Escape Z Lab

Escape Z Lab is a 10 minute Farcry 5 Arcade Journey level with a horror theme and an emphasis on scripted events.

Here's a playthrough video. 

Here's an in depth look at the goals and execution in each area of the level. 

This is a small project I made to test out the modded Farcy 5 Arcade editor.

Objectives

• Highlight use of effective scripting in level design
• Keep project scope tight
• Finish before around Halloween

Challenges

Unlike Sunset Search which hovered around 3 stars during early releases, before growing to 4+ stars through iterative improvement, Escape the Lab has been hated by players throughout development. The early releases sat at 1 star, and the current release sits barely above 1 star.

There are issues impacting the player experience. It's not clear yet whether the issues are technical issues with the modded content, or if I've created an experience that just isn't fun.

I wish I could get player feedback other than a star rating, because I suspect there are specific easy to fix issues causing most of the friction. If it's not issues with the mod then I suspect the issue is related to difficulty in Area 4 where the endless pressure of the zombie swarms and fires makes some players feel too overwhelmed. I also suspect the ability of the final boss to kill you pretty easily, combined with the lack of checkpoints, to be a frustrating experience.

I will keep an eye on the star rating and implement changes to the suspected problems once the level has gone through it's lifespan in the arcade. (once plays stagnate)