We brainstormed as a group about the different disciplines we all want to look at, mine being level design/Mechanic/Narrative. elping with everyone else's brainstorm gave me a few ideas to work with, which was a great help!
However, as Josh (my MA tutor) said, he will always ask us 'Why?'
Some of the questions I have asked myself so far for the game I will be working on this year are -
Who is it for?
Why will the level design be free roam?
Why will it be a Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre?
How can I try and break the rules of the usual designs? E.g Lighting to lead the player/Obvious trails.
Can I make a seemingly un-appealing place, appealing?
How can music influence the design of a level?
How can I create a 'Controlled' Free roam world, but still give a sence of free roam?
These are just a few questions I will hopefully find answers to! =D
Seeing as I will be trying to create a free roam world...without it actually being FULLY free roam, I have tried to come up with a method to do this. So far, the method is having Domes that are all free roam within, but are...I guess instanced? with certain paths between them that the player will be able to travel through in different ways, or some will be blocked/locked.
With this kind of layout it will be easy to block off access to certain points, and lead the player in the directions I want, but ofcourse with each dome being free roam they will hopefully think that the whole area is too; therefore having a controlled free roam environment. It may also be good to add a central hub that they can either be always trying to get too, or always return too, though this is used quite a lot in games now so I may try and switch that up.
Using this laytout, to access the different dome, i coul dadd different forms of gameplay between each area. For example, the player might be in a chase scene from the top left dome to the top middle dome or from the top middle dome to the central dome they could be hiking across a canyon. Either way it opens up a lot of opportunities as each dome can mean different scenery.
Also with this design instead of giving the player set objective and constantly telling them what to do and where to go, adding landmarks or areas of interest may also help to lead the player in the direction I want them to, but also make them think it was their own choice. For example, if there is a big statue that is always in view from every dome, I would hope that naturaly people would want to investigate this, which is exacty what I want them to do and in doing so will trigger the next part of their objective.
While trying to create this world, I also want to try and break the rules aswell. The main way I woul dlike to do this is by makinging a seemingly unappealing place, appealing. For example, Imagine you're walkign through a forest and you come accross a dark cave, or an oppening with a nice pool of water. Most people would probably go towards the pool of water... but what if you explored inside this dark cave and were able to try and tame a drake which you can then use to glide across the canyons you've been trying to get accross for hours previously? Then you'd probably want to choose the cave right? =P This is what I want to try and do, as If you had chosen to go for the pool of water you wouldn't have been able to progress in the game. So adding a reward and sense of achievement at the end of a dark dank cave, will make you want to explore inside more of these caves... though i might be harsh sometimes and make it all for nothing...you'd still be going into the cave you originally would have avoided... in which case I would have succeeded!
And with that, that closes today's chapter of my magical mystery tour that is my Masters...Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! and I hope you enjoyed the read!
Laters taters!
Nice post! You seemed to focus more on the level layout here rather than integrating the mechanics and narrative also which are always going to be key components - I would definitely get a feel for mechanics and narrative over level layout first.
ReplyDeleteIf you went with the dome approach, how big would these domes be? They would need to feel big enough for the play to get a true sense of 'free roaming' but small enough that you have time to prototype each area and test out the hypothesis. Make them too small and it will feel like a linear game with open sections which might miss the point of the exercise.
I like the idea of using landmarks to provide direction - we do this in Ether using a lighthouse and the entire level and structure is build to show the lighthouse from all angles of the entire level. Rather than going for a boxed, central HUB approach like in your diagram we've gone for a more stemmed approach. So you start in area A then when you've moved through that area you can then go to Area B or area C and then follow on to area D. This provides some structure but also makes everyone's play throughs different and you can change the resulting gameplay from it so that people can make some 'meaningful choices'. We keep our 'HUB' area separate from the actual level structure so that it gives you more freedom in the design - however you would need to find a way to go back and forth if that was the case. Now this gets tricky when you try to introductive a narrative layer because how to you deliver narrative? If there are 100 different ways you can approach your level do you tell the story in different chunks and they have to piece it together as they go (think Memento) or do you stack the narrative and deliver the narrative on triggers but it will always tell the same narrative. The latter is obviously the easier solution but then you take out the context of environmental storytelling and if the story is narrating about why this dark cave is here but you're in fact in the jungle it will detract a lot from the experience. So then do you gate the player in the areas until they've got all the narrative - but then is this free-roaming?
I'm definitely one for breaking the rules and Josh lead me onto a similar path - however how would you teach the player to go into the dark cave? If this is a large open area and 'free-roaming', how would you teach them initially that if you go in the wrong direction then you may be rewarded differently. A lot of people will not pick up on that initially - Ideally you'd want a smaller exploration section at the start of the game so they can get a feel for this 'rule' and then bigger path breaks later on in the game when they get more skilled - but if its free-roaming, how will you know which is the first, smaller area compared to the larger more skilled area? You could start the game in a linear fashion to teach them but would that go against your ideals as free roaming? I would also argue on the same point that if you have a solution on 'how to cross the canyon' in this 'broken rule' area then is it still breaking the rules of the game or was the player supposed to go there all along in which case it makes it part of the intended player path anyway which wouldn't result in the extra reward and achievement that other people may not get as everyone would get it.
Lots of things to think about and I could talk about plenty more but I really like how you've opened up your Masters and looking forward to seeing the interesting things you produce!
Blocking off access to certain points kind of ruins the feel of an open world. Some games have tried doing that and were successful like Morrowind for example =) You could go into the higher level areas like the red Mountain right from the start, but you'd die if you did. But you could do that, and you'd learn from trial and error where you should and shouldn't go. And it's a huge thrill when you can finally clear an area you couldn't even step into without being killed before. The whole idea is pretty good though, can't wait to see more ^^
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