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Post date: Apr 01, 2013 11:39:28 PM
GDC 2013 Notes
Talks I Attended:
AAA Level Design in a Day Bootcamp (3/26)
Speakers -
Neil Alphonso, Lead Designer, Splash Damage
Jim Brown, Lead Level Designer, Epic Games
Joel Burgess, Senior Designer, Bethesda Game Studios
Forrest Dowling, Lead Level Designer, Irrational Games
Steve Gaynor, Co-founder, The Fullbright Company
Seth Marinello, Level Designer, EA | Visceral Games
Nathan Purkeypile, Senior World Artist, Bethesda Game Studios
Zach Wilson, Senior Level Designer, EA | Visceral Games
Matthias Worch, Lead Designer, LucasArts
World of Dishonored: Raising Dunwall
Speaker - Viktor Antonov, Art Director of Dishonored
Ten Principles for Good Level Design
Speaker - Dan Taylor, Square Enix
Level Design and Narrative Technique for Games:
Bethesda - Joel Burgess and Nathan Purkeypile
Framing - Funneling the players attention via layout.
Focus the player's attention with lighting, color, and motion.
Guiding attention to most important concepts so the player looks at them naturally (don't cinematics).
Mechanics - Interactive elements will draw attention away from scripted story sequences (ammo and such will distract).
Staging/Lighting - Lighting and blocking should draw the player's attention to the most important elements.
Skippable or non-skippable sequences are a case-by-case choice. Ideally resolution of the sequence should clear the blockage.
Environmental Story-telling - Story that the player deduces from the game world itself. The player is always surrounded by the game environment, so it will always communicate some meaning. Low cost, helps player understand the game world. It is visual, static (waiting to be discovered), passive, optional, instantaneous, and scalable. Advantages - inexpensive, time-agnostic, and memorable. Require art assets.
Cinematics invite the player to disengage.
The viewer fills in the gaps when they're given information that seems closely related.
Environmental storytelling can express how a character lives, and therefore the kind of person they are. Tells about the kinds of lives people lead and who they are.
Language like graffiti, showing and telling, but use as little as possible.
Talking to the Player - How Cultural Currents Shape Game and Level Design:
Matthias Worch (Lucas Arts)
Content is mediated via performance.
Content is mutable.
Stories are personal.
Interface is considered normal.
Spoken words and thoughts are said, then lost forever unless documented.
Integrate gameplay and story meaning. Gameplay should tell the story.
Udn.epicgames.com/three/rsrc/three/modularleveldesign/modularleveldesign.pdf
Narrative Technique For Games:
Steve Gaynor (The Fullbright Company)
- Instead of having items or power-ups that the player has to discover, reward them with bits of story. The player has to explore to reveal the story, encouraging engagement, unique player story, and narrative depth to the environments.
- Bethesda only has 2 artists making all of their modular kits, but they rely on them for all the caves/dungeons, the Ratway, and several others.
- Create useful patterns - similar repeatable puzzles for the player.
40 Questions to Ask yourself When Your Level Design Sucks:
Zach Wilson (EA | Visceral Games)
29. When was the last time I play-tested this?
28. Do I understand game systems/AI?
27. What was I trying to achieve?
26. How shippable is this?
25. What is the pacing like in this level? (Bad = always flat).
24. How can I establish a scene with an awesome vista?
23. Can I make the background more impactful?
22. Can I vary the vertical placement of enemies?
21. Can I give the player something to do other than shoot people?
20. How can I surprise the player?
19. What else can my primary tool be used for?
18. How can I introduce enemies into a space in a new and surprising way?
17. Am I making the player wait?
16. Am I taking actions away from the player for no reason?
15. Am I listening to the programmers?
14. Is this space too cluttered?
13. Do enemies let the player know where they are before he takes damage?
12. Where are the bugs coming from? Cut what is causing problems.
11. How can I make the environment more dynamic? Destructible environment, wind, water, etc.
10. Can I add more checkpoints?
9. How can I make enemies more fun to shoot?
8. Is it easy to move through the space?
7. How are my preconceived notions or ego harming the player?
6. Are there meaningful rewards?
5. Is everything affordant? Tell the player what they can and can’t do with objects.
4. What can I cut?
3. Can I get the frame-rate up?
2. Can I reduce load time?
1. Can I ask these questions in advance to save myself the heartache?
The “40 Questions to Ask Yourself When Your Level Design Sucks” talk was somewhat useful, but the guy had cut out a lot of his points because he had reviewed them before the talk and decided to take many out. He even cut his #1 final point, which was pretty lame. He also went through the points super fast and didn’t really explain them, and was extremely broad. Overall his talk was okay, but not incredibly insightful.
I was also a bit disappointed by Viktor Antonov's talk "Raising Dunwall - Building the World of Dishonored" because I've read plenty of articles he's been interviewed for (he was also the Lead Art Director for Half-life 2) and his interviews are insightful and wonderful and his work is really awesome, but his talk was slow and dreary and went all over the place, not really making a point. He showed some cool concept art and explained how they came to that, but belabored most of his points and didn't deliver his talk in a very exciting way. It wasn't that bad, but I was still disappointed. Luckily that wasn't the last talk I went to.
10 Good Principles for Level Design:
Dan Taylor (Square Enix Montreal)
1. Good Level Design is Fun to Navigate.
Visual Language
Consistent
Guides player
Light
Geo
Color
Animation
Clarity and Flow (Ex: Mirror's Edge)
Confusion can be cool
Hectic, intense gameplay
No paths creates brutality
Fun, crazy
2. Good Level Design Does Not Rely on Words to Tell a Story.
The Broken Circle = The player has to fill in the gaps, but you need to balance the challenge level so the gap isn't too big or too small.
Explicit (given), Implicit (figured out), and Emergent Narratives (player-made).
Mise-en-scene = Art of telling the story through the environment (Ex: Bioshock).
Emergent Narrative = player choice (Ex: Hitman)
3. Good Level Design Always Tells the Player What to Do, But Not How.
Nebulous objectives
Only give as much info as necessary
Small objectives along the way (Ex: Skyrim)
Should encourage player improvisation
Parallel mission – player can accomplish missions in any order/at any time, and it'll help them accomplish other missions (Ex: Ratchet & Clank).
4. Good Level Design Constantly Teaches the Player Something New.
Pattern Analysis – humans enjoy analyzing patterns.
Each level should showcase a new mechanic.
The game should be one massive tutorial (Ex: Zelda series).
Learn -> Play -> Challenge -> Surprise (Mechanics).
5. Good Level Design is Surprising.
Roller-coaster metaphor.
Normal slope to climax at 3/4's of the way through is boring and predictable.
Fun is created by uncertainty.
Disrupt paradigms (Ex: Dead Space 2).
Take risks
Gray-box and test ASAP.
6. Good Level Design Empowers the Player.
Players want to be bad-asses.
Deliver the fantasy
Real Life Sucks
Players should have a visible influence in the world (Ex: Infamous).
7. Good Level Design is Easy, Medium, and Hard.
Risk vs. Reward.
Multiple pathways in a level.
High-risk paths with a reward
Visual language should indicate this (Ex: Burnout)
Layered approach (Ex: Dishonored).
Special weapon
Dangerous enemy
Need to use stealth
Puzzle
Object can be seen but needs to be reached
More re-playability
8. Good Level Design is Efficient.
Modular Design
Create a series of modular mechanic-driven places.
Bi-directional maps
Gameplay should be different both directions is you have to go back (Ex: Being attacked by different enemy).
Non-linear
Exploration needed to complete (Ex: Assassin's Creed).
Relevant gameplay
Incentivise the player
Help the player advance
Tie advantages into main narrative thread (Ex: Dishonored's heart device).
9. Good Level Design Creates Emotion.
Emotional Response
Architectural theory
Height of windows can imply imprisonment or empowerment.
Spatial Empathy
Twisted level causes panic and confusion
Isolation
Switch between epic and small spaces.
Use verticality (Attack from above? Oppressive).
Scale
Work Backwards – Narrative and mechanics should be designed first.
Lies – Lie to the player about objectives sometimes.
10. Good Level Design is Driven by Mechanics.
Lets you do extraordinary things.
Games provide reality.
Games are a metaphysical medium to experience mechanics within a world.
Showcase game mechanics with level design (Ex: Deus Ex: Human Revolution).
Stealth
Move things in levels
Multiple paths and ways to do things
Creative re-use of game mechanics.
Modify the mechanics to keep them fresh (Ex: Batman – Arkham Asylum).
Showcase the unique interactive nature of games.
This last talk, "Ten Good Principles for Level Design" was my most favorite by far. The speaker was extremely entertaining, clear, concise, had a great sense of humor, and had useful, memorable visuals for his slides. All of his videogame examples were spot-on and it was clear that he knew what he was talking about and had talked about all this quite a lot. He was extremely entertaining and all his points were well-delivered, memorable, and useful. He made me really excited to play some new games and implement his techniques myself. Overall it was a fantastic talk, and a great one to end with.
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