Game: Warhammer 40K: Darktide
Platforms: PC
Tools Used: Stingray
Production Time (Personal): 43 months
Team Size: ~200
Role: Level Design, Level Scripter
As with most game projects I’ve had a hand in most of the levels made, below you will find all of the ones I’ve designed from scratch but also the ones I’ve gotten ownership for from the original designers.
BASE GAME
Warhammer 40K: Darktide is a first person co-operative shooter where we combine the iconic melee combat with ranged combat in a completely new universe and setting that of Atoma Prime and the hive city Tertium.
METALFAB 36 (TANK FOUNDRY)
My very first dip into Darktide and 40K was a zone called Tank Foundry, also known in-game as Metalfab 36.
Metalfab 36 (Tank Foundry)
When I first joined this project this zone was the next in line and it was in the design stage when I got to get my hands on it.
This zone is all about showing off a certain type of factory that can be found all over the hive city, namely how the famous Leman Russ Battle Tank is made, from the materials coming into the factory to parts or even finished tanks going out.
Power Matrix HL-17-36 (Cooling)
The first mission I started with takes place in the more restricted area where a control room is used to control one of the reactors.
The reactor for this factory has been sabotaged, or more accurately, the control rods that stabilize the reactor.
Players must go in and restart everything, before the whole place blows up.
The idea is for players to start way outside of the place, in the void, and make their way into parts of the factory without being spotted.
Naturally players have to fight their way in and find the control room where they can charge the rods and bring them down into the reactor.
From here players must work together to distribute the rods to each machine and then restart the system for it to stabilize, then leave unscathed.
My immediate goal was to review this mission in its design phase and evaluate what to iterate upon, before moving on to blocking it out.
After updating the design and establishing how every mission would fit together in the same space, I started blocking the level out in our editor in a very basic pass.
Once that is in place I made sure to script the core gameplay units that require the mission to work on a very basic level but also prototyping various gameplay events.
Consignment Yard HL17-36 (Cargo)
I was also responsible for planning and blocking out another mission in this zone, this time it was all about players getting into the same factory, exploring some shared spaces, to eventually reach the outgoing train platform where enemies had taken over.
Players must secure the area before being able to leave, thus securing a lot of valuable weapons and resources that enemies no longer have access to.
Post-Mortem (Metalfab 36)
I felt this mission managed to deliver upon our vision; have players sneak into and deal with a reactor that is about to go critical.
Both of the event spaces feel unique and the last one has more focus on working together to distribute the rods.
If anything, we did not manage to show the whole process of a tank being made but that can always be a future mission in this zone.
THE HOURGLASS (DUST)
The second zone I worked on, fourth in order, was meant to be drastically different, both in terms of narrative but also art-wise.
The Hourglass (Dust)
We knew early on that we would need a new place to break things apart visually, make something distinct that really introduced new things to our players.
The zone is meant to be an area right next to the outer shield of the hive city, a place that is long forgotten and has fallen to disarray, abandoned and no one in charge really knows what is going on there. Soon enough we find out that there is a cult active here, spreading their propaganda to catch new victims for their horrible practices.
The whole upper area of the zone used to attract private clients of higher status and taken through a consulate to meet up with their associates. The lower levels housed massive hangars with vaults attached that all contain personal belongings.
We were two designers that worked setting up this zone, make sure we have missions that show various aspects of it while keeping the shared aspect of missions intact.
Relay Station TRS-150 (Propaganda)
This was the first mission I designed from scratch, meant to show how the cultists operate to lure people to their home turf but also introduce more corruption into the mix.
Players must use one of the few areas still accessible and go through the upper area, through the consulate, and eventually exit to the “outside” area of the zone. Here players are met with sunlight and can see the edge of the hive city, the shield that is broken down, sand drifting into areas they are trying to navigate through.
In the distance is the target; an old relay station converted by the cult to transmit their propaganda, what lures people into their traps.
As players reach this goal they quickly find out that the cult have things locked down, chaos corruptors blocking the path and must be dealt with to eventually let players reprogram and re-align the dish to instead transmit the only true word of the holy emperor.
Refinery Delta-17 (Strain)
Another mission I took over to update the design and iterate upon was also related to the cult, but this time it was all about the darker side of things.
For this, players must find an old fuel depot used for arbiters back in the day, now repurposed by the cult to grow a new strain of virus in the perfect of conditions.
As players find this place, they must override the settings for each set of pods to make the pressure get so immense they explode, essentially destroying the virus by changing the conditions it thrives in.
Post-Mortem (The Hourglass)
Overall we are happy with how the zone turned out and the reception; new visual style that really sets it apart from the others.
Combine this with new unique spaces such as going outside with natural lighting and getting to play Indiana Jones by going deep into vaults and grab some stuff of importance.
We also aimed to expand the narrative here with the cult, which we managed to do, but its always hard to present in a game like this.
THRONESIDE
Just like the previous zone, we set out to make something new and very different for our players; a whole zone where it feels like you are playing on the ground level of real life miniatures.
Throneside
We felt that a game around Warhammer 40K should probably have some sort of area that is very iconic for the franchise. This is where this zone comes in to play.
The whole idea for this zone was to make it so fans of the franchise would feel like they are playing inside one of the many real life kits of various structures.
Unlike some of our other zones, this one was supposed to still be
This is a zone that I did the majority of work on from the very get-go, design, building, scripting and so on.
Enclavum Baross (Resurgence)
As with most places in this hive city, parts of Throneside has recently been overtaken by enemy forces and has to be taken back.
For this first mission we wanted players to explore some shared spaces that very much screamed Warhammer 40K; big streets, massive bridge, lots of fancy exteriors to take in.
Players start on an adjacent “island” to where they have to go, enemy forces are expecting players and have therefore cut off the main connection to the other side; the bridge.
As soon as players have lowered it they can proceed through the fancy big streets, reaching the outside of the archivum and moving on to the tighter spaces before reaching the goal.
The final obstacle is taking back, securing the security checkpoint where enemy forces first broke through and keep getting their reinforcements from.
Comms-Plex 154/2f (Complex)
The second level I authored for this zone aims to bring players back over to island where they started in the first mission, but this time go inside the administratum office, reach the roof and help deliver a message.
Players start navigating through narrow streets, a quaranteed area that has recently been let go and essentially purged.
Reaching the base of the bridge, players use the same bridge as before (but with it already being down) to reach the big impressive streets.
From there the main entrance into the administratum office is blocked off, so players must take a different route in.
After getting the elevators back up, players navigate inside the administratum office to reach the rooftop.
At the very end, players must hack the main antenna so it can find the signal and transmit the message for your forces to pin point and destroy key enemy locations.
Post-Mortem (Throneside)
Overall I feel like we nailed the whole concept of this zone and the response from players has been very positive.
Using the new art for the zone allowed us to push new types of areas and gameplay space which made things more interesting for players.
The events work well but could definitely be expanded upon to have more of an impact.