Level Design - Zero Protocol: Outskirts

Zero Protocol is an isometric action-adventure thriller in production at Northline Works. You play Cole Ryker, a Zero Force operator sent in when the Zero Protocol is invoked - and it's only invoked when something that can't be allowed to become public has already happened. The protocol itself is simple: investigate the situation, dispose of any enemies, contain any witnesses, destroy any evidence. The missions it produces are dark, brutal and gory, and they all start the same way, because equipment is procured on site: Ryker arrives with nothing but his fists and a combat suit.

Mission 1, Stage 1 is the prologue, and it has two jobs. The first is onboarding: investigation points, attacking, dodging, blocking, flowing between melee and ranged, jumping and climbing, the grenade ability, and Kinetic Charge - the suit turns incoming damage into power, so you become more dangerous the closer you are to death. The second is introducing the game's one big structural idea: Jimmy.

Teach everything, tutorialise nothing

I built the stage on four design pillars: learn by doing; alternate pressure, discovery and traversal; optional routes make Jimmy and civilians matter; new tools must bring new challenges. In practice, that means one descending road where each area hands the player exactly one new thing and immediately makes them use it.

The cold open teaches unarmed combat immediately by throwing an enemy at the player when there's no other option. A pipe drops and gives a melee weapon where the first real fight starts. The first gun, the Nullifier, arrives as a field handoff from a dying officer at Barker's Gas Station - seconds before a combat arena introduces groups that the player needs to keep their distance from. The Broken Road pairs a grenade lesson with the stage's first wallrun while two enemy packs wander below, ready to be blown up. Every area has an estimated time duration, with a target play time of around 20 minutes.

Jimmy: a companion, not an escort quest

Jimmy is a civilian who happened to be there when Ryker's drop pod landed on his car, and decided to follow the one capable person in the apocalypse. The design rule is that he's never a burden: no escorting, no babysitting, no fail state attached to him. He follows along, comments on the situation, slowly levels up, picks up his own equipment and helps in combat. He can also die at any time - civilian casualties are normal in Zero Protocol, Ryker barely reacts, and the game just continues without him.

Moments through the mission play out differently depending on whether Jimmy is alive, but he's never required. The Picnic Trail branch only exists while he lives - he's the one who knows who Maria is - and its reward feeds his growth rather than the player's inventory. Traversal sections, dungeons and boss fights exclude him by rule: he makes an excuse, despawns, and finds his own way back to you on the far side.

The Lava Man: putting it all together

The stage ends on an area-denial boss. The Lava Man drops molten lava with every ability, steadily shrinking the ground the player can stand on - so the fight tests exactly what the road taught: mobility to stay off the lava and out of his reach, weapon flow to keep damage on him from range and up close, and Kinetic Charge to turn the hits that do land into the power that finishes him. Jimmy spectates from outside the barrier - if he's alive he can throw in one heal per phase, but he can't solve the fight.

Past the arena, the stage closes on a vista of Silvertown and a one-way drop toward it. I designed the whole stage in Miro - concept, flow, map, plan and a sheet per area - then built it in Godot. It's playable end to end in the prototype today.