Level Design

Dave Feltham Lead Level Designer

BioWare Corp dfeltham@bioware.com

Making Levels for fun and profit

and other associated dark arts.

Agenda

• It’s All About Me

• What is Level Design?

• How are Levels Created?

• Good Habits

• Bad Habits

• It’s all about the Games…

Who the Hell Am I? What is Level Design?

Level design or game mapping is the creation of levels—locales, stages,

or missions—for a video game (such as a console game or computer

game). This is done using level design tools, special software usually

developed just for the purpose of building levels.

• The Designers that Make the Worlds

• The artistic side of Design that deals with the look, as opposed to

the technical, where scripting is involved (however a level designer

might do scripting as well)

• Work with every department hand in hand

• Level Design is about funneling and balancing all aspects of game

development.

– It’s about balancing the needs of many departments.

• Design, for fun gameplay

• Level Art, for visual integrity

• Writing, for plot fulfillment

• Technical Art and Code for streaming

• So….

• The weight of a great gameplay experience is on the shoulders of a

Level Designer (and Tech Designer) because they bring everything

together.

What is Level Design?

How are Levels Created?Examples of the workflow used by various companies.

How are Levels Created?World Building

Designer Concept Artist

Level Artist/

Layout Artist

Final

Who Uses this Method?

• Depends on the project and the people.

• Bethesda did on Oblivion

• BioWare did on Jade Empire and Baldur’s Gate

• Pseudo Interactive did on Cel Damage

– Though we also used Foam Core models

How are Levels Created?Level Design

•Level Designer

•Writer

•Level Artist

•Technical Artist

•Technical Designer

•Concept Artist

Level Artist

=BRAINSTORMBRAINSTORM

Level Designer Final

=

White Box method of Level Design:

• Concentrates on volumes of geometry rather on

artistic details

• Concentrates on the feel of an area

(verisimilitude)

• Concentrates on gameplay (Combat and

exploration)

• Work with every department hand in hand

– Collaborate and Communicate

Who Uses this Method?

• Pseudo Interactive did on the Full Auto

franchise

• Ed Byrne used this on the SOCOM series

• We are using this right now.

Vistas

Are there points of

interest that are visually

stimulating?

Game Balance

Is the area fun?

What things should I worry about

in Level Design?

Verisimilitude

A Sense of Place

Come-on. Anything can be a

Game Level!

DEADSPACE

DEADSPACE

DEADSPACE

DEADSPACE

• Realism isn’t fun!

– We’re making games, not 3D representationsof reality

– Even Sims aren’t entirely real. They are justdesigned to LOOK or feel real

– Take into consideration your Camera and thepacing.

What are the things I have to be

aware of when building a level?

• Leading

• Directing

• Choices

• Gating

• Streaming

Leading

• Placing objects or enemies, or designing your

level so the player feels compelled to go a

certain way

Thermal Goo

Leading…

• The Hotel Lobby

Directing

• Placing information that tells the player where to go.

Need For Speed: Underground Full Auto

SUBTLESUBTLE IN YOURIN YOUR

FACEFACE

Directing…

• Tunnel Shooter: you can only go one way

Gating

• You can limit where a player goes by gating their

progress which Ensures Pacing

Plot Coloured Keys Puzzles

Gating

• Blocking geometry

Choices

• You can add depth to a Level simply by

providing Choices

Choices were real choices that affected the outcome of

parts of the game or how the game played.

Choices….

Bioshock: Go Left or Right?

Oblivion: Go to which city? Kill what Creatures? Choose what

Conversation? What Class? What’s That? What’s that over there?

False Choice

• Doug Church, credited as ‘Himself’ on Thief: Dark

Project, gave a talk with Warren Spector (creator of

Deus Ex) at GDC in 2001.

– Argued about Real Choice and False choice

BlahBlah

BlahBlah

Blah

Blah

Blah

False Choice

X

False Choice Streaming

• Entirely different lecture

• Is different depending on the scope,

project, engine and coder

• BUT!

