Level Design Challenges & SolutionsElisabetta Silli - Level Designer - EA DICE
• Vertigo and Metrics
• Streaming content
• The analog nature of Faith’s movement
Challenge:To convey the feeling of vertigo and enhance the first person body experience, we pushed all the jumps to the very limit. This led to unclear affordances and very difficult jumps.
Solutions:
• Moving all the non-reachable surfaces further away from the play area.
• Strategic placement of red objects in the player path.
• Adding special objects such as ramps at the edge of buildings.
Challenge:Every time you exited an area we needed to unload the previous one and load the next. Between them, we had to create streaming zones big or busy enough to confine the player until the loading was finished.
Solutions:
•Safe streaming zones with elevators.
•Combining small movement puzzles with animated objects.
•Movement puzzles.
Challenge:Due to varying player speeds and the ability to string moves together, it was very hard to predict and restrict where the player could go.
Solutions:
•Strategic building and object placement.
•Adding objects like special fences that the player couldn’t climb or vault over.
•“Non-movement volumes”
Time Trial:
•Transforming weakness to strength.
•Alternative to the multiplayer.
•Added value for the player.
•Lock and test metrics early.
•Plan ahead streaming content.
•Fun comes first.
Takeaways:
