Blog Post 4 – Level design
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Level design is one of the things many people greatly underestimate. Great level design often goes under the radar since most of the time you don’t notice when its good, you only notice when its bad. Creating a level that would do our game justice was my main focus this week. We are creating a game from the umibozu concept document and our game has a big focus on exploration. When exploration is a big part of the game, the level design will be a big part of the game. I wanted the players to feel like they could go anywhere but I also needed to lead them towards the end. We had a fixed start and a fixed end, but the player could go through the level in many ways to reach the end. How do I create a level that encourages exploration but also leads the player towards the end? This was one of the many questions I asked myself when I started designing the level. We made the level wrapped on the sides so that the player does not feel stuck within a corridor. I placing objects such as walls and trees within the level and I realized I could create the level through many small options. I would place a wall with two holes in it and the player could then chose which hole the wanted to pass through and depending on the path the choose, they would get a new option. I liked this system because it gave the player a choice. The choices have little meaning if there’s nothing else to it. That’s where the challenges and rewards come in. I would give the players more rewards on a more challenging path and vice versa. The goal is for the player to see a path and through seeing the path alone estimate how tough it would be. I did this by placing things such as enemies or thick mist at those locations.
Above picture is an example of two different paths. Without mist for clarity. I was happy with this layout and felt like it was good enough so that we could start working on the level in more detail with environment art and balance.  |
