Play Space and Level Design

Hello all and welcome back to the world of The Rants of an Angry Game Dev girl, travel carefully and in groups cause its a scary place (now again I really don't know why anyone actually reads this because I'm not funny like seriously). Now so this blog will probably kinda sucky cause I'm slightly hungover, hanging out with my friends while playing Pokemon X (we all have Pokemon X and have been wonder trading and trading with each other, we are clearly so cool). Now today we will be focusing on Play Space and Level Design, which are important aspects of game development.

Now as a level designer your main goal is to design HOW a player is confronted with the games rules, it is the interpretation of the rules. Now some people mistake the purpose of level design and thinks that they are in charge of the level's rules and mechanics but that's the job of the game designer (and now you know and knowing is half the battle!!). LEVEL DESIGN IS PUTTING THEORY INTO PRACTICE, this is really important to remember wen looking at level design.

In level design you need to be able to understand how to show players the game's mechanics, whether it's finding and using a new weapon. learning a new ability or teaching a new game mechanic, like the hookshot in The Legend of Zelda games. Your goal as a level designer is to teach players how to use these mechanics by breaking down the components and making sure that the rules are understood (this is really important stuff so don't mess it up!). Just explaining the mechanic in the level is a little boring so when introducing the mechanic, level designers should try and make an interesting setting for introducing and learning the mechanic. The best way to make the implementation of new mechanics is to challenge players to use it, insert obstacles and challenges, apply rules and then turn them upside down, among other things to test both the mechanic and the player's skill with the mechanic.

Now I mentioned teaching the player but what exactly are you teaching them? Well you can teach the players anything,  take for example Gucamelee, the games teaches you many different abilities and fighting techniques/ combos throughout the levels. These help the player learn and progress through the level and reveal more information. As a level design you want to try and teach your players:

• The Physical rules of your environments, like gravity and Physics which is one of the most important thing to teach the players
• The abilities of the player's in-game character, obviously this is another important aspect of what level designers need to teach to players.
• The behavior of enemies, ever play the old Mario games well the level designers had to design some way to teach players how the enemies move and attack.
• The game's reward systems, level designers need to teach players what types of rewards and achievements players can get in the game to help motivate them while playing.

 Now Level Design has a few golden rules that must always be followed:

1. BE CONSISTENT
   • The mechanics must always stay the same, be consistent in your mechanics (this is the most important thing to remember if you only remember one thing from this blog REMEMBER THIS DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME)
2.  Don't require skills in a level that you haven't taught the player in a safe environment first
   • Don't throw players into the game space without teaching them the player skill first, this not only doesn't allow players to discover the mechanics but it can allow piss them off
3. Always teach main goals and rules first
   
   • This can be done in many different ways but it is important to be done at the beginning of the level or the game.
    

 Now another important thing to think about as a level designer is the WHAT? WHY? and HOW? Think about what you are trying to achieve, whether in a level or in the game as a whole, what do you as a designer want to achieve with your game. Think about what External and Internal goals you will have in the game, how you reward players, what players can do to achieve something, etc.

The Game Design Hierarchies are important to keep track about how and what you are doing with your level design. It's all about how each aspect works with the level design, how the work, how they are being made and how they are implemented.  Each level has it's own hierchy that can cover everything from External Design Goals, to Level Goals to Gameplay Action, etc.

Now there are few different types of levels; Linear, Semi-Linear and Non-Linear. Each have different pros and cons and depending on the type of game and gameplay work better than others.

Linear Levels

PROs                                                                         CONs

Perfect control for LD	Constrained player freedom
Determine order of events	Things might happen regardless of player actions
Pacing	Gameplay events might be forced on players
Consistency
Story Development
Learning Curve

Semi-Linear Levels

PROs                                                                        CONs

Reasonable directorial control for LD	Lead players by nose when uninspired
Enough Freedom for players to feel they are authoring their experience	Leaving players to own devices at inappropriate times
Create illusion of player freedom	Logical inconsistency (game play actions once possible should always be possible)

Non-Liner Levels

PROs                                                                        CONs

Maximum control for players	Extremely hard to test
Take responsibility for their own failures	Very hard to design robustly
Sense of gameplay ownership	Players may break the game with unforeseen actions
Free content	Loopholes in gameplay logic

There are a few different Level Design Methods, (which I'm kinda too tired to list) that can be seen in the picture below: