project 3
How important is level design in the gaming industry.
In this essay I am going to be going through the importance of level design in the gaming industry by going through the history of level design, the process of developing a modern game and the future of level design.
In the early days of video games, a single programmer would develop the maps and layouts for a game, and a discipline or profession dedicated solely to level design did not exist. An example of the former approach is the arcade game Space Invaders (1978) where each level looked the same and repeated endlessly until the player died. An example of the latter approach of level design is the arcade game Donkey Kong (1981) which uses multiple distinct levels to progress the storyline as Mario tries to rescue Pauline. Many game programmers also did the design work for their own projects and referred them as levels. During this time, engine code and game code shared the same code base or were at least tightly coupled. There were no separate game data files to edit, so level design required extensive programming knowledge to edit the game code. (Unknown, 2022) (Wikipedia, 2020)
The process of modern level design starts with brainstorming ideas and producing the level and what you want in the level, where it is going, how it is going to work, what you want for the player to deal with and what obstacles you want. The step after that is drawing and drafting the level, making a visual of the level, putting all you need into the level, where it would go, and you can change the level if needed and can get a feeling of what code will go into the game. The next step is committing to the level as it will make you think go what would look good and what would not for the players experience. The next step is to use flat setting, use different colours for the walls, the floors, obstacles and where the player starts. You also check make sure that it is all scaled correctly. The next step is to work on function of puzzles and obstacles, so they have something to do, and it makes the level more interesting for the player. The next step is the detail work of the level and add detail to level and music to the game for the player to enjoy. The next step is to compile the level on the final settings and have people play and test the game to see what bugs there are in the game. The last step is to fix any bugs found and then uploading the game and releasing into the public(Tophattwaffle, 2012)
Also, when designing a level in games you must make sure that it is enjoyable
The future of level design would be strategic design Traditional definitions of design often focus on creating discrete solutions that provides a unique set of skills and frameworks to balance creative strategic thinking by establishing strategic design as a fixed a fixed part of corporate setup, companies are able to build more holistic customer experiences by bridging business and design. (Weier, 2022) the future of the level design is open world game making the games more challenging whereas in the old games did not have that much of a challenge and in the open world’s games they fill the players time and give them a wonderful experience where in the old games they did not as they were quite simple and sometimes short to experienced players. To design an open world the design team, use the white paper status quo where the team make a map of the entire world and add the buildings, creatures, and quests. In old open world games such as far cry, red dead redemption and assassin creed the map have waypoints where they show you where the quest are. They also showed quests ad gave the player an idea of where everything is and allowed the play to go to certain areas like in far cy you could go to places only certain animals spawn to upgrade your gear. (Editorial team 2021)
They also use a set of rules and other thigs to determine where players can find certain recourses. For example, mushrooms can only be found on t=the wood at the foot of a big tree. Another rule is do not “scatter” resources on the map because if the player could find the resources needed or targets can be founded by walking randomly the map would become mechanized and there will be no targets, so there will be little rewards. There are rules on how to avoid game mechanism restricting the player to move at will in a game that promises to be an open world. The existing solution is to require building a specific piece of equipment, such as a ship. There are also differences between game regions which are different from the last area for example in super Mario odyssey the worlds are always different and add a new element for the player to overcome like lava lakes or pits that you must complete puzzles to cross. (Editorial team 2021)
In my opinion Level design is especially important in the gaming industry as it the only way for the game to be played and takes a lot of time to plan and design. I also believe that games engines have improved over the years by changing how the level look and changing them to be 3d instead of 2d and has changed how the controls of players, obstacles and monsters work in games. I also have seen how the games have changed over the years and I believe that they have used several types of level design to make the games more enjoyable for the players. Level design in the new games such as sonic frontiers and the new Pokémon game have shown that they are quite different as they both as glitches while being full released while old games like portal 1 and 2 look for glitches and fix them before releasing them. The modern level design method has also changed as it is now open world instead of being levels in a game, so it makes a lot more difficult for players that some like while others do not as there is no quest that you follow you just got to do around and complete what you can, and some open worlds do not even have quests so you just explore the world and hope that is something you can accomplish and it is not hard to do.
The new open worlds game is more detailed in my opinion than the old ones as they have better game engines and that the level designers have better understanding of what they want whereas in the old games they did not have that. They also were able to make the game more enjoyable and harder for the players to enjoy. I believe that to improve level design they should continue the open world games and make some better stories to go with them as some do not have ones that you can follow through the game, so you are just stuck wondering the world trying to find out what to do.
Bibliography:
Team, E. (2021) 25 years of experience level designer: How to design an open world game?, Gaming Ideology. Available at: https://gamingideology.com/2021/04/12/25-years-of-experience-level-designer-how-to-design-an-open-world-game/ (Accessed: January 20, 2023).
unknown (2022) History of the level designer, History of the level designer – The Level Design Book. Available at: https://book.leveldesignbook.com/culture/history-level-designer (Accessed: January 12, 2023).
Level design: concept, theory, and practice / Rudolf Kremers.
By: Kremers, Rudolf, 1922-Publication details: Natick, Mass.: A K Peters, c2009.
Wikipedia. (2020). Level (video games). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Level_(video_games).
tophattwaffle (2012). My Level Design Process | TopHATTwaffle. [online] Available at: https://www.tophattwaffle.com/my-level-design-process/ [Accessed 13 Jan. 2023].
Weier, C. (2022) Next Level Design Thinking – how to build future-proof digital products, DeMagSign. Available at: https://demagsign.io/next-level-design-thinking-how-to-build-future-proof-digital-products/ (Accessed: January 18, 2023).