Agenda
Level Design
Making Levels for fun and profit
and other associated dark arts.
Dave Feltham
BioWare Corp
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It’s All About Me
What is Level Design?
How are Levels Created?
Good Habits
Bad Habits
It’s all about the Games…
Lead Level Designer
[email protected]
Who the Hell Am I?
What is Level Design?
Level design or game mapping is the creation of levels—locales, stages,
or missions—for a video game (such as a console game or computer
game). This is done using level design tools, special software usually
developed just for the purpose of building levels.
What is Level Design?
• The Designers that Make the Worlds
• The artistic side of Design that deals with the look, as opposed to
the technical, where scripting is involved (however a level designer
might do scripting as well)
• Work with every department hand in hand
• Level Design is about funneling and balancing all aspects of game
development.
– It’s about balancing the needs of many departments.
• Design, for fun gameplay
• Level Art, for visual integrity
• Writing, for plot fulfillment
• Technical Art and Code for streaming
• So….
• The weight of a great gameplay experience is on the shoulders of a
Level Designer (and Tech Designer) because they bring everything
together.
How are Levels Created?
How are Levels Created?
World Building
Examples of the workflow used by various companies.
Designer
Final
Concept Artist
Level Artist/
Layout Artist
Who Uses this Method?
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Depends on the project and the people.
Bethesda did on Oblivion
BioWare did on Jade Empire and Baldur’s Gate
Pseudo Interactive did on Cel Damage
– Though we also used Foam Core models
How are Levels Created?
Level Design
=
BRAINSTORM
•Level Designer
•Writer
•Level Artist
•Technical Artist
•Technical Designer
•Concept Artist
=
Level Designer
White Box method of Level Design:
• Concentrates on volumes of geometry rather on
artistic details
• Concentrates on the feel of an area
(verisimilitude)
• Concentrates on gameplay (Combat and
exploration)
• Work with every department hand in hand
– Collaborate and Communicate
Level Artist
Final
Who Uses this Method?
• Pseudo Interactive did on the Full Auto
franchise
• Ed Byrne used this on the SOCOM series
• We are using this right now.
What things should I worry about
in Level Design?
Come-on. Anything can be a
Game Level!
CE
SPA
D
DEA
CE
SPA
D
DEA
Vistas
Verisimilitude
Game
Balance
Are
there
A
Is
Sense
the area
ofpoints
Place
fun?of
interest that are visually
stimulating?
• Realism isn’t fun!
– We’re making games, not 3D representations
of reality
– Even Sims aren’t entirely real. They are just
designed to LOOK or feel real
– Take into consideration your Camera and the
pacing.
What are the things I have to be
aware of when building a level?
•
•
•
•
•
Leading
Directing
Choices
Gating
Streaming
Leading
Leading…
• Placing objects or enemies, or designing your
level so the player feels compelled to go a
certain way
• The Hotel Lobby
Thermal Goo
Directing
Directing…
• Placing information that tells the player where to go.
SUBTLE
Need For Speed: Underground
IN YOUR
FACE
Full Auto
• Tunnel Shooter: you can only go one way
Gating
Gating
• You can limit where a player goes by gating their
progress which Ensures Pacing
Plot
Coloured Keys
• Blocking geometry
Puzzles
Choices
Choices….
• You can add depth to a Level simply by
providing Choices
Choices were real choices that affected the outcome of
parts of the game or how the game played.
Bioshock: Go Left or Right?
Oblivion: Go to which city? Kill what Creatures? Choose what
Conversation? What Class? What’s That? What’s that over there?
False Choice
False Choice
• Doug Church, credited as ‘Himself’ on Thief: Dark
Project, gave a talk with Warren Spector (creator of
Deus Ex) at GDC in 2001.
– Argued about Real Choice and False choice
Blah
Blah Blah
Blah
Blah
Blah
False Choice
Blah
X
Streaming
• Entirely different lecture
• Is different depending on the scope,
project, engine and coder
• BUT!
• There are ways to anticipate streaming
without knowing what the format will be
Streaming…
Loading Tunnel
• An area of little information that
dumps the previous area’s data
and loads the next area’s data
Streaming…
Switchback
•A form of loading tunnel, but
doesn’t have to be in a tunnel
•Allows you to load a new area
while the old area is being culled
•Seen in such games as The
Darkness, Call of Duty
•Forces the player’s line of sight
away from the dumped
information
•Seen in such games as
Bioshock, Jade Empire,
Kingdom Hearts
Streaming…
Funnelling
•Coming to a point where
there is only one access point
•When you pass through that
funnel point into the other
area, you end up having more
of an hourglass look, where
each side has different data,
except at the funnel points
where it is shared data
Streaming…
Hard Gate
Or
THE LOADING
SCREEN
•The ‘end of the level’ where a
loading screen will appear
•Though not ideal, still done:
Bioshock, Oblivion both do it.
Loading….
•Pulls the player out of the game.
•Darkness had an ingenious way:
Play a movie of the protagonist
talking in a monologue to the player,
while loading is happening.
•Burnout had some of the worst
loading screens/times ever!
What is Bad Level Design?
• When a player gets lost
What is Bad Level Design?...
• When a player gets bored
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
They let you go anywhere
at any time!
Hello?
HELP!
Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
They ALSO let you go anywhere at any time!
Plus: Giant fields of grass!
What is Bad Level Design?...
• When a player gets really bored…
Yawwwwwwn
What is Bad Level Design?...
• When a player is pulled out of the reality you
have established.
Doesn’t look like
MY kitchen.
Half Life 2
They let you drive a boat!
For a very long time!
And then do the same with a car!
Some games will adapt common room sizes, like a kitchen, to fit for
their game, thus making mansion sized kitchens in subsidized
housing.
What is Bad Level Design?
• When a player gets annoyed
•Which could be any of the
previous points
•But also could be a
combination of a few things
that causes the player to
become increasingly
irritated.
Seriously Annoying.
What is Bad Level Design?
• Random Dungeons
– Not necessarily bad: Diablo II
had them
– Repetitive
BAD
• In order to get from A to F in the
world
• you had to go through Z then G
• C then A
• then E to F
Flow
• To keep a player from being annoyed, one must
consider flow.
– Is a player constantly faced with loading screens?
– Is a player sent on Fed-Ex quests, sending him from
point to point
– Is a player lead through annoying gates to do a
simple task?
Tale of 2 Flows
Tale of 2 Flows
• Neither of these games do it perfectly, but it shows how the same
style of gameplay can be done differently, with similar results
Jade Empire’s Arena
Oblivion’s Arena
Tale of 2 Flows
•Go through several rooms before
meeting Qui, the man who will let
you into the arena
•Participate in long conversations
before..
Jade Empire’s Arena
•You view movie that establishes
the scene
•You view a movie that establishes
your enemies
•Repeat the process whether you
win or die.
•If you want to watch the fight and
make bets, you have to go through a
loading screen as the bookie is
outside of the arena.
•So that’s Bet > Loadscreen >
Watch > Loadscreen > Bet
Oblivion’s Arena •If you want to fight, you have to
enter the basement (loadscreen),
talk to someone who will let you into
the fights and pay you
(conversation), and then go to the
loading tunnel for the arena
(loadscreen)
Tale of 2 Flows
Why is this an LDs responsibility?
• As Level Designers, the people who bring
everything together, it is up to us to
advise, or create flow that makes sense.
– It is up to us to not annoy people.
Water can
I didn’t
flowsay
or itthat.
can crash.
Be water my friend.
Let the Player flow through the level, don’t
let them crash!!
What are you Trying to Say?
• We are the glue that
holds all the depts.
Together.
• We are the
architects who
provide the
blueprints
• We help ensure a
player is satisfied
Dave Feltham
Lead Level Designer
BioWare Corp
[email protected]
PLAY THESE GAMES OR DIE
Some Reading
Max Payne Level Design
http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20020508/maatta_pfv.htm
Game Level Design
By Edward Byrne