A Lucky Thief at a Not-So-Lost Temple is the full name of my first Thief FM (Fan Mission).
It started development as a Level Design Jam 11 submission (October 15th - November 4th) with the themes being "Escape" and "Illusion".
Once the jam was over, I kept working and expanding on my FM, towards a more polished experience, closing development on December 25th.
Design open-ended scenarios, with player agency as a priority.
Create interesting and fun stealth encounters.
Craft an interesting progression in pacing and difficulty.
Create a holistic experience, where gameplay, story and immersion come together as one.
Adhere to theme requirements and time restrictions.
I started A Lucky Thief for one of Steve Lee's LD Jams (Just like Surprise 7), but just as I was starting, the DromEd community announced an End-of-Year contest, and I decided I could tweak the level a little and submit it for that too.
This page will be mostly discussing the final version of the level, for a total dev-time of 70 days, with approximately 182 work hours in-editor.
First few hours of development where spent brainstorming possible ideas and scenarios for the mission. I created a small .txt file where I wrote down any ideas that came to mind, and I mean anything. That way, I could mix them all into a nice, interesting gameplay sequence, or evoke any feelings I considered meaningful for the level.
After I had a bunch of solid ideas to build upon, I started to write a full sequence for the level, where I described, in general terms, how the level would play out, and what emotions should it evoke on players. Lastly, I went on Pinterest to gather visual references, and hopefully, come up with new ideas that could elevate the level.
← Visual references, in a PureRef board.
I had a pretty clear idea of what I was after. Drawing from the jam themes and Thief's gameplay, I went for a temple escape, with strange stuff happening throughout.
Both due to time-management concerns, and innexperience with the editor, some of the ideas I had weren't realized. Still, I made heavy use of the wikis to solve any doubts or problems I came across.
Development during the jam was pretty straightforward. The majority of dev-time was dedicated to blocking out the level, differentiating areas, and sketching a clear pacing and flow. After having most of that finalized, I started scripting enemy patrols, doing a lighting and sound pass, and making small iterations, based on my own testing and gut-feeling.
Of course, art was not considered at all, but I still tried to build different-feeling rooms, playing with colors, shapes and sizes.
As a direct result of this though, I made the choice of using very square, straigh and dull architecture, so that the final art pass would be easier to finalize. The editor doesn't work very well with off-grid geometry either, also a factor in that decision.
A big part of my design method when placing covers, lighting and general spatial design was mostly inspired by Randy Smith's talks at GDC. In the 2006 edition, he described designing for stealth as balancing Design Tools (a.k.a. value diagrams, player magents...).
Design tools that are beneficial for stealth will attract them (Shadows, visual covers...), while those which aren't (Lit torches, noisy floors, enemies...) will repel them.
Furthermore, I tried to design every encounter as to start from a safe place, to give players plenty of time to study the space and enemies ahead, at least during the first few encounters.
Keeping that in mind, predicting player routes and gameplay scenarios became much easier, and pushing the player into a room was not a problem.
Slide from Randy Smith's 2006 GDC talk.
Before and after of the editor's overview (Jam VS Final)
Once the jam level was finalized, I sent it over to a couple of playtesters, who helped me see what worked, and what not, and I built the final version off of that, aiming towards a Christmas release for the End-of-Year contest.
What they said I already knew for the most part; this level is very different to most other Thief missions: Somewhat linear, wide open spaces, little resources to play with, but still, it seemed like it could be a step out of the ordinary for most players.
I kept the scarcity of resources, but did tweak lots of other details, besides also expanding the level. I also did have to build the puzzle, which wasn't finalized in time for the jam, due to inexperience with the scripting system.
Most of the iterations are described on the Iterations section, down below.
← Here's a level design breakdown for one of the beats of the mission, added post-jam.
After sneaking through the first round of mechanists, the players is forced to keep looking for the missing puzzle piece, so he descends through a spiral staircase and finds himself at a haunted prison system, still guarded by Hammer spirits.
This video is narrated by me, and features explanations, comparisons, and a general gameplay overview.
(Also on vimeo)
Here's a general recap of the biggest iterations A Lucky Thief went through, comparing the initial release, as the jam level, to its final release.
Iterations on first playable area/green tower:
- Entrance is now facing short-term goals and showing a clear overview of the room (Previously faced the wall).
- Enemy guarding short-term goal is unknockable now.
- New room, with lore, and interconnected to main room.
- Added new patrol.
- Added wall to cut-down on line-of-sight.
- Harsher lighting, for atmosphere and clearer gameplay (General change to level).
etc.
Iterations on second playable area:
- Added more gameplay to kitchen (Noisy floor tiles, carpets, loot).
- Repositioned guards and added new patrol for female mage (Sometimes turns her back).
- Adjusted and added wood cover.
- Secret cave exit now less visible.
- New prison section, beyond hallway.
etc.
Iterations on temple exit and cave:
- Added and adjusted crates for cover and easier second route.
- New room, ties with start, secret.
- Expanded room and puzzle under stairs.
- General adjustments to possible routes and guard patrols (Small tunnel outside the image leads to entrance by right side).
...
- Adjusted door-picking puzzle.
- New cave, serving as climatic ending, with spike in difficulty.
- General adjustments to lighting and geometry.
etc.
After months of trying, finally diving into the beast that is the DromEd editor, felt great. What I loved the most was actually building the level geometry and the gameplay, but working on the texturing, lighting, story and sound was a good time too.
Playtesters seemed to have fun, but still were critical of the level, which I greatly appreciate. The second round of playtesters, although not mentioned on this page, were also very helpful for last-minute polishing and bug-fixes.
Overall, in the end, it was fairly good received on ThiefGuild, with some people rating it a 7 or higher, and complementing it for being a great first attempt, so I'm happy with how it turned out; I will be coming back for more!
You can download and play this mission here.
