作者：Travis Hoffstetter

门廊是电子游戏，或者更确切地说是关卡设计中必不可少的元素。它不仅是建筑的组成部分，从技术，节奏和叙述来看它也是必不可少一大要素。门廊能够有效地放慢关卡的节奏，让玩家在此获得喘息。如果设置妥当的话，它将带来不一样的效果。

所有关卡设计师都面对着门廊设置太过无聊的问题。有时候我们不得不出于各种原因而忍耐着。但是如果你具有足够的时间和资源，你可以采取两种与游戏玩法不相干的方法去赋予无聊的门廊乐趣，移除门廊几何体去打开远景，添加富有视觉效果的故事。

HallwayGeneric（from gamasutra）

通常情况下，门廊是由墙壁，地板和天花板所组成。当我们移除了天花板，墙壁，或它们两者时，玩家面前将呈现出巨大的视野，并能看到远处的景观。这让他们能够更好地融入景观，以及游戏世界中。视觉故事能够激发玩家的想象力，不管是对于太空居民的行为还是太空本身。视觉故事将为玩家的冒险添加更多含义，因为它在游戏世界中添加了更多沉浸式体验。

我将在下述内容中列举2种赋予门廊更大作用的非游戏玩法的方法。尽管我们能够添加脚本时刻，战斗时刻等等内容去赋予无聊的门廊乐趣，但是当你将游戏时刻与我即将阐述的两种技巧结合在一起时会发现，门廊将变成关卡中真正让人难以忘记的组成部分。

移除几何体

我最喜欢的创造特殊门廊的一大技巧便是移除几何体而呈现出开阔的远景。在《变形金刚：塞伯坦之战》中，我设置了2个朝向高速公路的门廊和房间。而我的关卡设计师在门廊上设置了一些面向Autobot City的窗户，让玩家可以在此获得很棒的远景。但是玩家透过窗户却很难看清外边的场景，所以某一天他又添加了一个阳台，我们也希望通过测试去明确是否还能创造其它更有趣的内容。

当我走到阳台时能够感受到部分远景，就好似我真的在与环境互动而不是透过窗户远眺。阳台便是一个移除了屋顶和两面墙壁的门廊组成部分。意识到融入远景的乐趣后，我便决定继续调整现有的关卡方向了。

于是我将门廊和房间与分层式阳台连接在一起。而上层阳台将直接通向远处的高速公路，如下图。

TWFC（from gamasutra）

如此，我和关卡团队对于空间的疑虑也就消失了。打开屋顶和墙壁让我们能够拥有许多很棒的AI片段，并与动态的敌人入口维系在一起。从门廊/阳台看出去将呈现出如下场景，注意敌人的喷射目标是朝着玩家的方向：

TWFC_flyby（from gamasutra）

我们拥有许多空间能够聚集来自天空和建筑周围的敌人。我还可以添加炮塔去抵御AI运输船（游戏邦注：这在内部门廊区域是不可能出现的）：

TWFC_dropship（from gamasutra）

我也在《古墓丽影》中使用了这一技巧。我们设置了一个通向神社（坐落在一座燃烧着的日本城堡中）的门廊系统。内部门廊正在烈火中灼烧着，这是一个让人紧张的时刻，我们需要调低亮度并确保能够呈现出受到战火弥漫的环境。我们打开了一堵墙让玩家可以上到城堡的屋顶上，即呈现出只包括一面墙和一块地板的门廊。以下便是从屋顶上看出去的四分之三的视野，即门廊外部区域：

TR（from gamasutra）

再一次地，将玩家的路径移向外部门廊能够呈现出很酷的脚本事件和战斗时刻。下图是外部门廊的起点，看起来像是在最初过度之后的场景，即在爆炸过程中：

TR_explody（from gamasutra）

这是一个很酷的游戏序列，我们想要在此尽力压缩脚本事件和经历时刻：

TR_traverse（from gamasutra）

在此我可以结合开放性与垂直性而在火焰中创造出有趣的射击场景：

TR_shooty（from gamasutra）

你可以从上面的截图中看出，我们通过移除墙壁和屋顶而将一些反复且无聊的环节转变成带有视觉效果和游戏玩法的内容。

通过添加透明度去删除几何体

无需真正删除任何几何体而移除几何体的另外一个技巧便是在门廊上添加透明度。添加透明度能让玩家无需跳过窗台便能够看到外部的景象。《生化奇兵》的水下门廊便做得很好，即清楚地呈现出水下的远景，并让玩家真正沉浸在水下世界中，如下图：

bioshock（from gamasutra）

视觉故事

除了调整几何体，门廊中的视觉故事也能创造乐趣。视觉故事其实是一种任务，其成功很大程度取决于美术师，但是图像和设计需要紧密结合才能确保视觉故事的有效性。基于最简单的形式，电子游戏中的视觉故事总是会利用游戏资产去阐述有关关卡，角色以及双方的故事。视觉故事可以像墙上的涂鸦那般简单，并向玩家传达一些不一样的信息。

