Posted May 03, 2025 by Lukaa6
Week 9 – Basic Level Blocking
Introduction
This week I worked on setting up the foundation of the game’s level. The focus was on building the basic layout and fencing off key areas like spawn zones, player movement paths, and potential choke points using Unity’s Tilemap system.
Development Progress
I started by downloading a farm-level tile set sheet from Szadi Art (2023) on itch.io and sketched out a rough layout in my head of how I wanted the level to feel. After slicing the sprite sheet into 32x32 tiles, I chose a base background tile and began blocking out the main playable space. I adjusted the size until it felt just right — not too big, not too small.
Once I had the core space set, I fenced out key areas to match my layout plan and created pathways leading to important sections of the map. I also customized one of the buildings from the sprite sheet to create a bright red barn that better suited the game's theme, modifying the colour to make it stand out more clearly as a key landmark. I also added a chicken coop sprite, which I generated using ChatGPT image tools, with more themed additions to come.
Spawn zones were created using small tombstone clusters, also generated via ChatGPT, to represent undead emergence points. These not only serve as functional spawn markers but also help reinforce the creepy farm theme and atmosphere I’m going for. [tombstone and full map]
Challenges
The biggest challenge this week was getting the fencing to line up cleanly. Initially, I tried slicing only the parts of the sprite sheet I needed — just the background, fences, and paths — to keep things minimal. But this approach ended up being overly complicated and time-consuming, and the tiles didn’t align consistently across the map.
After a lot of trial and error, I decided to slice the entire farm sprite sheet at 32x32. Even though I’m only using a small portion of it, this gave me a consistent tile layout and made it much easier to build a clean, well-aligned level. It took extra time to pull the right tiles into the palette, but the result was worth it.
Feedback and Testing
I received some useful feedback during this week’s session. While not all of it was directly about level blocking, several points touched on how level layout affects visual clarity and gameplay.
One piece of feedback pointed out that the player sprite has a solid brown shadow that stands out awkwardly against certain parts of the map, especially in brighter areas. The suggestion was to go back and edit the sprite sheet to make the shadow partially transparent, which should help it blend better with the background.
Another issue raised was that enemies can run off the left side of the screen, likely due to the level boundaries not being fully enclosed. I’ll be reviewing the edge tiles and colliders to fix this.
Finally, a bug with zombie death animations came up — mainly in the first wave of enemies. While not level-related, I’ll investigate whether spawn positioning or terrain overlap might be contributing to this.
Planned Improvements
Next, I plan to patch the left boundary of the level to make sure enemies can’t escape off-screen. I’ll also revisit the tombstone clusters to vary their appearance slightly and make them feel more natural in the environment.
If time allows, I’ll start updating the player sprite’s shadow to be semi-transparent, helping it sit better against different tile types.
I’m also planning to block out a new area that could be unlocked after a certain wave, giving players more space and a sense of progression as the game ramps up.
References