Instructinator

Level Design Theory

This is basic level design theory focused on multiplayer. Specificaly, objective based multiplayer in Unrel Tournament 3. However, many of these principals carry forward to single player, and level design for other genres as well. Some of these principals are actually larger aspects of game design theory, and should be applied to game mechanics, UI design, and subsequently Gameplay.

Core Design Vs Level Design

• Core design refers to game mechanics and user interface  – this is not the focus of level design.
• Good level design caters to the strengths of the core, and avoids the core’s weaknesses. For example if you are doing a first person shooter game. The player will lack the ability to see their character relative to their environment. This make jumping puzzles and pushing around giant blocks difficult, and should be avoided.
• Core is a set of tools for the player, levels are challenges against the player and those tools.
• Always design for easy mode, increase difficulty after. Or increase difficulty when dealing with secondary or bonus objectives.

Mapping Dos and Don’ts

• Place items in the center of hallways and other spaces
• Avoid Dead ends
• Avoid Long empty hallways
• Avoid reliance on core gameplay by providing things to do in each space

Hard Design topics (some excerpts from UDN)

Scale
• One of the first things to look at when you start grey blocking is the scale of the level.
• It’s good to have variety, but generally, you don’t want your level so big and open that it feels like you are moving across it at a snail’s pace.
• But by the same token, you want hallways and rooms to be open enough that you can dodge a bit and can easily navigate without getting stuck.
• Another good tip is to avoid ledges that look like you can double jump to, but are actually just slightly higher than the double jump range.
• Once you have one area roughed out, be sure to jump in there with PIE (Play In Editor) and spend time just moving around and get the feel of your scale.

Flow

• You want your level to be comfortable and intuitive to traverse.
• You want to pull the player around map without making people double back on themselves by accident.
• Players can get stuck going around in circles or not find combat and get bored if your flow is not intuitive
• Players need a constant stream of objectives, choices, and rewards. If you do not design the various paths and guide the player to them you cannot ensure they get a good experience.

• 3 ways to lead the player:
1 Geometry more open on one side that another, more LOS will draw their attention.
2 Light more bright in one area than the other. Light the main path bright and the alternate routes darker to communicate areas of higher action.
3 Pickups placed on one path but not the other, Mario Coins, Sonic Rings… etc. The Pacman method of leading the player.

Direction
• The paths to objectives should be clear at all times. All paths should lead the player towards where they want to go.
• Players should always know whether they are on Red side or Blue side without using 4th wall breaking elements like bathing the entire side in red light.
• 3 good ways of directing the player:
o Landmarks a big statue or a waterfall to the side of one area that appears nowhere else in the level.
o Line of sight to objectives or objective indicators.
o Signs like lit pathways, flashing arrows, or a really well lit entry way.

Pickup Placement
• Spread out your goodies! If key power-ups are too close together, other parts of your level are going to see very little traffic.
• Try to make sure players can easily find a weapon quickly after spawning. After this initial pickup escalate the pickups further away from the spawn points.
• Having large pickups in guardable areas sometimes works, so once players get it, they can try to hold it.
• Risk vs. reward is always a nice rule of thumb to follow for pickups in that you usually want more powerful pickups in spots where they are more difficult to get.

Risk and reward
• Be careful about just giving away powerful items, the player will enjoy them more if they have to go through a challenge to get them.
• Scale the risk with the reward, they should be equivalent. If they go through hell and back for a health vial the player will be pissed. If they all spawn next to the redeemer, the redeemer is no longer as valuable an item.
• If your making a challenge for the player they will expect a reward.
• Never make it overly difficult to complete the primary objective, or the basic point A-B game play. These should be designed for easy mode. Put your lava pits and saw blades in with your secondary objectives.

