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详述电子游戏关卡设计之20点原则及建议(2)

发布时间:2012-06-11 18:17:31 Tags:,,,

作者:Tim Ryan

这是本系列关卡设计文章的第2部分。关卡设计是电脑游戏开发周期中的数据入口和分布环节。一个关卡就相当于一个任务、台阶、地图或其他允许玩家与之互动的地点。作为关卡设计师,你就是程序员、美工等所有参与开发者的主持人,要负责为游戏玩家这种最重要的内容把关。本文将阐述如何制作优秀的游戏关卡,它适用于任何类型的游戏,可满足设计坦克军事任务、空战、角色扮演游戏中的地下城,益智游戏的桌面,或者征服世界的模拟游戏地图等多种需求。(请点击此处阅读本系列第1部分

在上篇文章中,我们探讨了优秀关卡设计背后的理论知识。本文则主要列举20点关卡设计原则,并提供相关参考意见。

1)保持项目愿景

“愿景”是游戏设计的核心,它是制作人和首席设计师推广游戏及制作所谓的“概念文件”所需要表达的内容,而这也是他们希望关卡设计师领会的内容。如果制作人和首席设计师并没有向你解释他们的需求,那么你就要让他们说清楚。这样才可以多快好省地完成任务,避免陷入无法收拾的残局。

设计关卡时,你必须明确游戏设计师的愿意。如果偏离了这个愿景,你的设计就可能被否决。虽然设计师并不总是能够准确描述如何完成他们的愿景,但你要尽量明确表达出他们追求的目标。如果你无法保表达这个愿景,那就说明这个愿景并不明确或者不切实际,如果你想及时而成功地创建关卡,那就得先解决这些问题。

artist_palette(from errantgame.blogspot.com)

artist_palette(from errantgame.blogspot.com)

2)掌握设计素材

设计素材是你在动工之前最需要确立的内容之一,它包括你可以支配的所有美术和玩法元素。要清楚你要用到哪些元素,以及如何使用它们。可以在美术人员的指导下在一个测试关卡中捣鼓美术内容,以便确定你想要的视觉风格。要同程序员讨论项目的技术需求和局限性等问题,例如要设置哪些数据参数,要写哪些脚本,要如何避免超出内存等问题。

但设计素材并不仅局限于美术和代码内容。它还包括所有玩家和敌人兵力及其行为、游戏玩法物件(游戏邦注:例如升级道具、武器,炮塔、发电站和墙体等建筑,以及游戏谜题和解决方案等)。最好拥有足够的时间学习如何使用自己的设计工具(例如编辑器)布置这些元素,并在真正开始设计关卡前试玩一番。

为了让其他关卡设计留有余地,首席设计师可能会限制你使用的设计素材。你应该自己决定如何在维持首席设计师和制作人项目愿景的前提下,在这种局限性中开展工作。如果你难以做到这一点,可以询问他们的建议。他们也许会提供一些指导,或者使用自己的权力为你提供更多设计素材。有时候你需要充分发挥想象力,最大化挖掘这些设计素材的潜在效用。如果你发现自己没有足够的元素来填充关卡,可以试试之前没尝试过的组合及布局,没准能想出一些新颖的游戏谜题,从而增加自己的素材储备。

例如,你绞尽脑汁也想不出新的炮塔使用方法,在考虑自己的选择之后,你可能会发现一个特殊的固定炮塔与敌人组合,令玩家只能使用远程武器攻击,或者促使敌人追赶他,从而将其引出炮塔射程。如果你的引入了这种场景,随后的关卡设计也要包含这种谜题。

许多设计师常犯的严重错误是制作迷宫。为什么是这个错误呢?迷宫是电脑游戏最早引进的谜题形式之一。但现在很过时了,因为制作迷宫无非就是设置墙体,或者其他可阻碍玩家移动的障碍,它是最容易制作的游戏玩法。但要慎用这种设计,只有在你真正计穷的时候才能考虑这种元素。最好回避这种设计,要善于以新方式使用现有元素来优化自己的设计素材,或者让游戏设计师制作更多素材。

