Nikko's adventure: Book 1 The 9 Trials

Chapter 17: A Helping Hand

As the say starts nearing to and end, Nikko goes to check on John who is staring at his computer screen with a face of pure concentration. Curious, Nikko walks up to him and asks what he is doing but John doesn't reply and starts typing away at his computer, Nikko turns his focus to the computer screen and sees a document of sorts with multiple people working on it. With further observation he sees it's a document on a new game but very different with the ways it works especially in coding, using simple yet complex coding techniques. Then as John scrolls through the concept art and level design section of the document, Nikko quickly stops him and observes the many characters, enemies, hubs and massive levels ranging in a variety of styles. "Do you need help with any of this?" Nikko enthusiastically asks, John says the game is almost finished and everything just needs to be polished and that they are working on one more hub and level of a specific design. Nikko says he'll create the concept art while already thinking of what to do, John only looking at him with a face of disbelief he sighs and agrees to let Nikko work on the level design. John points to a spare computer that Nikko could work on and he goes to work on the computer, opening up a 3d-design program as John tells him the style the level and hub is supposed to be in.

Luckily the design is set in a large scaled futuristic city with many spacey themes and holograms everywhere, Nikko first starts getting the general idea of how the hub will look and starts working on the hub. From looking at the size and shape of all the other level hub's he decides to make his a tiny bit bigger and more rectangular in shape, with diagonal edges and lights lining the room. Starting with the general shape of the entire room he starts adding a second floor and balcony to the hub, as the time passes he adds more and more details. Nikko either refines some shapes or details or adds more to the room, making different parts bigger or smaller and then starts planning where to place the NPC's for the hub. He moves onto the lighting, making some corners brighter or darker than others and balancing out how much light is in the room while lining the walls with strips of light and making intricate designs. Nikko pulls up some pictures online of futuristic rooms to get some inspiration and then starts adding environmental and interactive objects in various places like holograms, mission center's, NPC's, windows, doors, hover pads, and other sprites made from the dev team. With the hub finished and all of the sprites and details in place he zooms out to take a look at the hub and fix mistakes and refine the hub as much as possible.

After some time and refining, Nikko saves the hub and sends it to John and the rest of the dev team as told so in a message. He quickly starts to work on the level itself and starts adding the building's and level sprites as provided by the dev team along with adding his own little touch to the level with various neon colors and lighting across the sky and a few building's. Before Nikko can start adding the flying objects and vehicles to the level, John comes to Nikko and asks him about the hub he made. Nikko starts getting worried quickly and asks if there is something wrong or an error message that he needs to fix, John quickly dismisses anything bad and asks how hard it was. Nikko looks at him confused and says it wasn't hard at all, saying he just placed things in the right places and tried his best without actually trying to make the level look the best it can. John smiles and congratulates Nikko on how well he did as he starts saying how much the team loved the hub he made, Nikko smiles back happily and starts going back to work on the level. With some more time passing he adds some environmental hazards and interactions like explosions, destructible environments, and even small minigames in various parts of the level.

Halfway into the level design with all of the buildings and objects in place, Nikko decides to add his own little easter egg in a very inconspicuous part of the level on top of a building in the far back of the level. He adds a little 90's jukebox and a famous song from the 90's while styling the area in a 90's aesthetic, then soon after he goes back to finishing up the level. One to two hours pass and Nikko finishes up placing all of the NPC's and moving objects in various spots of the level while going throughout the level and refining details and polishing up the level. A few hours pass and Nikko finishes with the entire level with some time to spare to check up on Jessica but before he can leave John asks him if they could talk. Nikko nods his head yes "what's up?" he asks, then John asks Nikko if he has done level design before, Nikko says no and asks why.