Elements of Game Design Part 4
How do level designers construct
and decorate the environment to assist navigation
through
the
level?
Level designers construct and decorate in
certain manors to cater to the objectives of the point in the game, however
different types and genres of game have very different approaches as a result.
In the Bethesda game Skyrim the main additions to assist in navigation are
focal points, these serve three main purposes:
1,
being a functional purpose, helping the player orient themselves in the
environment, they will always know their position in relation to various ones.
2, is purely visual, an aesthetic
function and
creating visual appeal to the area.
3, Creates a point of interest in that
area, drawing on the curiosity of the player to investigate and explore. In
single player maps you may define multiple focal points using architectural
structures, landscape elements that help the player to travel from one focal
point to another.
In multiplayer maps, you can have one or
two focal points. These help to orient the player in the environment as they spawn.
Players will
always know where they are in the environment no matter what happens so they
are not disoriented.
Where as games more like Blizzard’s
Diablo III uses limitations in the playable map to steer the players in the
correct direction. Games like this are unlike Skyrim in environment design
because of the lack of choice, the story is linear and there are no deviations,
but Skyrim is much more of an open world sandbox where a player is able to
write his own story in one sense, make his or her judgements as they go along.
How does the environment influence
the atmosphere of the
game?
Once again I can come back to Skyrim and
Diablo for this one.
The different environments in Skyrim and
Diablo III completely after the mood and atmosphere of the game, for example:
the Mountain ranges surrounding Riverwood near the start of the game provide and
calm, peaceful and tranquil atmosphere, almost like a leisure holiday within a
game.
However other areas like the Nordic
ruins
evoke much more sinister, evil atmospheres, the dim lighting combined with an
almost monochrome colour palette really emphasises these effects.
Is there a balance to be struck
between realism and stylisation that supports or hinders
the player’s belief in the game world?
In my opinion it depends entirely on the
game, some games like call of duty thrive on the realism they create for their
experience, where as other games like Team Fortress with it’s cartoonist and
styled approach really work well as is.
It depends on the nature of the game
really if the story is based around real world events or dates a more realistic
approach to the level designs will ultimately be more successful in the current
game market.
In the realms of fantasy and science
fiction however the realism gives way to creativity and imagination, but having said this the game world
still need to include similarities to reality to sell the ideas, you can make
an obscure fantasy world with all it’s individual elements, but one will know
what they are because they can not relate them to a real world item, for
example in Halo the alien spaceships and weaponry certainly look different to
human ones, however you can still tell clearly that that is a gun and that is a
spaceship because they are based off real world items that players can
identify.
Illustrate an example of an
environment you particularly like –
who designed it, what real life equivalents does
it
pay homage
to, does it reference existing film or literature genres?
Once of my favourite examples of a
beautiful environment in a game has to been The Frontier in Assassins Creed 3.
The lead artist on this project
responsible for designing the Frontier Environment. Research, style
guides, tech development
and pre-production was
Marc-Oliver Bouchard.
As you can see the work produced is
incredible, I myself has a great interest in the beauty of untouched
wilderness, there's just something about it that is so enticing. Another reason
why this has to be one of my favourites is that realism and similarity to real
world counterparts and so the ability in game to climb and explore areas that I
might never get a chance to discover in my life.
External References
from:
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/how-to-plan-level-designs-game-environments-workflow.php
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/how-to-plan-level-designs-game-environments-workflow.php
Personal recollection.
No comments:
Post a Comment