索要更多素材既是赢得同事尊重也是易遭鄙视的一种做法。但不幸的是,这是你的责任,你得这么做。但要确保你将自己的出色想法妥当传达给首席设计师。如果对方觉得你的想法不错,可能就会将其列入计划表中。只是要记住,落实想法通常需耗费大量的美术和编程资源,所以如果你的想法被否决了也不要太沮丧。能够重用现成的美术资源,甚至无需进行编码的想法,往往才是最佳创意。如果你可以用自己的脚本使这些内容呈现可行性,那就再好不过了。当项目开发进入Alpha阶段时(即编码和多数美术内容已经完工),就不能再指望添加新游戏元素了。

我也见过一些制造人在项目接近Alpha阶段时才提出绝妙的创意,但这往往会让美工和程序员通宵达旦地加班加点,这也是为何索要更多设计素材会惹同事不悦的原因之一。要尽量理解新法总是需要一定的时间去评估和开发,不要过于执拗,可以先将这些想法搁置保存起来,或者留到开发继作时再派上用场。

3)倾注乐趣

你构想和落实一个关卡时的快乐心情将传递给这个关卡的玩家。当然,工作的时候难免遇到截止日期将近,关卡编辑器在最不应该的时候崩溃这类令人抓狂的事情。也会出现一些游戏漏洞和画面帧率问题迫使你投入多个小时重新设置关卡。但当你知道自己做的东西一定会很有趣时,这些沮丧感也就一扫而空了。要记住,会有成千上万玩家将体验你设计的关卡,他们不会知道你在这个过程中所吃的苦头,但却会体会到你从中注入的快乐情感。

4)确定构思后才开工

伟大的雕塑家不会在尚未构思好成品的模样时,就开始对着石头敲敲打打。关卡设计亦是如此——如果你还不清楚自己的方向,就没必要动手设计地图。你心里可能已经有一个模糊的概念,但如果没有明确的想法就动工,可能会浪费时间和精力。上司们可不喜欢浪费效率的行为,所以要确保自己做出的关卡没有太大问题,这样你就不需要重复返工。

但这并不是说,你得腾出更多时间进行尝试,而是说关卡的核心玩法要足够可靠。最好选择一个可为多种玩法留下发展空间的核心理念。在落实关卡的时候,要先确立核心想法,使其具有可行性。然后再决定这个想法是否具有优势,你是否愿意进一步推动这个关卡的发展。如果确定无疑,那就继续向其填充更多细节,并对这些细节内容进行试验。通常情况下,正是这些细微元素和细节成就了杰出的关卡。

5)要提供差异化的选择

为玩家提供多条通往相同目标的路径,这是一种既能给予玩家多种选择以及一种自由感,又能确保他们到达相同点的有效做法。但如果每个选择呈现在玩家面前的都是相同的敌人,相同的奖励,相同的风险和成本,那么玩家发现这些选择并无实质上的区别时,他们很容易就会对此生厌。所以向玩家呈现选择内容时,要让这些元素具有非视觉效果上的差异。这种差异可以体现在不同的挑战上,例如潜行路径、陷阱、隐藏的升级道具,或者更好的战略位置。重要的是不要向玩家多次呈现相同的选择,不然这种选择还有什么意义呢?

6)满足不同的玩法和技能需求

向玩家呈现选择、挑战或谜题时,要提供可满足不同玩法风格和技能的多种解决方案。有些玩家的玩法较为保守,而有些则喜欢冒险玩法。有些玩家很谨慎,希望在陷入冲突前先探明更多关卡内容,而其他玩家则可能拎一把枪就直接进入关卡。有些人喜欢走直线路径,有些人喜欢潜行路径。玩家的游戏风格对你的游戏来说可能极具特殊性,你得及早辨识玩家的不同玩法模式。确保你的关卡设计与心中的不同玩法风格相吻合,这样才能取悦大众玩家。

不要认为每个玩家都会用同种方式体验你的关卡。要注意,玩家如果没有想出应对关卡的替代性或终极解决方案,他们可能就会陷入困境。玩家处理困境以及掌握游戏玩法的水平各有不同,学习速度也不尽相同。可以为你的关卡提供一些比较容易,但奖励较少的解决方法,但最好要让玩家清楚自己选择简单的解决方式会错失什么奖励。这样才能激励他们过后再重玩关卡,挑战更高难度。

7)奖励玩家的想象力和努力

玩家喜欢尝试和探索。你在关卡中提供越多解决方法、秘密、可替代性路径等内容,就越能够取悦玩家。作为玩家,没有什么比遇到不甚显眼却能大获成功的解决方案更令人兴奋了。记住玩家几乎都喜欢“不走寻常路”从而找到其他捷径,甜头或者意料之外的道具。设计关卡之时,要考虑玩家希望尝试的内容是什么,并将这些内容呈现给玩家。如果玩家有“假如这样做行吗?”的念头,你的关卡设计就应该做出肯定回应“没错,可以!”。

如果设计一个看似挑战、替代性解决方案,路径或隐密地点但实际上毫无奖励的内容,那就太糟了。玩家总是想尝试与所有内容互动,而当这种互动毫无意义时,他们就会非常受挫。那些没有存在意义的交互性游戏物品(游戏邦注:例如可移动的箱子或爆炸性筒罐)很容易让玩家沮丧。因为玩家此前可能已经尝试了数分钟,甚至数小时去探索与这些物件互动所产生的结果。所以不可让玩家感到失望。

rafters(from gamemecca.net)

rafters(from gamemecca.net)

例如,在《雷神之锤》或《Unreal》关卡中,如果玩家看到一些椽子正处于自己所站平台的跳程内,他可能就会想“啊,这是个挑战,我想看看那里有什么东西”。而假如游戏中的这些椽子并无存在意义,而玩家却花了一个小时尝试跳向第一个椽子,结果却发现自己一直徒劳无功。玩家可能就会产生退出游戏的念头,更糟糕的是,这也可能激发他的好奇心,使他产生志在必得的念头。他费了九牛二虎之力终于跳到椽子上时,却发现那里空无一物,他可能就会怨自己为什么要在这个关卡白费许多功夫,也可能对关卡设计师心生不满。所以,设计和测试关卡时,务必注意清除这些“交互黑洞”,或者最好为探索这些内容的玩家提供奖励。

8)合理设置关卡节奏

“节奏”就是引进冲突和紧张感,再加上所谓的“肾上腺素上升”。这和故事、电影领域的“正题-反题-整合”模式(Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis)很相似。玩家(正题)与反题相接触时就会形成冲突,这种矛盾会逐渐上升,而后才进入“整合”状态,此时的读者、观众或玩家才开始松了一口气(不过玩家也可能重新开始玩这个关卡,假装失败从未发生)。

typical pacing curve(from gamasutra)

typical pacing curve(from gamasutra)

因为游戏具有交互性,所以要在关卡中设置合理的节奏实非易事。假如玩家的操作并不如你所愿该怎么办?假如他们花了太多时间又该如何?假如慢速玩游戏就会让关卡显得太简单,或快速玩游戏会让挑战过于激烈又该怎么办?所幸我们有一些方法可以在不移除交互性的前提下解决这些问题。

可以设置时间限制,从而增加紧张感。设置时限可促使玩家快速行动,或者采纳你希望他们使用的策略,例如分散兵力去实现多个目标。你可以添加一些人为时间限制,例如任务时钟,解谜时钟或者回合时限。可以在关卡中设定一个现实时间限制,例如敌人或同盟部队走向撤出点所花的时间,或者敌军增援部队前来歼灭玩家的剩余时间。

控制玩家的行动速度或行动路程也可以明显影响游戏节奏。虽然你无法简单地在《俄罗斯方块》之类的益智游戏中进行这种调整,但你还可以采用其他策略改变玩法速度。通常情况下,地形会影响玩家行动速度,例如沼泽地会让你减速,高速公路有助于加速,而阻塞的弯曲小道却会放慢你的进程。此外,还可以通过赋予游戏单位不同的行动速度或者行动限制来改变玩家游戏速度。例如,为玩家提供一个行动迟缓笨拙的坦克,可以让他的部队放慢速度以配合坦克,而如果提供一辆快速行走的全地形车,就可以迫使玩家加快速度。

也可以通过设置敌人速度来调整关卡节奏。例如,在POV射击游戏中,让玩家追赶一个企图从主人的城堡中逃蹿并且行踪不定的忍者;在横向卷轴游戏中,让boss怪物行动更为迅速或者缓慢。当玩家必须以自己所习惯的速度更快或更慢行动时,就可以构建游戏的冲突感。通过使用改变行动速度来制造紧张感的不同方法,你就可以较为准确地控制关卡中的节奏。

9)合理呈现内容

要保持玩家对游戏的兴趣感,就要善于巧妙地展示游戏内容。这里的内容指的是游戏的视觉元素,包括地势物体、敌人和同盟部队,升级、谜题等。游戏应该向玩家逐渐推出这些内容,不要在首个关卡就超载这些内容,以便下个关卡仍有新鲜内容可供玩家探索。首席设计师通常会有一些准则引导你下个关卡应该引进什么新内容,最好让它们成为关卡的中心内容,使其与核心玩法相得益彰。要以生动的方式引进这些新资产,并且要描述这些内容的独特性。

例如,你要引进一种可让玩家隐形的新道具,那就要让隐形术成为这个关卡的关键解决方案。如果是引进可以飞翔的敌人,那就要设置一场这种敌人独自袭击玩家的遭遇战,其战斗环境必须不利于飞行。如果是引进一种机关枪,最好让它在玩家与飞翔的敌人遭遇战中途出场,这样玩家才更容易对比自己的步枪与机关枪在对付敌人时的威力。

这些内容在关卡中的地位十分重要。升级道具、战利品和其他甜头的出现位置可以建立起推动玩家继续前进的目标。这些甜头通常是玩家克服挑战时得到的奖励。精心设置敌人遭遇战、游戏对象(例如炮塔、桥梁等)出现的间隔,有助于保持玩家探索和完成整个关卡的兴趣。缺乏新内容可能会导致玩家退出游戏。

魔法门之英雄无敌2(from gamasutra)

魔法门之英雄无敌2(from gamasutra)

《魔法门之英雄无敌2》就是一个合理设置内容在关卡呈现方式的典型。玩家角色每回合都能探索、获取或征服更多地形和内容。这种呈现过程就是所谓的“视界”(event horizon),因为它能够触动和激励玩家的积极性。出现在视界中的新内容可以保持玩家的新鲜感和兴趣。

但不幸的是,这款游戏同是也是一个反例——它牺牲内容的多样性,让其中一个关卡充满趣味性而令后继关卡陷入无物可用的状态。在其后继关卡中,游戏几乎没有什么新内容可展示,以至于设计师只能在敌对玩家的数量和同盟上做文章。

这种情况提出了一个问题:为了让自己的关卡表现更出色,关卡设计师是否可以用光自己所需要的所有素材和内容,无视游戏中其他关卡的需求?答案当然是否定的。如果某个特定关卡破坏了不同关卡内容的自然呈现过程,那就会导致其他关卡内容更为单薄。这也会迫使其他关卡设计师返工,而这又会损害项目进程并且浪费时间。依我个人的类似经历来看,我敢担保这种不当的关卡内容呈现方式势必给项目造成重大影响。

10)挑战玩家

关卡设计师的职责就是给玩家制造挑战。只有当游戏胜利条件尚无定论时,其游戏体验才会给玩家带来快感。所以你得向玩家呈现那些考验他们勇气,并且让他们不知自己胜算的挑战。采取这种做法时要注意迎合不同玩家的能力(详见第6点),并针对玩家的技能和装备提升而增加难度。你的关卡在游戏时间或“关卡进程”中的出现位置应与其所要求的难度相吻合。在最初几个关卡,要先让玩家学习如何玩游戏,所以这里的关卡可以适当宽容一点。但出现在游戏尾声的关卡则应最具难度,这样才能匹配玩家增长的技能和资源。

level progression(from gamasutra)

level progression(from gamasutra)

有时候你会发现自己的关卡虽然玩起来挺顺手,但却并不符合游戏进程的要求。你的关卡难度可能较为超前或者滞后,太难或者太容易。针对这一问题可以参考以下解决方法:

*你可以在不明显改变玩法或趣味元素的前提下,适当调整关卡难易程度。

*可以请求重置你的关卡在游戏中的位置。但如果你们的游戏拥有较紧凑的故事线索,那么这就不是一个可行选项。

*可以将关卡制作成一个“改变节奏”关卡。这类关卡一般比之前的关卡更容易,但会让玩家面临与不同寻常的限制条件,所以它们实际上还是保持一定难度,因为玩家此时需使用他们未尝试的技能。这方面的例子就是《命令与征服:红色警戒》中的“Tanya”任务,玩家此时控制的并非一群坦克和部队,而是一个超级“Rambo”战士。

difficulty curve(from gamasutra)

difficulty curve(from gamasutra)

在一些游戏中,关卡会组成一个模组,例如某个操作中的多个任务,地下城中的楼层,或者星球上的多个区域。虽然后继模组通常都会增加难度,但模组中的最后一个关卡可能比下个模组中的首个关卡更为困难。这是因为当玩家在某个模组的最后一关时完成一个重要目标时,他们需要一个自然的间歇时间以释放紧张感。此时的玩家可不希望立即投入另一个紧张氛围,他们希望挑战一个略为简单的任务以便从中喘口气。

游戏邦注:原文发表于1999年4月2日,所涉事件及内容以当时为准。(本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Beginning Level Design Part 2: Rules to Design By and Parting Advice

by Tim Ryan [Design]

This article is the second of a two-part series that covers theories behind level design and suggests a set of design rules. The intention is to aid gamers who want to design levels for pleasure or pursue a career in level design.

Level design is the data entry and layout portion of the computer game development cycle. A level is, for all intents and purposes, the same as a mission, stage, map or other venue of interaction that the player in. As a level designer, you are the presenter of all the labors of the programmers and artists and chiefly responsible for what most believe to be the most important part of a game, the game play. This article will give you insight into developing good levels for any type of game, whether they are military missions for your horde of tanks, aerial encounters for a flight simulator, a dungeon for a role-playing game, a board for a puzzle game, or a map for a world conquest god-sim.

In last week’s article, I discussed the theories behind good level design. This article formulates a set of rules for level design and offers some parting advice to aspiring professionals.

20 Rules to Design By

1) Maintain the vision.

The “vision” is the core idea of the game design. It’s what the producer and lead designer express when selling the game and what they impart in the so-called “concept document.” It’s also what they expect you, the level designer, to understand when building your level. It’s very important that this vision is communicated to you very clearly. If the producer and lead designer have not expressed to you what they want, then you need to coax it out of them. It will save you a lot of time and grief in the end.

When designing your level, you must maintain the game designers’ vision. If you deviate from it you risk rejection. While designers cannot always describe specifically how to accomplish their vision, you must try to figure out ways to truly express the vision they are looking for. If you cannot maintain and express the vision, then either the vision is imprecise or unpractical, the design tools and palette are insufficient to the task, or your skills are not up to it. In any case, you need to address those problems if you hope to construct a successful level in a timely manner.

2) Learn the design palette.

One of the first things you need to establish before you begin your machinations is the design palette. The design palette includes all of the art and game play elements at your disposal.

Knowing what elements you have to work with and how you are to use them is imperative for good level design. Get instructions from the artists (if you can) and play around with the art in a test level to establish the look and feel you want. Talk to the programmers and find out what the technical requirements and limitations are, like what data parameters need to be set, what scripts need to be written, and what to do in order to keep within memory and processing-time constraints.

The design palette goes beyond art and code as well. It includes all the player and enemy forces and their behaviors, game play objects such as power-ups, switches and weapons, buildings that perform a game function such as turrets, power stations and walls, and game play puzzles and possible solutions (the so-called “bag of tricks”). Ideally you will have time to learn how to place all of these elements with your design tools (such as an editor) and play with them before you begin a real level.

The lead designer, in order to save elements for other levels, may restrict your design palette. It’s up to you to figure out how you can work with what you have in a way that will maintain the vision of the lead designer and producers. If you cannot, ask them for advice. They may provide some guidance or use their power to give you some more design elements.

