Game design topic Source type Primary/secondary Reliability rating
sound design video tutorial secondary 3
character dev website secondary 3
level design website secondary 3
monetisation website secondary 3
level design article secondary 3
concept art book secondary 3
strategies book secondary 3

Dark Souls 3 – Iudex Gundyr :
What environmental details encourage exploration of the level? This level does not encourage players to explore as it is an introductory boss fight
How does the level guide explorers without making it too linear? The player is guided to go straight to where they need to go in order to defeat the boss there is however some small areas to discover
Are there multiple paths to discover? There is no hidden paths or anywhere for people to explore and is pretty straight forward in order to follow the level
What are the goals or objectives that are presented in this level? The goal of this level is to defeat the boss in the level
Does the level encourage social interaction? The level is only solo and does not focus on multiplayer gameplay to defeat the boss
Does the level provide choices for non lethal or stealthy approaches? The level encourages players to use their knowledge of the bosses attacks in order to combat them and defeat the boss that is the main objective on the level

Fortnite Tilted Towers:
What environmental details encourage exploration of the level? With the location of tilted towers being a slightly small section it will encourage players to try and explore as fast as they can
How does the level guide explorers without making it too linear? The level makes sure that there isn't too many chests to open in just one building making players explore from one building to another and to fight other players.
Are there multiple paths to discover? Yes there is multiple paths to discover with all of the buildings to explore
What are the goals or objectives that are presented in this level? The goal for this level is to open chests and to fight other players
Does the level encourage social interaction? The level encourages social interaction by allowing players to party up with their friends from just solo up to 4 people in one squad
Does the level provide choices for non lethal or stealthy approaches? The level inlcudes multiple buildings that you can take cover in for a stealthy approach there is however not anything that you can use to have a non lethal approach

Borderlands 2 - Sanctuary:
What environmental details encourage exploration of the level? The level does not include anything too flashy as the levels has many missions to complete and so the environment cant be too distracting such as collecting the golden chest
How does the level guide explorers without making it too linear? The level makes sure that the players have a few things to collect such as keys in order to open golden chests that give better loot.
Are there multiple paths to discover? There is a few paths to explore on the level however they all seem to end up in the same location
What are the goals or objectives that are presented in this level? The goal for this level is to to get the key needed in order to open the golden chest that includes better loot than usual
Does the level encourage social interaction? The level encourages social interaction by allowing players to party up with their friends so that they can copmplete the level easier
Does the level provide choices for non lethal or stealthy approaches? The level does not include a non lethal approach or a stealthy approach as there is nothing to attack

CS:GO - Cache:
What environmental details encourage exploration of the level? Cache is a small close quarters map with many details on the buildings and cars around the map that give you a feel of a baron location
How does the level guide explorers without making it too linear? The level makes sure that there isn't too many distarctions on the way to the bomb sites and makes the paths to them easy to acces by both teams.
Are there multiple paths to discover? Yes there is many places to explore and take cover as well as there being 2 bomb sites so that it isn't always being placed in the same spot.
What are the goals or objectives that are presented in this level? The goal for this level is to either defuse the bomb, plant the bomb and kill the enemy team
Does the level encourage social interaction? The level encourages social interaction by making each team have 5 people as well as the option to play and queue with friends as well as Randoms so that there is always a moment to play
Does the level provide choices for non lethal or stealthy approaches? The level inlcudes multiple buildings that you can take cover in for a stealthy approach as well as many boxes and cars placed around the map to be stealthy at there is only a nn lethal approach if you just plant the bomb and dont kill anyone

Team Map creation

Feedback
Positives: Good spawn points, good cover points, amazing story, good boxes for ability to be stealthy, no clear team advantages, good tree in middle for depth
Negatives: No theme, need more boxes.

Review of Sekiro: shadows die twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is a very popular game having a 94% positive reviews on steam. The game mechanics that are included in the game are what people find to be the most interesting with this game especially the posture system where instead of having a health bar like most games Sekiro uses a posture bar where your stamina and composure of both your character and the enemies have, this includes things such as building up posture when you block and enemies attacks or if they block your attacks they gain posture. Successfully blocking and deflecting attacks will decrease your opponents posture and by doing so when they get to a certain amount left in their posture bar you can deal a deathblow to them. The stealth element of the game also is integrated seamlessly such as being able to sneak up on enemies listen to them talk to gather vital information and by allowing this in the game it allows players to decide how they want to pursue a certain mission the game also includes a resurrection mechanic where players can revive themselves from their death if they die once per encounter with an enemy. Overall the mechanics contribute to gameplay depth seamlessly despite how intricate they are and by making the player adjust to the new mechanics that they arent used to it encourages the player to keep coming back to the game to master all of the skills and mechanics that they can utilise.

