General Principles of
Level Design
What is level design?
• Process of constructing the experience that will be
offered directly to the player, using components
provided by the game designer.
Level designers create :
• The space in which the game takes place
- 2D or 3D modeling tool
- what features will be
• The initial conditions of the level
- number of artificial opponents
- amount of any resource that the player controls
- where resources may be found
• Set of the challenge the player will face
- many games offer challenges in a linear sequence
• Termination condition
- characterized in terms of victory / loss
• Interplay between the gameplay and story
- interweave gameplay and narrative events
• Aesthetics and mood of the level
- decide how to implement art
Types of Design Principle
1. Universal Level Design Principle
aim at designing levels in any kind of game
2. Genre specific level Design Principle
focused on the design issues specific to the
different genres
Universal Level Design Principle
1. Tutorial level
Make early levels that teach the player how to play
→
Explains the game’s user interface, key challenges and
actions
WOW
• Key principles for tutorial level:
- Introduce the game’s feature in an orderly sequence
- Don’t make all the features available at once
- Introduce the information over three tutorial levels
- Highlight user interface elements
- Allow user to go back
Universal Level Design Principle
2. Vary the pacing
Pacing of a level refers to the frequency at which the
player encounters individual challenges.
→
A fast pace creates stress, offering challenges at a rapid rate
Flappy bird ←_←
• In different Genre
- depend to a extend on the genre
• Vary the pace
- alternate between fast and slow periods
- produce a more balanced game
- variety of ways
- easiest trough a linear space
- remain steady
- become more difficult as player near the end
Universal Level Design Principle
3. Provide more resource
When the player surmounts a challenge that consumes his
resources, provide more resource
→
The player should not face another demanding
challenge immediately after the player surmount a
challenge that costs him a lot of resources
Universal Level Design Principle
4. Avoid conceptual non sequiturs
Should build things that make sense
→
Don’t put dangers or reward in places in which no sane
person could possibly expect to find them
Cat Mario
Universal Level Design Principle
5. Short-term goal
Clearly inform the player of his short-term goal
→
Should never leave your character wondering what to do
next, the current or next short-term goal should be
obvious
Universal Level Design Principle
6. Risk, rewards and the consequences of decisions
Be clear with risk, reward and then consequences of
decisions
→
Player should not necessarily know every detail of what
consequences his decisions will produce, the
player should be able to make a reasonable guess based
on the context.
Universal Level Design Principle
7. Reward
Skills, imagination, intelligence and dedication
distinguish a good player. Good players deserve to be
rewarded
→
Many forms:
Power up, other resource, shortcuts through level, secret
levels, mini games, etc.
Universal Level Design Principle
8. Reward in a large way, punish in a small way
Primary objective is to give players an enjoyable
experience. Build more rewards in to level than
punishments
Universal Level Design Principle
9. Purpose of an artificial opponent
The purpose of an artificial opponent is to put up a good
fight and then lose
→
Design level so that the player will get better and better
at overcoming the challenges until he succeeds at all of
them
Universal Level Design Principle
10. Multiple difficulty setting
Accessible to a wider audience by allowing them to
switch the difficulty of your game to easy, normal or hard
setting
→
Be able to tweak the numbers to adjust the difficulty to
accommodate the player’s preference
Genre Specific Level Design
• Action game vary the pace
Diablo Ⅲ
Genre Specific Level Design
• Strategy games reward planning
Medieval 2 Total War
Genre Specific Level Design
• Role-playing Games offer opportunities for character growth and
player self- expression
World of Warcraft
Genre Specific Level Design
• Sports Game
verisimilitude is vital
NBA 08
Genre Specific Level Design
• Vehicle Simulations reward skillful maneuvering
V-drift
Genre Specific Level Design
• Construction and Management Simulation offer an
interesting variety of initial conditions and goals
The Sims
Genre Specific Level Design
• Adventure Games construct challenges
that harmonize with their
locations and the story
Doctor Who: The adventure game
Genre Specific Level Design
• Artificial Life Games create many interaction opportunities for
the creatures in their environment
Dragon City
Genre Specific Level Design
• Puzzle Games gives the player time to think
2048
Layout
• Open layout
→ entirely unconstrained movement
→ corresponds to the outdoors, wander in any direction
Layouts
• Linear layout
→ require the player to pass through one-way doors that
actually prevent them from going back
Layouts
• Parallel layouts
→ a more modern variant of the linear layout
→ Not require the player pass through every path
Layouts
• Ring layouts
→ In a ring layout, the path returns to its starting point
→ shortcuts that cut off a portion of the journey
Layouts
• Network Layouts
→ Spaces connect to other spaces in a variety of ways
→ Freedom about what path to take
Layouts
• Hub-and-Spoke Layouts
→ the player begins in a central hub that ordinarily does
not present significant challenges or dangers.
→ Gives the player choice about where he goes
Layouts
• Combination Layouts
→ Combine aspects of each type of layout
→ Corresponds to the story structure of many large RPGs
Atmosphere
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Lighting
Color palette
Weather and atmosphere effects
Special visual effects
Music
Ambient audio
Special audio effects
Level Design Process
• Note on duties and terminology
- create levels for a game using a 3D graphics engine
• Design to level design handoff
- generate features you want to appear in the level
create a rough overview map
• Planning phase
- gameplay
- art
- performance
- code
Planning Phase
o Gameplay
- layout
- areas devoted to major challenges
- termination conditions
- resource placements
- player start and end points
- NPC positions and spawn points
- elevations
- secret areas
- special events issues
- landmarks
- destruction
- storytelling
- save points and checkpoints
Planning Phase
o Art
scope : magnitude and complexity of the level
decide how much artwork it will need
o Performance
performance of the programmers’ problem
o Code
coding
Level Design Process
• Prototyping
- at least part of the game engine be running
• Level review
- scale
- pacing
- placement of objects and triggers
- performance issues
- code issues
- aesthetics
Level Design Process
• Refinement and lock-down
- make refinement pass and lock the level design
• Level design to art handoff
- build geometry, animations, and textures in real game
• First art and rigging pass
- enter first art and rigging pass
• Art to level design handoff and review
- conduct another review
Level Design Process
• Content integration
- assemble all the assets into the completed
• Bug fixing
- test, look for the mistakes
• User testing and tuning
- begin alpha testing
Pitfalls of Level Design
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Get the scope right
Avoid conceptual Non Sequiturs
Make atypical level Optional
Don’t show the player everything at once
Never lose sight of your audience