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AAA Multiplayer Design Test

A design test completed for a AAA Multiplayer game company that resulted in a successful offer.

Given a task, a series of existing mechanics, and four hours, I was asked to design a series of objectives for a 3-player team, with the theme of infiltrating a compound. The compound contains three buildings and I had to imagine one of the buildings, "demonstrating connectivity, PVE considerations, points of entry, points of interest". The environment had to be grounded but unusual, in the vein of a Mission Impossible or James Bond location.

I produced a presentation and a series of sketches, showing the level's design and verticality, with considerations for stealthy and loud approaches, various entry and extraction points, connections to other buildings, and a series of interesting objectives.

After spending some time thinking (and watching the Mission Impossible films for research), I landed on the idea of a water treatment facility, and the team of players having to destroy a series of poisoned water vats.

Building 1 - the focus of the design

• The team sneak around guards and spend a set amount of time within range of them to spoof their RFID keycards.

• Use those cards to enter the computer room and turn up the temperature of the tanks. The chemicals inside spoil and the water turns bloody red.

• One player accessing the terminal will raise guard alert levels, so keep teammates on the lookout nearby. Red water flows to the other locations, meaning guards are on much higher alert there as soon as the building 1 mission has been successful.

• …or just find the tanks and shoot them out.

• Doing this is incredibly noisy and loud – it’ll cause massive amounts of noise, red liquid flooding the area, and every guard and security measure nearby will turn on you. Guards at other locations are on red alert too.

Buildings 2 and 3

Building 2, the reservoir

    • Destroy the water that has already been poisoned and prevent it from entering the water supply.

    • Loudly destroy the tanks, quietly flood out the room.

    • Water is bright red as a result of the successful building 1 mission

    • Large, circular vats of water with rotating arms, dramatically lit walkways

Building 3, the villain hideout/control room

    • Find the main computer and copy the enemy’s further plans onto a drive.

    • Sneak into the room and take a guard hostage to gain computer access.

    • Or kill them all loudly and leave with the entire computer.

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The full building layout, with three floors of interactable elements.

Screenshot 2023-06-16 121012.png

Interactions – swimming, pulling guards into the water, barging guards into the water (creates a lot of noise). Shooting glass tanks, shooting glass pipes. Jumping to and hanging from ceiling pipes – able to shoot from those pipes and hide there from enemies. Calling the lift. Entering the computer room and interacting with the terminal. Large pipe for mantling and jumping to ceiling fence. Glass tank acts as cover until destroyed.

Interactions – climbing up ladders, climbing on pipes against wall. Calling lift. Turning off power generator – will briefly turn off all lights but alert all guards and move them to your location. Good as a quick escape measure. Pump controls – make a lot of noise and guards will beeline to turn them off. Large pipe for cover, balcony/gap to peek down at lower level for covering fire.

Interactions – opening and shutting hatch, climbing ladder. Shooting out skylight – this creates the rooftop entry/exit point, whilst also acting as a major noise distraction.

Design Goals

  • Dynamic, changing environment

    • Destroyed tanks, red chemical spilled/coursing through pipes. Playing with water and its raw power.

    • Environment should look totally different once you’re done, whether you were loud or stealthy.

  • Team members can play different roles

    • Cloning ID cards, creating noise/distractions, infiltrating computer room, providing covering fire.

    • The hope is that a team will fall into these roles or assign them naturally. No player should ever feel bored or useless.

  • Variety of gameplay styles

    • Pure stealth, all-guns-blazing, or a mix of both

Potential Problems

  • Is the environment readable enough?

    • Solved with colour coding, and big, obvious objectives (glass tanks that change colour)

  • Is the objective too simple/fast?

    • Stealth approach requires a few steps – trailing guards, then entering computer room, then providing covering fire for the hacker

    • Loud approach requires a lot of time and a lot of shooting to get through the glass tanks

  • Will players assign themselves their roles on the mission?

    • Do players need to be explicitly told their roles?

  • Does the setting capture the right vibe?

    • Vibes are crucial.

Building the Design

  • Basic, grey box design to understand the scale of the space first and foremost

    • Is it too dense? Is moving between floors via ladders cumbersome? Etc

    • Does furniture and object placement lend itself to dynamic cover shooting?

    • Do perch points allow teammates to see important areas to provide cover fire?

    • Should the building be open air? Does an indoor environment feel ‘stuffy’?

  • Simple, functional character controller, enough to get a sense of the movement, and time it may take to complete the mission

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