Types of player styles

Competitive players play the game with the baseline of winning all of their games and trying to get onto leaderboards, these types of players prefer to play maps that are able to take cover easily and has lots of places that you can hold angles at a balanced weapon pool is also what they want the most as if they win with the same weapons as others it proves to them that they are better than the others who are using the same weapons they will also enjoy the engagement options in games such as voice chats or communications with their teammates with pings. These types of players hate open maps that expose you to the enemy very easily or maps that give you an advantage when you are on one team compared to the other such as a team starting off on high ground where you start all the way at the bottom leaving you exposed at all times. An example of a map these players would like is Dust 2 from Counter Strike and a map that these players wouldn't like is Shipment.

Tactical players rely on using their brains to strategise the win and find the best way that they can kill all of the enemies in the most efficient way these types of players like maps that can give them a vantage point to their opponents or multiple routes to intercept where their enemy is going to go these types of players hate maps that are close together and compact as it doesn't give them much space to think about how they want to deal with certain situations. Some examples of maps that they would enjoy could be things like Fortnite or Apex Legends as they are big maps that allow players to take multiple vantage points almost everywhere no matter where they are.

Snipers like to use the open areas of maps as it gives them a great vantage point on all of the other players such as high up mountains/hills or any area where they can achieve high ground on others and take shots without other players noticing as well as being high up these types of players also like it when they can take cover on the top of the mountain as if they are reloading on a mountain without any cover someone below them can easily snipe them too. Some maps these players would like is the entire Fortnite map as every season they make sure to keep the map nice and open nd having many vantage points for people who like to snipe. Maps these players would like is Shipment from Call of Duty.

Rushers like to play very aggressively and push as often as they can whether the enemy can hear them or not as they prefer the high paced gameplay where you can just run around and kill they enjoy to play on maps such as Shipment as it gives them the close quarters combat that they enjoy with enemies at every corner and it also includes a very non linear map design with multiple entry points throughout the map. Maps that these players wouldn't enjoy would be maps such as Train or Nuke on Counter Strike as it is a very large map.

Tank Players are players that are capable of taking damage and still carrying on with the game and not giving up, they like to have a defensive strategy whilst also attacking if they get the chance as well as having many locations where they can hold angles on the opposing players or get chokepoints. They love to play in tight corners or corridors as it gives them a direct path to the enemy and keeps the combat close range. These types of players hate maps that keep the combat in large open space areas that encourage long range fighting. An example of a map they would like is Inferno as it includes a lot of corridors and tight places. Maps they wouldn't like is Shipment as it is too close to get chokepoints.

Support players enjoy to assist their teammates with utility and healing as well as other forms as support such as giving out communications on where the enemy teams are and how close they are to them. They enjoy maps that can give them enough cover to not die and also give them a strategic position in order to heal at the same time that their teammates are healing they enjoy maps that orient around team based gameplay

Feedback
nice textures
nice models
good level design
good theme

Ori and The Blind Forest

This is the tree shown in the beginning of the game is known as the Spirit Tree and it is a central element. It is the source of all life in the forest and gives the character special powers that you can use throughout the game. The Spirit Tree represents hope and renewal throughout Ori's journey due to him having to try and restore it.

In photoshop I added the image of a tree I found on the internet
I then changed the hue of the image to make it look more blue like in the game and increased the vibrancy of the image after this i went to the filters tab and rendered in some lens flares to imitate the glow of the tree from the game that was falling down and then a larger glow in the middle of the tree like in the game.

Halo 3 - The pit

The pit is a multi level map giving players the ability the chance to go through many routes and walkways to hide or engage with the enemy each side of the map is identical in geometry and weapon placement with several of the power-ups and power weapons in the middle, There is also many strategies for this map .

Things to be included in games

Spawn Points are important for games as if players are spawning into the game at the opposite side of where all of the fighting is then it will make the game have less replay-ability as nobody wants to go travel across the entire map just to die and have to run back again however if spawn points are placed randomly throughout the map and spawns players in close proximity to others then they don't have to travel far.

Choke points are important as they are narrow pathways or any type of corridors or space that limits the amount that a player can move to and this can lead to the player having to come up with a strategy for any fighting that will happen in these types of areas.

