Nuclear Plant is a blockout in Unity based on Due Process, a 5v5 tactical shooter centered around the bomb defusal archetype.
Due Process uses procedural level generation to create a layout based on a theme, with some fine-tuning by a designer before going live.
This blockout features unique gameplay with its infiltration and traversal designs and captures the feeling of a nuclear power plant with prop and layout design.
Project Overview
Topdown map with legend
Early Access trailer for Due Process
Various rooms in the blockout
Design Goals
Level Scale: If a level is too big, it can disadvantage attackers because it will take longer to traverse the level and they may run out of utility. But if its too small, defenders will be easily cleared out of rooms with attacker utility. The layout I created has a similar size to levels in the game. Bomb placement is also at least one room away from an attacker entry/breach point.
Possibility Space: Attackers and defenders need more than one way to play in a room, but not too many options that player actions become too unpredictable to plan around. Generally, attackers want to move quickly, flashbang or smoke defender positions, and put pressure on the bomb. Defenders want to hold angles, slow attackers down, and ambush them. I tried to balance these goals by having defined anchor points for defenders to hold and attackers to push through.
Pathing: There is a loop path through the level, with a bridge through Hall. This allows attackers to push to the bomb linearly and methodically, while also providing defenders with paths to rotate.
Breachable doors in Shop and Turbine shorten the path to bomb, but require the use of breaching equipment. These combined with the "free" (requiring no equipment) entry in Control match the amount of entry points on a typical Due Process level.
Gameplay Variety: This blockout features a few elements that distinguish it from other tilesets in the game. A Vent provides a unique way to infiltrate the level. An Airlock that consists of a pair of large doors and when a switch is pressed, one door closes and the other opens. This can alter paths through the map, impacting strategies. And a Trench lets players move under the floor between two rooms (it would have to be impenetrable to gunfire, but not flashbang effects, so its not a death trap).
Early Development
Nuke from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Atom Smasher from
TimeSplitters 2
Some references, including other games
This early blockout was made before I understood the grid constraints to room sizes and modularity needed for props
Each tileset in Due Process is based on a grid template. Using a 3x3 grid base, I drew possible room shapes up to a max size of 9x9. Six were randomly selected to emulate a procedural layout. I assigned a room to each shape based on where features like Vents and Airlock would work. A "filler room" supports the dome over Reactor.
Gym level testing interactables and creating prefabs like doors
Blockout Iteration
Feedback led me to enlarge and add a second vent so that they are less hazardous for attackers to use. They can open a vent and peek for information or use utility from any direction.
Shop was difficult to design since it had a lot of doors to other rooms, as well as a breachable red door and shutter. There was originally a window in the workshop subroom too.
I simplified the room by removing the window and arranging props to form a loop. This provided better possibility space, since attackers can push in more than one way, but it also worked for defenders by giving them places to hold and allowing them to rotate to new positions.
Pool initially had a nuclear fuel-handling structure that, while authentic, didn't work well for gameplay or modularity. It didn't interrupt line-of-sight enough and it wasn't clear how you could move around it.
Instead, I put small cylinders with short bridges and opaque railings in its place which were better for readability and added some verticality.
Scripting Mechanics
HINGE DOORS
These are the green doors that Defenders can open freely and Attackers can kick open.
BREACHING EQUIPMENT
The attackers have a door charge and wall charge, detonated by the clacker.
THROWABLES
Frag grenades, smoke grenades, and molotov cocktails are throwable items with scripted effects.
OTHER DOORS
The vault doors to Reactor and the Shutter door use switches to open and close.
Final Notes
Download playable build
I was hooked by Due Process because of its tactical gameplay, art style, soundtrack, community of players, and level generation system.
I think a guiding set of rules for a nuclear plant tileset ("to be able to produce thousands of iterations," as a developer said to me) rather than a single blockout would have aligned better within the framework of Due Process.
I think Trench suffers from readability issues (why can't I shoot through it?) and would need to be simplified to something like a single panel on the wall to crouch through or would need lifting from art or other areas of the game to support it.
That being said, from the perspective of a fun level for the tactical shooter gameplay that exists in Due Process, I think I designed something that could achieve that. There are different strategies that can work on this level and a unique identity to this tileset.