Manifesto - SyFySkyE/Quake-SP-E1 GitHub Wiki

This is the manifesto for "Castle Siege", a new single player map for Quake 1.

As the title mentions, I chose a castle theme for this level. I chose this for a few reasons. One of them being that I knew it would fit with Quake's aesthetics and I wouldn't spend much time fighting the engine in that regard. The other being that the castle idea comes with plenty of affordances. It allows for diverse environments, room size contrasts (small, claustrophobic corridors and open courtyards) to be believable and fit the aesthetic. This makes the design pretty open-ended. It was the only idea on my list that generated countless different ideas. And hey, I never made a castle level before, so this is exciting!

I really want to explore a level comprised of different sections, but all being connected in a meaningful way. There's going to be a big focus early on about getting through this main gate, this should be visibly from all other major rooms in the level as the player works toward opening it. The level will give the player a sense of space and scale by being able to see the main focal point, the main gate, from other major areas across the map. The level will offer differing challenges between combat and puzzle-solving, and allowing players to solve at their own order. I want to have a main hub area the player can come to that breaks up the action, but the level should sometimes play with player assumption, such as having an enemy wave spawn in the main area just before the gate opens.