Creating the CryptoMiner Level: Part 1

DevLog 20260419

Trying something a bit different - logging the creation of a "new" level for Project8088. I say "new" because the level will not be designed from scratch, but instead will be a modification of the GamingPC level.

Setting Up

First thing to do was copy the GamingPC level into the CryptoMiner. Doing this not only gives me a starting point for how the level looks, but it also yields all the level and phase control under the hood - basically the game play loop. This allow me to focus on the design of the level. Moving from one phase to another is controlled by a phase checker. Once conditions are met by the phase, the level knows to move to the next phase. The final phase for each level is to go back to The Lab - the "real world" of Project8088.

The advantage of progressively copying one level to another is that I get all the gameplay mechanics of prior levels while being able to add new mechanics for the current and future levels. And I can create specific gameplay for the level without having to worry about how it affects prior levels.

Back to the CryptoMiner: here's what I see as my list of to dos:

Expand the level - a crypto-miner has room for 6 GPUs. Since Project8088 takes place in the near future, I think it's reasonable for the board to hold 8 GPUs. This would mean extending the motherboard out and spacing the PCI slots according. Each slot would have the same regulatory components around it like transistors and chips.

Clone and modify the GPU - the GPU in the GamingPC level is labeled as an Edgewood Systems TheLAB QRES16GB and has blue LEDs lighting up the three fans. I think I will stick with the three fans, but extend the GPU so that it is longer. Also, LEDs will be green.

Modify Circuit Board - aside from extending the level and spacing out new PCI slots, the underlying board animation may need to be revised so that it's not too similar to the GamingPC level. Also, components like the RAM sticks and CPU will be moved.

Identify Phases - for each phase of the level, enemies will need to be defined as well as the phase areas. Phase walls will be used, like the Router levels, to contain the phase space.

Add a new gameplay mechanic - introduce a new game play mechanic for the level. I think this will be a Quantum Wall - a barrier that randomly opens a hole in the wall so the player can pass through. It could be set up that if the player hits the wall, field damage is taken.

Add a new enemy - coming off the GamingPC boss level, a new enemy should be introduced. At the moment, I am thinking of some type of exploding enemy - when their health reaches a certain threshold they explode with the player taking field damage.

Add a new buff mechanic - define and create a new buff mechanic for the player to access at The Lab.

Reason for being there - identify in the story arc why the player is there. Create the first hint to Finding Aidia Le - perhaps an echo or shadow.

Let's Do This

Resizing the physical level was pretty simply - basically just doubled the Y-value scale from 200 to 400. But the first challenge is the motherboard. A new one will need to be created due to the scaling.

The GamingPC motherboard is super simple - a cube with a material on it to represent the circuits as well as a screw on each corner. With the board copied to the CryptoMotherBoard, the first challenge in updating the circuit material.

Circuit Material - I am going to keep the same idea behind the material which I named MAT_Etch. There is a pattern that was drafted in Canva that represents the circuits. I applied a Motion_4WayChaos node to a texture that was a modification of a gradient. After a touch of math, the values are attached to the Emissive Color and Opacity of the material. (Note to self - test using this material for an enemy)

I doubled the width of the underlying circuit image from 2500px to 5000px.

This yielded a pretty nice start but there is a lot of empty space. After a bit of manipulation using Canva, the board will start out as this:

After making a copy of older material, I imported the new image into the project's content and replaced existing texture sample. The next step was to expand the motherboard by doubling its width and assign the next material. The four corner screws were moved out and I added two more screws in the center. The result:

Hardware - Now, let's see what this looks like in the level. At scale it looks okay, but feels a bit smaller than it should be considering there are going to be six GPUs across. I upped the size to 1.5x scale

As I begin to start moving things around, I realized that this level super dark, so I turned up the SkyLight for now.

From what I have see on cryptominers, they have fans along one size of the build. Let's scale the fans up to give them a bit more heft and put five along the back wall. Looking at the processing unit, since we are dealing with future technology, I think putting four processors in a square might be cool. After laying out the PCI slots and doing some adjustments to compensate for the size of the level, there is now a framework.

Now, something need to go into the PCI slots which means working on the GPU. First, let's give the new card a name: Edgewood Systems TheLAB QRES32GB - just a slight upgrade from the 16GB model in the GamingPC. The LEDs have been changed from blue to green and the card has been bulked up slightly.

In the level:

Let's take the light intensity back down:

Now the level can be walled off. Another set of recharging resistors should probably be added to ensure they are available during each phase. And additional chips and capacitors will be used to give the level a bit more visual depth.

There is a bit more work to do, but this is close to the final version of the level. I am not sure about the scale when it comes to the GPU as they look a bit outsized by the rest of the components. Depending on how the level play tests, I may make some adjustments. But all in all, this was my vision for the level and I am quite happy with it.

Check back or, better yet, subscribe, for Part 2 that detail the rest of the elements going into the CryptoMiner level.