Week 15 (1st – 7th May) – Creating Manta Arena:
The Request:
On the 28th April I was asked by Jack if I could do the Manta Ray boss arena as the previous one done by Tom didn’t fit the mechanics. Whilst I was busy finishing off my expanse level and was about to start modelling the pirate ship, I agreed to do it.
The Map:
Although the level was no where near as complicated as the expanse, I still wanted to map out the arena before I started, just to get an idea of the layout.
The red circles represent where the geysers will be located, with the player spawning on the left side.
Making The Level:
Since this was just a boss arena with a short lead up, it only took me a couple of days to complete – unlike the massive expanse level which took multiple weeks.
I started by blocking out the lead up area to the boss room, where Jack had mentioned he wanted the geyser mechanic to be introduced. The geyser is meant to spurt water upwards, and so I figured to introduce it to the player, one should be blocking the path forward, so they have to time not getting hit by the water.
As always, I used the yellow mannequin to make sure the scale is correct.
I gave the impression of a circle with some rocks for the actual boss arena. I didn’t want to make another arena that is a massive cave as this boss should be fought in open space.
I used red cubes to indicate to Jack where the geysers should be placed. I made sure to place one in this narrow hallway so that they player has to interact with it and learn the mechanic before the boss fight.
Walkthrough:
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gavrvmfMd8