DLC Developer Blog 3



A copy of Deep Silver and 4A's blog on the Metro: Last Light  DLC pack, the Developer Pack.

The Developer Pack
Our third piece of DLC for Metro: Last Light is… a little schizophrenic shall we say!

On one hand, it contains a substantial solo mission, the ‘Spiders’ Lair’ - designed to be one of the most intense, stressful Metro experiences ever.

Awaking unarmed, with only your lighter and compass, you must escape the murky depths of the Spider’s Lair – a forsaken Missile Silo that has become infested with arachnids.

Light and fire become your weapons – the latter provided by a new addition to the Metro arsenal, the hand-pumped Flamethrower.

''The Spider’s Lair is pure survival horror, Metro style - it combines all of our limited resource mechanics to pile pressure on the player. You’ll be frantically wiping gore from your cracked mask, and hunting for spare filters as your oxygen ticks relentlessly down. The flamethrower’s fuel tank needs to be constantly cranked to maintain pressure, and you’ll need your torch on full beam at all times…''

''Just one word of warning – if you’re afraid of spiders, this episode will either kill or cure you. But probably kill you.''

''The ‘Developer Pack’ itself is something… completely different. It’s probably worth explaining where the idea came from.''

Throughout the development of Metro: Last Light, 4A Games would work towards monthly milestone builds.

The very first milestone included just a handful of areas (including the now infamous crowd scene from the level ‘Reich’ that was shown in our E3 2011 demonstration), but over the months and years that list of playable levels grew, and each level in turn was gradually transformed from a grey, featureless box to the richly detailed locations you see in the final game.

''The one constant throughout was the ‘Test’ level. This was a vast, abstract environment where new gameplay features, AI behaviour, art and tech changes could be quickly and easily demonstrated outside the narrative constraints of a campaign level.''

And at the centre of the Test level was the Gun Table, where every weapon in every possible configuration could be found and tested empirically for rate of fire, recoil, damage etc. against a row of endlessly re-spawning bullet fodder that lined the far wall.

The Test Level was never intended for the final game, but we sometimes used it as a curiosity to show the gaming media and realised it could be a lot of fun to experiment with.

The Developer Pack then, re-works some of the more fun Test Level features within a new environment.

''The Gun Table has become a Shooting Range complete with a series of marksman challenges. The complex behaviours of our sophisticated AI model can be studied on more detail in the AI Arena, allowing you to pit groups of enemies against each other and take part in additional challenges. Lastly, the Museum allows you to get up close and personal to our mutants and key NPCS.''

The Developer Pack also includes a brand new weapon not found anywhere else in the game – there’s an incredible story behind this that we’ll be sharing with you next week!

''Our next piece of DLC is the ‘Chronicles Pack’ – after our more experimental forays into new gameplay experiences with the Faction, Tower and Developer Packs, this final DLC most closely resembles the Metro campaign experience as you take controls of Pavel, Anna, and Khan and Ulman as we tie up some unanswered questions away from Artyom’s quest. We’ll take a look at it in more detail in our next and final blog!''

-by Deep Silver on Thursday 12th of September 2013

Trivia

 * Many developers make such levels whilst developing their games.