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Level Design 17/18 Luce van Maren

  • Writer: Luce van Maren
    Luce van Maren
  • Apr 23, 2018
  • 9 min read

Updated: Jun 18, 2018

Class 1 assignment:

Post on your blog: 1 example of a game level (for instance a link of a walkthrough from YouTube) of which you think is a 'Good' level design and add a supporting narrative about why !

Game: Unravel (2016)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB5Cv_Wfoqw&index=8&list=PLeqwXTaiY-OwafTdxFrqhARKdbQDpvFlc


Why I think this is "good" level design:


The environments in Unravel are both beautiful and interesting. But because it is a 2D platformer/puzzle game, the player always knows what way to go, right.

However, there are often parts below or above the player that the camera doesn't show, this keeps it interesting to explore.


The game uses objects and animals as obsticals, enemies or puzzle pieces, but they are always put in place in such a way that it seems natural.

For example: in this level (farm like environment), the crows are used as enemies and boxes near the shed are used by the player for hiding. It seems logical for a crow to be near fields to feed and to attack a small creature. The boxes seem to have been used for carrying or storing havest.


Because the character of Unravel (named: Yarny) is extremely small, everything else looks huge. This makes small tasks like turning on a light, jumping over a pudle or lifting something, only possible by solving the puzzles (using your yarn and the environment around you).

I think this makes the player more compasionate toward Yarny, because he is so small in such a big world, and for once, we see the world as if we were just as small.


The background is often slightly out of focus so the foreground is clearly visible.

There is a great variety between the levels in Unravel, from snow to inside to spring. They are all inspired by northern scandanavian lands.


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Brainstorm for personal level 1/5/2018


I would like to create a level with one or more of the following theme's: "Japanese temple" "underwater" "hight difference" "mural paintings (for narrative)".


For inspiration I made a page on pinterest: https://nl.pinterest.com/luciawolfanna/level-design/

The plan: make sketches to set the style, theme and atmosphere. Then investigate the game mechanics we will have to work with. After that I can start designing the level.


These are my first idea sketches to get a feeling of what I want.


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Class assingment 2:

1. Post for each 'Flow Model' (see L2 slides)'; 1 game (walkthrough from YouTube) on your personal blog (put in the name + flow model as support).

2. Choose a level-segment from 1 particular game and create: a 'Game-play Narrative' flowchart or a 'Difficulty' diagram and post this on your personal blog.

3. Make a start in working on the end-assignment; focus on generating ‘Ideas’ & gathering ‘reference’ material.

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1. Flow models (07/05/2018)

Linear

This is when a game only has one path for the player to go. It just leads the player from a start to an end.


In portal there are often several ways to get through one of the puzzle rooms. However, you will always go from one test room to the next one. In the end the story changes a bit but you will still follow one path/story. You cannot go in different ways then the one intended for the player.



Bottleneck

When a game story gives the player choices but will send you back to one “collected point” (meaning; you will always get to this point no matter what choice you make) it is called a bottleneck. Only the way to that “collected point” is different depending on the player his or her choice.


Until dawn has a lot of choices to give the player the idea that they are determining the story. However, as a player you will always reach certain points in the story that won’t be affected by the choices you made. Only some of the characters might not be there or behave slightly different, but the outcome is the same.



Branch

A branching story or level gives the player choices that will actually affect the outcome/ending. In my opinion there are few games that really use this well. Often it is seen as too much effort because only a few people will play it again to see a different ending.


Undertale doesn’t necessarily lay out the choices for the player, but you can play the game in a few different “styles”. As a player you can choose to kill everyone (called the genocide run), kill only a few monsters or bosses (doesn’t really have a name) or kill no one (called the pacifist route). If a player kills all the monsters, the story will differ vastly in narrative and in level design (shops are left unmanned, NPC’s have fled and puzzles are already solved for you).


Open

Best known as “open-world games”, these games give the player the ability to do whatever they want. If a player would want to, he or she can often already go to the ending in one go, however, they are often not strong enough to get through the ending.

The rest of the world is often filled with “missions” or other challenges to give the player a world to experience and get stronger along the discovery.

There aren’t a lot of games that are truly open-world, most games that are dubbed open-world do actually have some sort of line to follow. Bloodborne for example has a lot of optional areas, but you have to defeat some monsters to get to a new location. The sections in between bosses or areas are very open though.


Example: Zelda: breath of the wild – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V82qSnN9eFE

In the new success game of Nintendo, Zelda: breath of the wild, the player can actually go straight to the castle (which is where the final boss is). However, the player is weak at this point, so the game still tries to steer you through the world by giving you more power when concurring the beasts for example. But even so, the game is actually open-world.



Hubs & Spokes

This system is used in many “sandbox” games where the player often has to recapture camps spread across the map before being able to go further into the story.


In Diablo the player will always return to the village, here he or she can buy, sell and repair equipment. On the journey you will use portals to travel to several locations you have discovered. The village is the hub and all the different dungeons and places on the maps are spokes.

You need to get though the spokes to be able to continue the story and get to new spokes.