Choice
• Always provide choice for the player
• Cater to different playing styles in your map
• Provide alternate routes to the goals and interlink liberally
• Avoid unnecessary choke points
• Balance choices with different rewards so that the choice is not arbitrary
• Inform the player of the choices liberally by providing indicators
• Always keep in mind this law of game design:
o Game play is made up of a series of choices.
o If there is no choice there is no gameplay.
o If all choices lead to the same outcome (perceived by the player), it negates the choice.

Line Of Sight
• Always be mindful of line of sight in shooting games
• LOS in FPS is a resource, like Gold, EXP, or Tiberium. You have to manage how much you are giving a player in each space carefully.
• Too much LOS and players die without being able to play. Too little and they cant see where they are going.
• Provide plenty of cover in most situations
• Balance different paths for choice with more or less cover
• Be mindful of freedom of movement and balance of firepower with respect to line of sight in your primary combat zones.

Soft Design topics
Immersion

The suspension of disbelief must be established and maintained in the environment.

• The player should never see the 4th wall. Never let them see the construction. This means no seams, no BSP edges, never let them see thoguh the back side of an open mesh, or other impossible geometry.
• All light mush have a light source and bounce and degrade believably
• Apply gravity to all things
• Eliminate all graphical anomalies
• Remember sound is a large part of believability, so apply sound liberally to all moving things.
• Make Sure your texture and mesh choices always make logical/physical sense to help suspend the player’s disbelief.

Taking this concept further, think about the history of the environment, how old is it, how was it first built? Place signs of story, degradation, and wear and tear. This will make a huge difference in the believability of the visuals.

Escalation
• Rising action is important in multiplayer, not just in Single player
• You can create rising action with pacing
• Make pickups better and better
• Make challenges greater
• Remember to include rest and recharge (health and armor at the least)
• Remember to spend the most amount of time and energy where players will be spending the most of their time. Spawn Room, Main combat Areas, and Objective Rooms. Don’t spawn in an empty box room. Don’t put the flag on the ground in an empty room, and don’t have your bottlenecks be empty.

Play Styles
When designing for any genre it is important to know the behaviors of your target audience and make sure to take each play style into consideration in every scenario.
In FSP design we need to cater to these 3 dominant player styles:
Explorer/Stealth
• Likes: alternate routes, Hidden passages, 1 on 1 encounters
• This play style is perfectly content to play an entire CTF map without ever shooting anyone
• The will look for exploits and hidden items to give themselves an advantage.
• They are the first one to be willing to undergo a complex side puzzle in order to gain their team an advantage.
Sniper/Defender
• Likes, sniper rifles and safe places to use them, Geometry exploits, hiding spots, open spaces, long hallways, having their aim/timing challenged,
• Snipers can be happy sitting in one place for an entire game, never capturing the flag.
• They will defend the flag in other ways if there is no sniper rifle, like impact hammer on the other side of a door, or hiding next to the flag.
• Camping, hiding, setting traps, staying hidden
Runner/Gunner
• Likes: Cover, Short to mid range weapons, armor and health are most important to this type,
• This type will put themselves in harm’s way, they enjoy multi enemy encounters in interesting spaces,
• They will lose health during these encounters though and will need to be resupplied regularly, otherwise they begin to kamikaze.
• They will gather an advantage (weapon or armor) and try to brute force their way to the flag and back.
• These guys are always eye on the prize, for kills, and for captures. They are either in the thick of the action or racing backing into the fray as fast as possible.

Why we Grey Block
• Use BSP and very few static meshes, quickly flesh out the entire level to a point where you can play the level and see how fun it is. – this is called “grey blocking”
• Always ‘shell out’ the gameplay before you start on any visual work.
• If it’s not fun before visual work, it’s not going to be fun after.
• Since visual work in UE3 can take the bulk of the level work time, you want to be sure you get your level as fun as possible before you start making it look pretty.
• This way you won’t waste a lot of time re-meshing and lighting to accommodate game-play changes.
• Test, Test, and Test your map. Make changes as needed. Then and only then should you proceed with the bulk of the work.