美术师可以写下一篇有关创造视觉故事的技术方法的文章，但是我希望能够专注于如何将设计与图像结合在一起以确保这些视觉故事具有意义。当与你们的关卡设计师谈论如何去使用视觉故事装饰门廊时，你应该做到：

1.确保这是位于玩家视线范围内

2.确保有光线引导能够吸引玩家的注意，但却不会遮掩了主要路径

3.告诉故事设计师你想要呈现的效果，并询问他们是否能够完善这一效果

第一点较为简单，只要确保玩家能够看到视觉故事编写。如果你的美术师想要创造一些传达角色或关卡背景故事的内容，你就必须确保这些内容能够出现在玩家的视线范围内。视觉故事不能作为探索的奖励。

如下是来自《生化奇兵》中的图像，我们可以发现涂鸦是位于门廊的后墙，右边即是楼梯，当玩家沿着门廊走过去时便能立刻注意到。如果将涂鸦设在侧墙，玩家便只会在通过时才能看到，更糟糕的是可能根本就不会注意到。

Bioshock（from gamasutra）

第二点是确保美术师能够点亮故事场景去吸引玩家的注意，但同时也不会混淆玩家接下来的前进方向。灯光总是能够吸引玩家的注意并告诉他们该往哪走，就像跑道灯。我最常与美术师讨论的一个话题便是在关卡结束时灯光是否会让玩家感到疑惑。这是很容易会出现的情况。

考虑在玩家通过时使用灯光去吸引他们注意到视觉故事，但同时也需要确保真正目的地的灯光能够更亮，拥有更鲜明的色彩，从而不会让他们偏离真确的方向。你肯定不希望玩家停下来研究门廊上那个很酷的内容，并因为这个误导的灯光而偏离最初的方向。如下来自《古墓丽影》的视觉故事便是一个很好的例子。玩家会被死尸所吸引，但是右边的火光却会吸引着他们沿着门廊继续走下去。

TR_stroyTelling（from gamasutra）

第三点便是，在创造视觉故事的过程中保持与故事设计师的交流。告诉他们你想要看到的方向，并询问他们是否有其它想法。我总是提倡与设计师进行这样的交谈，因为他们会投入全部时间去思考故事的创造。美术师和设计师总是具有不同的职责，而因为所有故事设计师都是在思考故事内容，所以你总是会惊讶于他们提出的各种建议。

结论

删除几何体去打开远景以及在无聊的门廊中添加视觉故事是赋予门廊乐趣的两大技巧。当设计师添加游戏玩法到这样的空间中时，便有可能创造出让人印象深刻的游戏时刻。

（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）

Making Better Hallways

by Travis Hoffstetter

Hallways are a necessary evil in video games and more specifically level design.  Not only are they a natural part of architecture but hallways may be necessary for technical, pacing and narrative reasons.  Hallways are a great place for streaming to occur and they are a natural place to slow down the pacing of the level and let the player take a breather.  However lame hallways might sound to gamers, if done correctly, they can go from being a bland part of your level to one of the highlights.

All level designers have been faced with the problem of dealing with a boring hallway section.  Sometimes we have to bite the bullet and settle for a variety of reasons.  However, if you have the schedule, time and resources, there are two non-gameplay ways to make a boring hallway interesting and fun, removing hallway geometry to open up vistas and adding visual storytelling.

In general, hallways are made up of walls, a floor and a ceiling.  When a ceiling, wall or both get removed, a huge line of sight area opens up for the player to take in a really cool vista moment.  That allows the player to feel part of the vista and in turn, the game world.  Visual storytelling captures the imagination of the player for either the behavior of the inhabitants of the space or the space itself.  Visual storytelling adds greater meaning to the player’s adventure through the game space because it adds to their immersion in the game world.

In the following I will illustrate that there are two non-game-play adding ways to make hallways powerful parts of your level design.  Although scripted moments, combat moments, etc. can be added to a boring hallway to make it more fun, when you combine gameplay moments with the two techniques discussed herein, your hallway section will turn into a truly memorable part of the level.

Geometry Removal

One of my favorite techniques for making hallways feel special is removing geometry and opening up a vista view.  In Transformers War for Cybertron, I had two hallways and room leading to a tube highway structure that felt very generic.  My level artist had made a cool vista of Autobot City outside the windows in the hallway.  However, the player couldn’t see very well out those windows and one day he added a balcony I had asked for as a test, to see if we could make something more interesting.

When I stepped out onto that balcony for the first time, I felt a part of the vista, like I was interacting with the environment instead of looking at it through some boring window.  The balcony was basically a hallway section missing a roof and two walls.  Realizing how much more fun it would be fight and traverse out in the vista, I then proceeded to alter the existing level path.

