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Sean's core principles of single player level design
Level Design 2 course notes
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Define the player’s overall goal and sub-goals. Remember goals are objectives that must be met in order to successfully complete or win the game. Ask yourself if these goals are rewarding and worth while for the player. Make sure that all goals clearly communicated to a player through storytelling or environmental settings. Use a mixer of required goals, optional goals and sub-goals. Sometimes goals can unlock other required or optional goals; this gives players a felling of choice. Weight goals with rewards; don’t give the player a lot rewards for nothing and nothing for a lot of work.
- Challenges between goal and player are an essential part of game play. Different types of challenges are: combat with enemies, puzzles, dexterity, memory, logic, endurance, and key finding. Mix up the challenges; don’t repeat the same challenges over and over again. For example, give a player a break after a hard combat by giving a puzzle to solve. Use a mixture of different units as if they where chess pieces serving a tactical propose when creating combat scenarios/challenges. For example; a drone spots a player, soldiers come attack, and an APC comes down the street and suppresses a player inside a building. When designing harder combat scenarios, look at the force ratios each unit has to offer. A force ratio is the power of one unit over the regular unit type. For example, one helicopter has a force ratio of 20 solders on the ground. Remember that enemy units aren’t standing a room waiting for you to kill them; they should be there for reason, doing something or serving a tactile purpose for being there.
- Storytelling is the most ancient form of entertainment. The three most basic parts of stories are thesis, antithesis and synthesis. The thesis is the introduction to the setting/atmosphere, the main characters and some sort of goal or event. The antithesis is where the conflict and villains are introduced and where the majority of the story unfolds. Synthesis is the end of the story where there is some form of resolution, whatever it being successful or tragic. Each level or section has a story or event; this could be a sub-goal of game. Prepare an event or challenge with an introduction, a build-up, a climax and some sort of resolution.
- Create an atmosphere where the player can emote. Make the player experience circles of emotions. A player can experience fear and anxiety when entering a challenge and can over come it by realization, revelation or wonderment. Afterwards there can be relief, satisfaction and joy or loss and regret.
- Path flow is how the player explores the game. Use different flow types throughout the game to complete goals or reveal storytelling. Examples of different flow types are linear, open, looped or branched paths. Sometimes the path flow can become the current goal; like a looped path where a player has to go all the way around mountain to get the top of it. Different flow types give the player the illusion of choice. Linear paths need good designs for blocked areas that the player can not explore. Good guidance or hints are need for more open linear areas or branched paths.
- Control the pacing of events and challenges of a level. There should be a steady progression of storytelling and level difficulty. For example, the third level should not be harder the fifth level. Challenges and events should have storytelling elements like introductions, build-ups, climaxes and resolutions. Use these “wave like” events build up the overall game play by increasing the difficulty and revealing new items, enemies or areas. The player would get bored pretty fast if they have all the weapons and options at the beginning of the game. Do not forget to give the player a reward and/or a break at the end of a hard challenge or event. Remember the distribution and consumption of ammunition and health thought out the challenges. Pace and build up the game play.
- Reward the player’s imagination and challenges. Players like to experiment and explore. Place ammunition and health in secret or hidden areas. Place shortcuts in different locations. Reward a player for interacting with an object in a unique way. After a hard challenge ammunition and health can be a great award. The more solutions, secrets and alternate paths found, the more satisfied players will be.
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Sean's core principles of multi player level design
Level Design 1 course notes
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The number one thing is FLOW. A main area should interflow into other areas of various degrees and challenges. Even if there is only one big room, the map should be balance in power and tactical advantage. Layers of height and mixer of close or distant areas are key elements in balancing power and tactical advantage.
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The map contains a theme or and story, in the overall concept.
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The map is easy to learn and to identify where the player is located at any giving point. Symmetrical layouts can make the map easier to learn.
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Good architecture, mapping and detail should be put into action. A good use of polygon count and detail maintained throughout the level is ideal. Interactivity with doors, buttons, elevators and other objects add to the maps for fullness. Textures are very critical in making the map look real. Environmental effects like fog and fire add great detail in the right place.
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Placement of weapon, ammo, and health are relative to its applicable area. For example: rocket launchers and sniper riffles are found in tactical areas like long open areas and/or areas of superior height; where as a shotgun could be place in a hallway of a building because of it short range use. Ammo is frequently placed by its corresponding weapon, as well as though out the map, so the player can keep using the weapon without running out of ammo. Health is tricking thing, never place too much health (which is also based on its spawn time and heath points) because it would result in players never dieing or camping around areas of large health spawn-points. Some games offer generative heath, usually as first aid boxes found in rooms or walls (this is where a player holds a button over time, slowly healing until the heath box is depleted) this makes a player very venerable to attack since the player is facing the heath box. So with that in mind, how venerable is the placement of the health box? It’s good to have it venerable to avoid camping and add to tactical advantage to the attacker but do not place it where it is impossible to use.
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Lighting in map captures the atmosphere. Thanks to advancements of technology lighting now play an important role in maps. It’s great to add variation in lighting, from dark corners to well lit rooms. Dynamic lighting is now coming more accessible; make sure you don’t put too many dynamic lights in one area. The engine has a range of what it can handle at any given time.
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Environmental sound is something that is added into level design stage. Player experiences a game though what they see, hear and interact with. If hearing is a third of that, sound is pretty important and often under looked. Sound can add that extra feel and tone that visual element can’t. Great sound interacts with its visual counterpart.
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Spawn points should very in area and threat. If spawn point always put a player in the same line of danger, the map can get very frustrating. Watch for spawn camping, this can happen if they are very few spawn points in the map.
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Secrets areas that offer weapons, ammo, and/or health are conman in tournament games. There is some sort of clue or marking that reviles its place to the player. A lot of the time a player will find a super weapon or a large amount of health in the secret area or area of great challenge.
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Level path types for single player level design
Level Design 2 course notes
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White dot - Start, Grey dot - Sub-Goal, Black dot - Goal
Linear
Bottlenecking
Bounce
Loop (can see the objective, but have to go around)
Branching
Hub
Open
Dynamic
Tiles based prefabs rooms, like caves or castles.
Usually found in big RPG games
Combine different path types throughout level objects and goals
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