Far Cry 4
Ubisoft Montreal
|
Level Designer
Project Overview
After shipping Watch_Dogs, I joined the Far Cry team to create level and mission content for Far Cry 4. Being a huge fan of Far Cry 3 and especially Blood Dragon, I was delighted to join the project and apply my open-world experience to the series. It was also a chance to return to my roots in first-person level design.
Far Cry 4 took the foundations of Far Cry 3 and ran with them, turning almost every aspect up to 11. Despite the familiar formula, I was fortunate enough to work on areas that were new to the series.
Level Designer
Ubisoft Montreal
Dunia Engine, Domino Visual Scripting Tools
18 November 2014
PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Responsibilities
I worked on an early part of the campaign where the player is introduced to a fork in the road known as the Balance of Power. This split in the narrative allowed players to choose between two mission givers, Amita and Sabal. Completing a mission for one would lock out the alternative, creating a branching campaign with narrative consequences for the player’s actions.
The missions also introduced the Hunter, a new enemy archetype whose unique behaviours required changes to the level spaces to give them opportunities to shine.
- Refactored pre-alpha level and mission content to shipping quality
- Responded to director feedback and playtest data throughout production
- Adapted existing content to support new gameplay and enemy requirements
I joined the project during the alpha stage, making this an intense period of production. Closing out the project meant responding quickly and effectively to feedback, ensuring that the content offered the right level of challenge across different play styles whilst supporting the campaign’s overall difficulty curve.
Selected Work
I worked on the two opening missions for the second act of the game. These missions aren’t played in sequence, but are instead used as alternate missions to introduce the “Balance of Power” mechanic. Both Balance of Power missions used the same locations, but in opposing directions, with the player’s choice determining their objectives and the consequences they encountered.
The missions were designed as tonal opposites. Rebel Yell opens with a high-action defence before transitioning into a stealth-optional counterattack, while Hunt or Be Hunted begins with investigation and the option of stealth before culminating in a large firefight.
Balance of Power: Hunt or Be Hunted
Hunt or Be Hunted begins at Alpha Camp, a small settlement beneath a temple where the player searches the bodies of fallen allies for intelligence. Recovering the intel triggers a series of smaller encounters before the player begins hunting down groups of Hunters along the route towards Bravo Camp.
Upon arriving at Bravo Camp, the player discovers the remaining rebels have been killed and confronts the Hunters responsible in a final combat encounter, bringing the mission to its more action-focused conclusion.
Balance of Power: Rebel Yell
Rebel Yell begins with the player defending Bravo Camp from a Hunter ambush alongside a group of allied rebels. The encounter offered several defensive options: players could prepare traps, man a mounted turret or fall back to a small, well-stocked shack and fight alongside their allies.
These options could be mixed and matched as the attack developed, allowing players to adapt their defence rather than prescribing a single solution. After surviving the ambush, the player advances towards Alpha Camp to counterattack the remaining enemy forces.
I took both Balance of Power missions from their initial scripted blockouts through to final implementation. While the missions primarily utilised Far Cry 4’s open world, I made bespoke changes to the two camp locations to support the planned encounters and the introduction of the Hunter enemy archetype.
These missions featured the first appearance of the Hunter, a new bow-wielding enemy archetype within the Royal Army. The mission design and layouts were tailored to showcase their unique abilities, including removing player tags by moving through overgrowth and charming wildlife to turn animals against the player.
Game Trailer
Podcast
In the final months of development, I took part in the first episode of the Far Cry 4 podcast, offering some insights into mission and level design.
Reception
Far Cry 4 shipped 7 million units within its first six weeks of release and was well received by critics, earning a Metacritic score of 85 and an OpenCritic score of 84. The game also won Best Shooter at The Game Awards 2014 and received five BAFTA nominations, including Game Design.