Sometimes it takes a fresh look and imaginative effort to use design elements to their maximum potential. When you find you don’t have enough design elements to fill a level, experiment with untried combinations and layouts. You may stumble upon some new game play puzzle that you can add to your design palette.

For example, you may run out of ideas for using turrets, and after considering your options, you might discover a that particular combination of fixed turrets and enemies in a certain placement presents a balking defense to the player unless he takes advantage of ranged weaponry or provokes the enemies to pursue him beyond the range of the turrets. Once you’ve introduced this scenario into your level, the design of the subsequent levels could include that particular puzzle.

One grave mistake that all designers make at some point is to create mazes. Why is that a mistake? Mazes are one of the first forms of puzzles introduced in computer games. It’s old now.

Because all it takes to make a maze is placing walls or other terrain that blocks movement, it’s the easiest game play to create. It is sort of a last resort when you are fresh out of game play elements and ideas. When you get to this point, stop. Try to improve your design palette by coming up with new ways to use existing elements or by pushing the game designer to create more.

Pushing for more design elements is a good way to earn both respect and disdain from coworkers. Unfortunately, it’s your job. But make sure you do present your good ideas to the lead designer. If an idea has merit, he’ll try to get it in the schedule. Just remember that implementing ideas often involves the commitment of both art and coding resources, so don’t be surprised to hear “no” for an answer. The best ideas are often the ones that reuse existing art and involve little to no coding. If you can make it all work with your own scripts, that’s even better. When development reaches the alpha stage of the project (when all the coding and most of the art should be done), don’t expect any new game elements.

I’ve seen producers make the time for particularly good ideas as a project nears alpha, but it usually comes at the expense of the artists’ and programmers’ sleep. That’s the reason why pushing for more design elements can also earn you the disdain of coworkers. Try to understand that new ideas take time to evaluate and develop. Don’t make a jerk out of yourself by getting insistent. Instead, keep those ideas on the back burner for the data disk or the sequel.

3) Have fun while you work – it will show.

The joy you experience when conceiving and implementing your level will convey to the person playing it. Sure, there will be frustration when deadlines loom and level editors crash at the worst possible time. There will be game bugs and frame-rate issues that will force you to rework levels and strip out what took hours to place. But it’s easy to ignore all of that when you are doing something that you know is going to be fun. Remember, there are thousands of people who will play your level and never know what you went through, but they will certainly feel the joy that you put into it.

4) A level will only ever be as good as you imagine it.

A great sculptor doesn’t begin chiseling a block of stone until he envisions in his mind what the completed sculpture will look like. The same is true with level design: there’s no point in beginning to design your map if you can’t truly see what you’re working towards. You might have a vague idea about what you are trying to make, but to start designing away without a clear vision can lead to a lot of wasted time and effort. Bosses aren’t really keen on wasted productivity, so try to get your level nearly right the first time, so you don’t have to toss it all out and start afresh.

This isn’t to say that you should leave some time to experiment, but the core idea of the game play for your level should stand on its own. It’s also best to choose a core idea that leaves a lot of room for a variety of game play. When you implement the level, establish the core idea with broad strokes, and just make it work. With that done, decide if the idea has merit and whether you want to go further with the level. If so, fill in the fine details and experiment with subtle game play details. Often it’s the subtler elements and details that make the difference between a good level and a great one.

5) If there’s no difference, what’s the point?

Having multiple routes to the same goal is a good way of giving players choices and a sense of freedom while still ensuring they end up at the same point. Yet, if each choice exposes the players to the same types of enemies, the same rewards, and the same risks and costs, then players will only get frustrated and bored when they discover that there is essentially no difference. When presenting choices to the players, there should always be some non-aesthetic difference in game play. The difference might be the introduction of different challenges, a sneakier route, traps, hidden power-ups, higher elevation for better map revelation, or just better tactical position. It’s important not to present the same choices to players multiple times. Otherwise, what’s the point in offering them a choice at all?

6) Cater to different playing styles and abilities.

When presenting options, challenges or puzzles to players, try to offer multiple solutions that cater to different player styles and abilities. Some players play conservatively, while others like to play it risky. Some people are cautious and like to reveal as much of the level as possible before proceeding into conflict, while others just jump right in with guns blazing. Some take the straightforward route, while others look for the sneaky way. Player styles may be completely unique to your game or type of game, and you should try to identify those modes of play early on. Make sure you design your level with all the different play styles in mind, so that everyone has fun.