I turned the two hallways and room into a tiered balcony connected by a staircase.  The top balcony / hallway section leads to the highway tube in the distance in the image below.

Immediately the doubts my level team mates and I had about the space went away.  Along with feeling great layout wise, opening up the roof and walls of the game space allowed us to have lots of cool AI vignettes play alongside dynamic enemy entrances.  Looking out from the hallways / balconies had a view like in the below image, notice the enemy jet zooming close by the player:

Since I had so much room to bring in enemies from the sky and surrounding buildings, I was able to add a turret fight with an AI drop ship that wouldn’t have been possible in an interior hallway section:

I was recently able to use this technique in Tomb Raider.  We had a hallway system leading to a shrine room in a burning Japanese Castle.  The interior hallways were on fire and a high intensity moment, we needed a way to take the intensity down a notch and keep the environment interesting to traverse and fight in.  We opened up a wall and let the player onto the roof of the castle structure that were simply a hallway with a single wall and a floor. Below is a three quarter view of the rooftops that serve as an exterior hallway section:

Once again, moving the player path to an exterior hallway system allowed for cool scripted events, traversal bits and combat moments.  Below is an image of what the start of the exterior hallway looks like after the initial transition, during a scripted explosion moment:

Here’s a cool gameplay sequence where we managed to squeeze a scripted event and traversal moment into:

One more where I was able to use the openness combined with verticality to create an interesting shoot out amongst the flames:

You can see from the above screen grabs that we took what could have been a repetitive, boring section and turned it into a visual and gameplay treat by tearing off some walls and roofs.

Geometry Removal through Adding Transparency

Another technique to remove geometry without actually removing any geometry is to add transparency to your hallway.  Adding transparency lets players see through the geometry without having the freedom to jump over a ledge and die like in the previous examples.  Bioshock’s underwater hallways did a really good job of opening up underwater vistas and making the player feel immersed in their undersea world, like in the image below:

Visual Storytelling

Besides adjusted geometry, visual storytelling in a hallway is another way to make them interesting.  Visual storytelling is a task whose success will mostly fall on the shoulders of artists, but art and design need to work together closely to make sure that the visual story telling is impactful.  In its simplest form, visual storytelling in video games uses game assets to tell a story about the level itself, characters or both.  Visual storytelling can be as simple as graffiti on the wall to bodies hung up in sacrificial poses, each telling a different message to the player.

An artist could write a whole article about technical ways to create visual storytelling, but I want to focus on how design and art should work together to make sure those visual story telling moments are most impactful.  When working with your level artist to dress up a hallway with visual storytelling, do the following:

1.Make sure it is in the player’s line of sight

2.Make sure it is lit in a way to bring attention to it, but does not confuse the main path

3.Talk to your narrative designer about what you want to do and see if he or she has any ideas to spice it up.

Number one is simple; make sure the player can see the visual story telling.  If your artist is going to make something cool that imparts background knowledge of the characters or the level, it should be in a place that the player can see it.  Visual story telling should not be a reward for exploring, that’s what pickups are for.

Notice in the below image from Bioshock, that since the graffiti is on the back wall of the hallway immediately before the right turn up the stairs, the player must look at it the whole time they traverse down the hallway.  If the graffiti was on a sidewall, the player would not notice it until they passed by, or even worse, may not even notice it at all.

The second thing to do is make sure the artist lights the storytelling scene so that you can see it but also so that it doesn’t confuse the player as to where to go. Lights draw a player’s eye and tell the player where to go, like runway lights.  One of the things I discuss most with artists as a level finishes is where lighting confuses players. It’s real easy to let happen.

Give the visual storytelling scene light that pulls the player’s eye when they walk by it, but make sure that the light at their destination is a brighter, stronger color or whatever y’all can agree to keep drawing the player along the correct player path.  You do not want the player to stop and look at this cool thing in the hallway and get up and go back in the direction they came because lighting confused them. For an example of well-lit visual story, look at the below image from Tomb Raider.  The player can totally absorb the crazy alter around the strung up dead body, but the torches on the right draw the player down the hallway in the direction they need to go.

The third thing to do when creating visual storytelling is talk to the narrative designer.  Tell him or her the direction you want to go and see if they have any other ideas. I always advocate talking to narrative designers about stuff like this because they spend all day thinking about the story.  Artists and designers have lots of different responsibilities, but since all the narrative designer does is think about story, you may be surprised by some suggestions that are outside of the box.

Conclusion

Removing geometry to open up vistas and adding visual storytelling to boring hallways are two techniques to make them more interesting.  When a designer adds gameplay into a space that has undergone this treatment, more often than not a memorable gameplay moment will be created.(source:gamasutra)