Payday 3
Starbreeze Entertainment
Level Designer - Scripting
Overview
Payday 3 is a cooperative first-person shooter game, where players execute elaborate heists across several locations.
Disclosure
Some details of my work are under NDA.
Responsibilities
-
Puzzle Configuration
-
Replace old puzzles with improved versions
-
Remove legacy objectives, implement and verify updated objective flow
-
- Bugfixing
- Identify gameplay bugs through group playtests
- Investigate level script to isolate and fix bugs
-
Implement Objective Elements
-
Add and randomize gameplay actors, such as hackable routers, medkit stations, and security rooms
-
Placement of preplanning assets which have a chance to spawn in the level if players have purchased a favor before the heist
-
- Pitch Heist Improvements
-
Extensive playtests and analysis of preexisting heists
-
Identity and compile core issues, and offer design solutions
-
The bulk of my puzzle rework took place in Gold and Sharke.
The Problem We Needed to Solve
The puzzle rework in Gold and Sharke is part of a team-wide effort to address player feedback, and improve the overall experience across several heists in PAYDAY 3.
During part of this heist, after the police have been alerted, players need to override the security lock in order to access the vault lobby.
Old Puzzle Objective Flow
- Activate the Control Panel & locate the first WiFi circle.
- Stand still inside the circle until it has been "hacked"
- Players must then go to two separate locations on the upper floor to access a computer.
- Each computer must be interacted with, and players wait until the progress bar gets full before they can proceed to the next computer.
- Once interference is disabled, players can re-activate the Control Panel, and continue hacking the WiFi circles.
- Vault lobby door can be opened after hacking the remaining WiFi circles.
Core issues
- WiFi circles are tedious, and players did not enjoy interacting with them
- The "Disable the interference" objective interrupted the flow of the puzzle, and introduced unnecessary padding
- Repetitive gameplay elements were highlighted due to excessive timers players were forced to wait out
- Removed all WiFi circles
- Removed Interference objective
- Adjusted Objectives and V.O. triggers to accommodate new mission flow
New Iteration of Hacking Puzzle
- Activate the Control Panel
- Locate and hack the routers
- Enter the vault lobby
This new iteration introduces greater momentum through this part of the heist with zero interruption. Experienced players will quickly resolve the puzzle while still being offered variety through the randomization of router spawn positions.
Breakdown
Why hack routers? In order to bypass the security lock on the vault lobby door, Shade, your outside help, needs to hack the control panel by the door. By doing so, you gain access to the vault area.
Each successful hack decreases the amount of time it takes Shade to disable the lock.
Router
Control Panel
Vault Lobby Door
Router
Router
Router
Router
When to hack routers? When the heist goes "loud", meaning: players have disturbed the peace enough to alert guards and frighten civilians, the keypad used to gain access is disabled. Therefore, you only need to hack routers if you have failed to maintain stealth at this point in the heist.
How to hack routers?
-
Before entering the vault room, go loud
-
Interact with the control panel near the vault lobby door
-
Follow the waypoints to each of the routers and disable them(on higher difficulties, you don't get a waypoint)
-
The vault lobby door will be unlocked once all five routers have been hacked, or the total hack duration on the control panel has depleted.
Setup
-
The core config is done inside the Control Panel blueprint actor.
-
Here, you grab references to all routers (Access Points) that have been placed in the level.
-
Other values are set here, such as speed increase per interaction, and how many must be hacked in order to instantly unlock the vault lobby.
Level Designers are given a wide range of configurable actors so that we can fine-tune their values to best match that particular heist.
Details panel of the Control Panel blueprint actor.
In most cases involving hackable routers, we place several of them (10 total in Gold and Sharke bank) even though you only hack up to 5 in a given heist.
This allows us to randomize the location of the routers. This is achieved by destroying half of the hackable routers in the level using something called Destroy Groups.
PITCHING TO THE TEAM
I was also assigned a legacy heist to playtest thoroughly, analyze, and determine how we could improve the player experience. Suggested improvements included:
-
More escape opportunities
-
Streamlining objectives
-
Difficulty tuning
-
Improved randomization
MY CONTRIBUTION
I had the privilege to own the pitch for "No Rest for the Wicked", the iconic first heist in PAYDAY 3.
THE PROCESS
Aside from playing the heist several times solo and in a team, I:
-
Presented ideas to colleagues to get feedback
-
Scripted quick and dirty prototypes to showcase ideas
-
Used Miro to collect and share my ongoing rework
-
Gathered all refined designs into an organized pitch and presented it to the team
An example of how I prototyped the new helicopter escape idea in PAYDAY 3 can be found HERE. The full list of improvements added can be found HERE.
Using the tools and custom actors hand-crafted for the game, Level Designers can quickly put their ideas into the game so it is playable and open for feedback.
Reflection
After working on Project Baxter, I was moved to the Payday team. It came with several new challenges, primarily the amount of scripting required by level designers.
Working as a Level Designer on PAYDAY 3 is interesting, because there are well-defined rules and guidelines for building a heist. However, you have the creative freedom for your designs to thrive within those constraints.
I was able to develop my technical skills throughout development, and directly contribute to a new heist.