• There are ways to anticipate streaming

without knowing what the format will be

Streaming…

Loading Tunnel • An area of little information that

dumps the previous area’s data

and loads the next area’s data

•Seen in such games as The

Darkness, Call of Duty

Streaming…

Switchback •A form of loading tunnel, but

doesn’t have to be in a tunnel

•Allows you to load a new area

while the old area is being culled

•Forces the player’s line of sight

away from the dumped

information

•Seen in such games as

Bioshock, Jade Empire,

Kingdom Hearts

Streaming…

Funnelling •Coming to a point where

there is only one access point

•When you pass through that

funnel point into the other

area, you end up having more

of an hourglass look, where

each side has different data,

except at the funnel points

where it is shared data

Streaming…

Hard Gate

Or

THE LOADING

SCREEN

•The ‘end of the level’ where a

loading screen will appear

•Though not ideal, still done:

Bioshock, Oblivion both do it.

•Pulls the player out of the game.

•Darkness had an ingenious way:

Play a movie of the protagonist

talking in a monologue to the player,

while loading is happening.

•Burnout had some of the worst

loading screens/times ever!

Loading….

What is Bad Level Design?

• When a player gets lost

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

HELP!

They let you go anywhere

at any time!

What is Bad Level Design?...

• When a player gets bored

Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

Hello?

They ALSO let you go anywhere at any time!

Plus: Giant fields of grass!

What is Bad Level Design?...

• When a player gets really bored…

Half Life 2

Yawwwwwwn

They let you drive a boat!

For a very long time!

And then do the same with a car!

What is Bad Level Design?...

Some games will adapt common room sizes, like a kitchen, to fit for

their game, thus making mansion sized kitchens in subsidized

housing.

• When a player is pulled out of the reality youhave established.

Doesn’t look like

MY kitchen.

What is Bad Level Design?

• When a player gets annoyed

•Which could be any of the

previous points

•But also could be a

combination of a few things

that causes the player to

become increasingly

irritated.

What is Bad Level Design?

• Random Dungeons

– Not necessarily bad: Diablo II

had them

– Repetitive

• In order to get from A to F in the

world

• you had to go through Z then G

• C then A

• then E to F

BAD

Seriously Annoying. Flow

• To keep a player from being annoyed, one must

consider flow.

– Is a player constantly faced with loading screens?

– Is a player sent on Fed-Ex quests, sending him from

point to point

– Is a player lead through annoying gates to do a

simple task?

Tale of 2 Flows

Oblivion’s Arena

Jade Empire’s Arena

Tale of 2 Flows• Neither of these games do it perfectly, but it shows how the same

style of gameplay can be done differently, with similar results

Oblivion’s Arena

•If you want to watch the fight and

make bets, you have to go through a

loading screen as the bookie is

outside of the arena.

•So that’s Bet > Loadscreen >

Watch > Loadscreen > Bet

•If you want to fight, you have to

enter the basement (loadscreen),

talk to someone who will let you into

the fights and pay you

(conversation), and then go to the

loading tunnel for the arena

(loadscreen)

Tale of 2 Flows

Jade Empire’s Arena

•Go through several rooms before

meeting Qui, the man who will let

you into the arena

•Participate in long conversations

before..

•You view movie that establishes

the scene

•You view a movie that establishes

your enemies

•Repeat the process whether you

win or die.

Tale of 2 Flows

Why is this an LDs responsibility?

• As Level Designers, the people who bring

everything together, it is up to us to

advise, or create flow that makes sense.

– It is up to us to not annoy people.

Water can flow or it can crash.

Be water my friend.

Let the Player flow through the level, don’t

let them crash!!

I didn’t say that.

What are you Trying to Say?

• We are the glue thatholds all the depts.Together.

• We are thearchitects whoprovide theblueprints

• We help ensure aplayer is satisfied

Dave Feltham

Lead Level Designer

BioWare Corp

dfeltham@bioware.com

PLAY THESE GAMES OR DIE Some Reading

Max Payne Level Designhttp://www.gamasutra.com/features/20020508/maatta_pfv.htm

Game Level Design

By Edward Byrne