. Also a bit briefer based on my memories of Hotline Miami but that's beside the point.

Initially for this I wanted to do a much larger level, something with two buildings next to them and have the surprisingly large variety of monsters in the game be represented, after about an hour or so the editor crashed and lost all my progress. So I took that as a sign to go and make a smaller scale and scope level instead.

The story/idea with this is that it was a continuation of Roland, being a zombie I assumed that they could come back to life, but with far less assets after his death. There are a few zombies of each type available, the loyalest of his crew, and this old beat up apartment building he had claimed of. Quick retro-fit of the upper floor to make a club and the drugs and money start flowing back in. Naturally with the man not staying in the ground the reaper is sent to finish the job.

There are four locations with drugs that you have to interact with or destroy and then one main man to take out in whatever fashion you desire.

First one right on the other side of the front door (front door is locked which is easy enough to pass and the fella in there aint even looking at the door). This spot has some fellas and a machine pistol but shouldn't pose much of a threat, the main threat from them is setting others off around the region early. There's also the alert fella in the corner, it's not too hard getting under that one, it's a bit hard to spot but that's about it. I mostly just enjoy the decor making it feel like a barely held together room that they are trying to get set up and more presentable for inviting in the ravers.

This one is an alternate entrance to the area, the exit as the sign suggests. You can hop into the sewer pipes (I'll go over that after the drug objectives) and pop up just on the other side of the door of a man with an uzi! This fella you gotta shoot the head that's separated from the body to kill them. Quick reactions and you can basically pop in and take out the guy, the head is also on top of a drug pile you have to destroy. when you kill him it's close enough that a big dude nearby will hear, you have just enough time to light the fire and run before he blasts you with a shotgun. Basically the entrance, regardless of which path you take, will probably alert people in the upstairs; and you have to react and plan around that. It does have a connecting vent in the room that can zoom you upstairs to avoid trouble as well.

Here's an overlook of the lower level, 2 drug burn objectives and some guns to get, mainly from the enemies who drop them; you have some ai manipulation opportunity with the two entrances. I do think I should have a third approach option but it was hard to fit in with such a small map, maybe next to the bathroom on the second floor but that's for another time. (Also the thing above the car is a ladder, no you can't get to it but you can kinda clip through the wall it's on. not intentional but something to keep in mind for next time)

I decided to combine the second floor and the drug drop together, since there isn't a ton here that isn't set dressing. Some spots for cover for the inevitable of someone from upstairs coming for ya, big guy hanging out in the bathroom for you to pop (which according to a comment you can't use the door in that room because of overlapping item interacts, very valuable to know and I didnt notice because of how I interact with the game.) a bouncer for the upstairs and a dude sleeping in the dark room. Initially the one sleeping was supposed to have drugs near him but that room did become too cluttered to use with that in it, so it's just the break room that I apparently put in every map. The crate in the middle of the place is a bit of a left over from when I had a dog unit in the room, they were a bit much because they would get triggered by the lower floor interactions to ofter and were unfun to deal with. 

Off to the right is the ladder you can clip into, it's not every time but it's enough that I noticed it's annoying. I decided to keep it in cause I liked the look more than I disliked the inconvenience (and also I ran out of time ngl). This level is more for me enjoying a bit of environmental design/storytelling.

This is the final drug spot, of course next to the dance party for easy acess. It also has a vent to get on top of the club in order to get to special means of destroying the target, you can just set this spot ablaze and then charge the fella but that may be a bit harder than this picture would tell...

The armed vampire will shoot you on site as you come up the staircase but you may be able to sneak into the door before he fires, or you can send a round down range when you're below him in order to draw him out to the area much more in your control. You could risk it and try to run in front of the fella in order to get to the vent and head to the rooftops as well. Either way, as long as you don't hit one of the dancers, they won't come at you and you can eliminate Roland once more. Meanwhile on the roof and the other room...

The weapons highlighted are a bolt action pistol and a sick scythe, mostly just cause I like having a big finish for a boss. The scythe is kind of a worse option cause you may clip a party goer but it's also able to one shot pretty much everything so I dont think it super matters, the rifle is insanely accurate and kills in pretty much one shot as well. Either way, Roland won't be posing an issue and you get a fun tool to finish the level and mop up anyone you missed.

Thinking back on it, I would probably have set some enemies spawn when you finish Roland in order to enjoy the power trip of the weapons a bit more, a bit of a decrease from the peak of finishing the main targets.

A main mechanic in the game is the ability to dip into vents and sewer accesses to get around the map, when you do such it can drop you in the middle of the room or into someone's occupied bathroom. In general it's a means to restrict access for areas and halt progression until the designer allows it; this is where the main puzzle aspects of the game come in by making the player figure out the most efficient or satisfying method through a level. its also untracable from the enemies perspective, is somethign of an invincibility trigger, and in general looks cool when you use it.

The sewer access outside allows you to zoom to other sides of the field to start where you want, it also has access to the bathroom. When you go to an access point on a pipeline that has a person on it, it insta kills them in a very painful looking shower. The other vent options mainly get different paths to other rooms in the building and as stated previously it has access to special weapons for finishing the level.

Usually when I make these posts I'll post the level after I make the blog post, but I did the reverse this time and in the time of uploading to making this post someone popped leaving a review with advice!

First off, thank you for the kind words, secondly I played the level again with their notes in mind and they were very accurate; areas basically inaccessible and difficult to pick up items and get into cover. So in the future I'll aim to give more space for areas and restrict interactable objects being next to doorways; good to hear that the level looks appealing and the vents were something I was a bit concerned about so those getting a pass were good!

With all that in mind, thank you for getting to the end of this somewhat lengthy essay on my first Deadbolt level, I want to make a level for each major enemy archetype in the game (only 3 of them so shouldn't be too bad) and then move onto the next project. See y'all in the next post!