In this post I will be talking in brief about some of the level design topics I have researched for the creation of the Levels made for our VR game Questborne.
This post will cover the following topics in brief detail:
Guidance In Level Design
Contrast
Narrative
Framing
Facilitate Mental Mapping
Vantage Point and Landmarks
Guidance In Level Design
Guiding Players within a level helps to generate more player satisfaction as it helps with improving the flow of the level by laying out a pathway for the player to follow while making the world around the player seem less constrictive and linear to the player. Guidance also helps to allow the player to focus and have more concentration on other aspects of the game and helps to limit any player frustration that may arise from the player getting lost or feel like they are not progressing in the level.
Contrast
Contrast is a technique that can be used to highlight and identify important and noteworthy areas. Colour can be used to allow the player to distinguish certain aspect of the game and process information different, using warmer colours would make some scenery stand out more. Objects, and enemies within a games world, making certain things stand out from the backdrop, a streetlight lighting the way down a road, a red barrel in an alleyway or even a light-coloured pathway in a forest, standing out from the usual greenery around the area.
Narrative
The use of Narrative within a videogame can make or break the experience the player will have in the game, some games provide a great hook and uses this within their levels to make the player feel immersed, making the choices and gameplay they do matter to them were as some games lack the feel of immersion and can cause the player to feel as if their choices do not matter or progress the story. Narrative isn't only told through cutscenes but can be told through the level, the environment changing to the events that happen within the level and the dialogue shared mid gameplay with NPCs and the Player.
Framing
Framing is used within videogames to help with guiding the player into the next part of the level or to put into perspective things such as pathways, important items/landmarks or key features of objects. This technique has been done here with the use of the trees creating a path to the distant building, showing the player the correct pathway to take.
Simplifying and Simple Geometric
Simplifying and Simple Geometric Shapes go hand in hand on how they can be used within a level to create a better understanding for the player. Simplifying can make certain areas of a level more comprehensible for the player to get to grasp with without having the full context or layout of the level design or structure. This can be done with simple Geometric Shapes like Rectangles and Cylinders but can also be done with Squares, Circles, Triangles and Hexagonal shapes. These shapes allow for the player to be able to assess their surrounding area and for them to make quicker decisions and plan out a strategy’s while in high octane situations like a firefight.
Vantage Points and Landmarks
This screenshot taken from Halo 3 is an example of how the player can make use of Vantage Points which helps them to gain an understanding of the area ahead of them that the player can then use to follow as a guideline when traveling in that area, assessing what enemies are patrolling the ground and can point out landmarks and points of interest within the area. This technique can give the player a better sense of direction rather than throw them head first into a confusing area without any prior knowledge and allow for a mental map to be made in the players mind, relying on memory of these points.
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