Don’t assume that every player is going to play your level the same way. Be conscious of how difficult it can be if a player doesn’t figure out alternate or ultimate solutions to your level. Players’ abilities at handling conflict and mastering the game play vary, and people learn at different rates. Offer easier but less rewarding solutions to your level, but make sure the players know what they’re missing if they opt for the easy solution. This encourages them to replay your level and try harder next time.

7) Reward player imagination and efforts.

Players like to experiment and explore. The more solutions, secrets, alternate paths, and so on, that you provide in your level, the more satisfied players will be. It’s a great feeling when, as a player, you come up with a not-so-obvious solution that succeeds. Remember that players almost always go off the main route hoping to find shortcuts, hidden caches of goodies, or other unexpected items. When designing a level, try to think about what players may want to try, and give that to them. When they say, “What if…?” your level should respond with, “Yes, you can.”

Nothing is worse than designing what appears to the player to be a challenge, alternate solution, route or secret place that offers no reward. Players try to interact with everything, and when the interaction is pointless, frustration results. Interactive game play objects (e.g., moveable crates or exploding canisters) which serve no purpose tend to frustrate players.

Players may try for minutes, or even hours, to figure out what they are suppose to do with these objects. Don’t let players down in this regard.

For example, in a Quake or Unreal level, imagine if a player saw some rafters just at the edge of his jump range from a narrow ledge and said to himself, “Ah, a challenge. I wonder what’s up there.” If those rafters served no purpose in the game, the player might spend an hour trying to jump out onto the first rafter, only to repeatedly fail in his efforts. The player might quit and feel let down, or even worse, this might pique his curiosity even more, and his resolve to get out there might harden. If he ultimately made it and realized that there was nothing up there, he’d get annoyed both at himself for wasting time playing the damn level, and at the level designer. So, when designing and testing your levels, look out for these “black holes of interaction” and get rid of them. Or, better yet, give them purpose by rewarding players who expend the effort to figure them out.

8) Pay attention to level pacing.

Pacing is the introduction of conflict and tension, plus what some like to call the “adrenaline rush.” This follows closely the Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis model that we know from stories and films. The tension builds as the player (the thesis) interacts with the antithesis, and it crescendos right before the synthesis, where the reader, watcher or player breathes a sigh of relief. (Or, alternatively, the player may get grim from his failure and restart the level, pretending it never happened.)

Because games are interactive, forcing a certain pace into the level can be difficult. What if the players don’t do what you want them to do? What if they take too much time? What if it’s too easy and unexciting when it’s played slow or too intense if played too fast? There are some things you can do to remedy this without taking all the interactivity out of it.

Time limits add tension that’s immediately perceptible by the player. A time limit can force a player to move more rapidly, or adopt tactics that you want him to use, such as splitting forces to achieve multiple objectives. You can put in an artificial time limit – like a mission clock, a puzzle-solver clock, or a turn time limit. You can institute a realistic time limit into a level, like the time it takes a certain enemy or ally unit to move to its exit point, or the time before enemy reinforcements arrive to overwhelm the player.

Controlling the movement speed or distance a player may traverse in a turn drastically affects game play pacing. While you cannot just arbitrarily change this in your level unless you are doing a puzzle game like Tetris, there are other ways you can play with speed. Often terrain affects movement speed, such as swampy ground that slows you down, a highway that permits you to speed up, or an obstructed and twisty route that slows your progress. Giving units different movement speeds and/or movement restrictions can slow or speed up the players, if they have to travel with that unit. For example, giving the player a slow, heavy tank will encourage his forces to slow down to the tank’s movement speed, and making the player guard a fast-moving ATV will force him to speed up.

Pacing can also be set by the enemies’ speed. For example, in a POV shooter, the player may have to chase down an elusive ninja who’s trying to escape from a lord’s castle. In a side-scroller, the boss monster can be made faster or slower. Whenever a player has to move and act faster or slower than he’s accustomed to, it builds tension. By using these various methods to manage tension through movement speed, you gain precise control over the pacing in your level.

