gd (prefi2)

Level Design

defined as the creation of environments, scenarios, or missions in an electronic game

Structure

Levels can be used to structure a game into effective subdivisions, organize progression, and enhance gameplay. When designing levels, consider their goal, flow, duration, availability, relationships, and difficulty. 

Objectives

Each level should have a set of these that the player understands

Flow: Two things that the game developer should address while designing a level

You want to make sure that a player stays in a particular area of a level until he has accomplished the necessary objectives. 

You also want to prevent the player from returning to a particular area once the objectives associated with that area have been met. 

Duration

“How much time should be spent on each level?”. One universal rule seems to be that a player must complete at least one level of any game in a single session

Availability

You need to consider the various gameplay goals in the game and ensure that each level covers one primary goal

Relationship

"What are the relationships between levels in the game?". Think of each level as a scene or even an episode within a larger story

Progression

"How do you pace the game’s progression through level design?" You want to make sure that a game’s difficulty slowly increases as it continues

Time

can also be thought of with respect to real-world time. “Game time” can move slower, faster, or not any differently from realworld time

Authentic

Some games try to portray time authentically and use the passage of time as a gameplay characteristic

Limited

Time is sometimes implemented as a part of the setting of the game but not of the gameplay itself. It creates an atmosphere and provides some variety, but it does not alter gameplay

Player-Adjusted

players may modify the time associated with game levels

Altered

Several games incorporate this as an effect. Max Payne was the first game to use bullet time, the technique of going into slow motion while retaining the ability to move the camera’s viewpoint at normal speed

Space

incorporates the physical environment of the game including its perspective, scale, boundaries, structures, terrain, objects, and style (color, texture, look, and feel) 

Camera & Perspective 

show the action at the best possible angle; more generally, they are used in 3D virtual worlds when a third person point-of-view (POV) is required

Omnipresent

the player has the ability to view different parts of the game world and can take actions in many different locations of the world (even if parts are hidden at times)

Aerial (Top-Down)

shows the player the game as seen from above a bird’s-eye view

Isometric

the player can look slightly across the landscape at a 30- to a 45-degree angle; you can create many different angles of objects and then place those objects on the screen

Side-Scrolling (or Flat/Side View)

classic 2D arcade games used this to create the illusion of space. The player character would travel from left to right horizontally across the screen as the background moved from right to left

Parallax scrolling

The camera moves vertically or horizontally, with different layers moving at different speeds which gives the feeling of depth

Terrain & Materials

Environmental materials such as metal, glass, sand, gravel, sky, and clouds directly influence the look and feel of the game; a shading model defines how materials behave when they are lit

Radiosity & Effects

Without the proper application, players will not be able to navigate through the game environment nor will they be able to see and interact with details that might determine whether they can progress through the game.

Scale

includes the total size of physical space and relative sizes of the objects in the game

Realism

Actual photographic and land-height data is used to create a realistic model for most flight simulators; consider how much detail you want to include in your game.

Style

influences everything from the character, interface, manual, and packaging

Two main style forms

the style of the objects in the world, and the style of the artwork that will depict the world