DLC Sunshine Springs — Jeff Touchstone

Role: Lead Level Designer

DLC: Sunshine Springs 2023

Engine: In-house CTG Engine

Highlights:

Lead Level Designer: team of 5
Designed the map for Sunshine Springs. Roads, terrain, and landmarks.
Worked closely with Environment Art and Directors to develop district
Created Blockout the Hotel exterior and Heist mission interior
Designed and blockout for the Movie Star’s (the pack villain) Cliffside mansion.
Designed combat space for Open world flashpoint.
Ambient Life placement & curating.

The Sunshine Springs district was part of a free expansion for Saints Row (2022).  The mission pack, The Heist and Hazardous, are part of a paid pack. The main reference for district was Palm Springs and the glamour of Beverly Hills.

Sunshine Spring from the north end looking towards the Iconic waterfall and Movie Star's mansion. I wanted to bookend the district with the two most important mission locations.

I designed the layout of the exterior and interior of the Hotel. Featured in the final mission of the pack.

The main entrance and the rooftop were the most important places for the mission.

This location was the major POI for the district. One of the main navigational landmarks. It needed to be seen from every point. From the drive-in to just exploring we wanted this location to speak to wealth and excess of Classic Hollywood Actors and Palm springs.

Inspiration for this location by the Palm Springs estates of Classic Rat Pack era Hollywood Actors.

Screenshot and final art done by Artist Joel Morenz

It was very important to me that road up to the Mansion not be a dead end. I built the road in such a way that the player could drive at top speed over the cliff and land back on the road they came up. This later became the capstone moment of the final mission.

Dam pump station. The is a location for an Open World combat encounter. The player is free to approach this combat in anyway they see fit. laid out space, and created the building with interior.

On the back of the building I wanted the player to good ways to lose LOS and duck into the interior

Hotel Interior Purple character mess used as place holder to mark the location of key character. The hanging light became combat props that the player could shoot'n'drop on targets below

Hotel Interior Level blockout that I build for the final mission of the Heist Pack. Worked with a mission design and environment artist. Lay out serve two purpose. A social investigation and combat space

Upstairs lounge area. Semi-isolated from the party below. A space reserved for a conversation. Much of the decor and layout was inspired by the Valley Ho and Beverly Hills Hotels

Open bar area just off of the main gallery

I laid out the interior of the hotel from the Front door, to the ballroom, down the parking lot, and to a hidden vault room. This section was built with stealth gameplay in-mind

Breakroom with birthday cake would later turn into a combat zone.

Some time you just need to an easter egg in the blockout.

Building a District

Every district would start with concept art and documentation written by directors detailing the high level vision, narrative goals, and key inspirational references. With that in hand I would collaborate with the Environment Art Lead on specific details for the district such as architecture styles, points of interest, the socioeconomic status of the district. We’d gather tons of photo/video references, then start arranging ideas into reference boards. I’d work with Narrative, Missions/Open world designers to figure out what the specific gameplay needs were. From there I’d organize all the various data points and begin painting 2D maps of the district, planning out the main navigational routes (on-foot and vehicles), landmarks, vistas, and shortcuts. Making sure it all stayed within gameplay metrics.

Using Volition’s in-house City Planner tools I’d quickly create playable district in a few hours. Get feedback, iterate, gather more info, draw another map, and repeat.