Dynamic

From what I Understand this is mostly “procedurally generated” games. These games have standard assets or even whole rooms, but the order in which they are placed will differ every time you play it. This way there only has to be a number of assets (enemies, obstacles, objects/collectables) that can be reused every time because they are placed in a different order.


Every time you play necropolis it will be different. The levels are all randomly generated and you might be lucky and begin with empty hallways or might not be so lucky and start with a horde of enemies behind the first door you open.

Even Necropolis has a certain order due to the difficulty curve. Some enemies will only be seen in later levels, but in those levels, they are randomly placed.

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2. Gameplay difficulty graph

Fire emblem: Awakening (on 3DS)


Over time ->

Fire emblem starts off with a learning curve due to the strategy aspect of the game. As a new player you will have to get used to the way movement works and what certain weapons, enemies and abilities do. After the first learning experiences it stays flat for a while so you can get used to it.

After that there is a bit of a weird shift.

It suddenly becomes quite hard due to new “kinds” of enemies and more elaborate levels that are infused with some puzzles.

The drop is because, if the player gets the new abilities and champions under control, you are easily very powerful after just a few battles won.

The high spike at the end stands for the last few battles. Those are interesting because of environments, more new enemies, a big villain and permanent death. If a character dies on the battlefield, they will really die in the game and not return. This is of course throughout the whole game, but in the last few battles the games really uses this by countering your champions or drive them in tight spots.

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(9/5/2018) Class 3 assignments:


Pictures from the Stanly parable


Foreshadowing

The two pictures below will show 2 different ways of foreshadowing. The first picture shows the player that there will be something different through the door.

The second one actually shows the player that this game has multiple endings and hints to one of them: the freedom ending.

Both these ways of foreshadowing keep the player interested to continue playing. The first one on a direct and imeadiate level, the second one on a long term scale (motivates the player to keep playing the game to get that ending).



Narrow spaces

Two kinds of narrow spaces will be shown bellow. The player will come across the first one fairly soon. This first hallway is passage way and is meant to just get the player to go in that direction.

The second one is actually a special hallway.

In the game the narrator tells the player that at the end of the hallway, the player will die. If you continue walking throught this ominous looking small hallways, it keeps getting longer for a while. This hallways is made narrow to give the player a feeling of doubt and hostility, the player should turn around.



New level/area

This lift will take the player down into a new area. This is made clear by the big enterence, the clearly visable button and, once the player steps in the elevator, the loading screen.

This way the player knows they are entering a "new level or erea" of the game.



Shapes and spaces

This space is very different from all the other rooms you have come across in the game. This room seems to be safe and sacret.

It is a "prospect space" but next to that the room is coloured white, decorated with big coloms, has a giant central light source and the player is placed on a higher posision when they enter the room for the first time.

All these things contribute to a safe and open feeling. This is sanctuary.

Lighting

In this scene the lighting is only focused on a platform in front of the player. This way the player is drawn in or invited to go further. This useage of light often sparks either the curiousity of players or make players want to go there because they have the feeling that it is safer in the light.

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Working on my own level (19/5/2018)


Making a blockout for my own level.

Setting: Japan

My level: first temple in the game. It has to be a tutorial and keep the player interested in the rest of the game, so it has to build up to a challange.

I will make more detailed draw-overs of every room once I am finished with my blockout.


Here are some sketched draw-overs:

The fist one is of the enterance hall. The red-ish block will be the statue of a gardian which you often see before Japanese temples.

The second picture is in the "tutorial- jump room". The pillars will be big stones and the floor will be inlined sand, this way it will look like a Japanese garden.

On the wall there will be a mural. Through such murals the player will get to know more and more about the believes of these people.

This mural shows a large blossum tree with people lined underneath.



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I have found a finish to my level that suits the narrative of the game.

The narrative:


Laura will go looking for an item that she knows out of a myth.

The item is said to control the king of the sea.

Laura does not believe the myth but wants to check it out anyway.

She goes to an island near Japan, then to an underwater location (my level).

The murals tell the story of 2 groups of people fighting, one side wants to end it all by using the magic item to destroy the other side.

This goes wrong and the monster turns on all humans. So they tried to hid the item, so it would be forgotten.

The item she finds in 7.3 (see below) is the item from the myth.

After Laura takes it, the kraken seems to attack.

What actually is happening is that the kraken is drawn toward the item that controls him and thus slams into the dome.

(Later in the game, Laura has to find how the cristal works (more dungeons) and evil people want it so they can use it for wars. Laura has to destroy the diamond or kill the kraken.)


I thought it was important to keep this fairly small level full with action. So from some slow tutorial like hallways you get into a chase like scene and last into a bossfight.

This level starts the player up and gives them a look into the rest of the game.


The level overview:



Events/rooms with explanation:
















It was an interesting thing to work on. I really liked it and will use these tools more often to get a quick blockout ready.

I would like to be able to actually program it too, so maybe that is a project for this summer!

That way I could make better levels and prototypes!


_____ (18/06/2018) ________


From now on this blog is over, the level design classes are over. However, I think I will start more small level design blogs for personal projects, keep updated!


 
 
 

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