9) Reveal assets carefully.

Keeping the player interested in the game requires careful asset revelation. Assets are the game’s eye candy, such as terrain objects, enemy and friendly units, upgrades, puzzles, and so on. All but the simplest games try to reveal these assets gradually to players, so as not to overload them on the first level, and to keep them interested in going on to the next level.

The lead designer will usually have guidelines for what new assets your level will introduce. Try to make these new assets a centerpiece to your level, somehow associated with the core game play. Their introduction should be dramatic or significant, and ought to portray the uniqueness of the asset.

For example, if you are introducing a new power-up that makes the player invisible, then make that invisibility a pivotal part of the solution to the level. If you are introducing a new enemy that flies, set up an encounter where this creature alone attacks the player in an environment that demonstrates the benefit of flying. If you are introducing a scattergun, make the gun available somewhere in the middle of the encounter with the flying enemy, so the player can see the dramatic difference in the effectiveness between his rifle and the scattergun against flyers.

The position of assets within the level is extremely important. Positioning power-ups, booty, and other loot – commonly called “gimmes” – establishes goals for players to move towards.

Gimmes are often the reward for the challenges you put between them and the player. Careful spacing of enemy encounters and game play objects, such as turrets, bridges, fuel drums, and so on, keeps the player interested in exploring and completing the entire level. A lull in the introduction of assets can encourage the player to turn the game off.

A good example of careful asset revelation within a level is shown in Heroes of Might and Magic II. At every turn, your heroes reveal a little more terrain and more assets to investigate, acquire or conquer. This revelation is what some call an “event horizon,” because it triggers and inspires players. New assets that appear on the event horizon keep players interested.

Unfortunately, an example of bad asset revelation can be seen in the same game. Heroes of Might and Magic II sacrificed its diversity of assets to make an individual level interesting, but in so doing, nothing new was left to be revealed in subsequent levels. With nothing new to reveal in later levels, the designers merely tinkered with the quantity and alliances of enemy players.

This scenario raises a very good question: Is it okay for a level designer to ignore the other levels in a game and use any and all of the assets he wants in order to make his level better? The answer is no. If the natural progression of asset revelation from level to level gets broken by one particular level, then the other levels seem weak in contrast. It also forces other designers on the project to redo their levels, and that causes havoc and wastes time. The next thing you know, that one level has set a precedent that the lead designer did not intend. Having just finished a game project on which this happened, I can vouch for how much a level that breaks the asset revelation can screw everything up.

10) Challenge the player.

Your job as level designer is to challenge the player. A level isn’t truly satisfying unless victory is at times uncertain. So you have to present challenges to players that really test their mettle and make them uncertain of their victory. When doing so, you have to cater to different player abilities (see rule #6) and to increasingly skilled and equipped players. Where your level is positioned in the game timeline or “level progression” should indicate how difficult it needs to be. In the first few levels, players learn how to play the game, so these levels should be a little forgiving. Levels at the end should be the most difficult to coincide with the increased skill and player resources.

There will be times when you find that your level, although it plays really well, doesn’t quite fit into the progression. It may make the levels before it or after it seem too easy or too hard. There are a number of solutions to this problem.

•You can scale up or down the difficulty in your level without grossly changing the game play or the fun factor.

•You can ask to reposition your level in the game. This isn’t always an option if you have a tight story line, however.

•You can make your level a sort of “change-of-pace” level. Change-of-pace levels are usually easier than the previous level but subject the player to an unusual limitation, so they remain difficult in the fact that the player is using untested skills. An example is the “Tanya” mission in Command & Conquer: Red Alert, where you no longer control a large number of tanks and troops, but instead one super “Rambo” soldier.

In some games, levels are grouped together into modules, like missions within an operation, floors in a dungeon, or regions on a planet. While the subsequent modules should generally increase in difficulty, the last level within a module may be more difficult than the first level in the next module. This is because there’s a natural pause and release of tension that players experience when they’ve achieved very important objectives in the last level of a module. Players are not ready to jump right into the intensity again and often appreciate an easier mission to catch their breath.(source:gamasutra

 


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