Cover is important for games such as being walls or cover from the environment such as trees these types of cover are useful for the player as it can stop them from taking damage from the enemies temporarily or even just be used to sneak up to the enemy and so cover is important for the players safety and strategy.

Flanking routes are important as it allows the players to get behind the enemy and approach them by catching them off guard by just sneaking around them, flanking routes are also important as it means that all players don't have to go down the same pathways.

Line of sight is important as it allows for an area where both the enemy and the opposing player can see each other with no cover and this ensures that people dont just camp around the buildings and hide whilst other players run around the entire map to not find anyone.

Objective points are important as it allows for the player to go the location needed for example to capture the flag and return it to their base, these types of maps are good for replay-ability and is good for user engagement.

Verticality is good for maps as it allows for players to get to different levels for things such as snipers being able to get high ground and these types of elevation levels on a map allow for players to have to search around a bit and make sure that they aren't exposed to anything above them, this type of maps allow for players to have longer match to play as they have to try andfind everyone on each of the different levels.

Environmental hazards are good for games where players least expect something to happen to them such as having exploding barrels that look exactly the same as the non exploding barrels these are good as it can impact gameplay and make players not just think about the enemy but also look around the map.

Line of defense is good for maps that allows for areas to be more easily defended by players with things such as cover that can stop them from taking damage, this good for players that enjoy playing the game with a strategy in mind.

My guess of this maps different points on the map given to me, I chose these different spots as they looked the best placed in my opinion

Player Types

The most common player types in games are:
Competitive, Tactical, Sniper, Support, Tank, Rusher

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 - Terminal

Terminal is a medium sized airport that can be used for all types of game modes in MW2
as you can see in all of the images it has plenty of cover and a few choke points, the map also includes many layers of verticality with many levels on the map that can be accessed by all players. The map has multiple easter eggs that can be found throughout the map which makes players want to try and find everything possible on the map. The map includes many flanking points and open areas which allows for many medium and long range combat fights. The objective of this mode is to kill as many players as possible as it is originally made for a survival mode where the players start with just a shotgun and a pistol as well as a self revive. The spawn points are also placed equally from each other to ensure fairness. I would take the verticality from this game and use it in my own as it gives players the ability to use different strategies depending where they are.

Map design

Distinct Game Design Elements

Cyberpunk 2077 has some areas that have extremely bright lighting in some areas and then really dark areas in other places which can make it unplayable and unable for you to progress.

Dead Space 2 has some great lighting affects however as all of the places that are dark still have areas that illuminate the area well

Secondary Research

Game reviews are reviews of a game that somebody has done that lets people know how the game is and whether it is worth buying or not. Game reviews are important not only for the consumer but also for the developer as if the developers watch the reviews of the games and see a pattern between them all about the game being bad then they can try and fix it so that people see that they care about their community and are not just releasing a game solely just to get money. Game reviewers usually focus on the main points of the game such as how good the mechanics are, how good the story is if it has one and how the map interacts with the user, this could also include the negatives such as having to spend money in order to get better game mechanics. A good thing about secondary research is that it is completely free making it a cost effective way to learn about a game and what about it makes it good, as well as this there is also a lot of reviewers for games which makes it really easy to find lots of peoples opinions on a game and then see what they all think together that is similar and so they can see where the trends in the game are. Some negatives of reviews may be if they have been paid by the game developers to promote the game as this can create bias due to them being given the game for free and then paid for making a good review, as well as some reviewers using a game developers brand from previous games to add onto if the game is good or bad, this happened recently with Starfield which is made my Bethesda which has a bad rep however the game didn't turn out to be too bad and lots of players enjoyed it after they gave it a real go. Another negative with game reviews is that game reviews can change due to the game releasing new patches to fix bugs that were previously a massive issue such as in Cyberpunk.

Hogwarts Legacy got some bad reviews and people tried to boycott it because of the fact that the writer of the Harry Potter books in which the game was based on had said some things online that people didn't like or agree with. As well as this many reviewers complained about the fact that there is lots of long mundane quests that make you have to travel from one side of the map to the other side of the map just to progress throughout the story. From this site you can find multiple reviews from many people and you can clearly see that the game has really high reviews with multiple 9/10 reviews and scores above 4.8/5 stars showing that many of the negative reviews had been biased by people just because of who the game was associated with, this is one of the dangers of game reviews as someone's bad reviews just because of their biases can easily turn lots of people away from the game despite the fact that the game may be really good and they may enjoy it despite the people reviewing it, Video review of the game by Gameranx.

Online tutorials are important as it allows for people to find answers for their questions easily without having to wait a long time to ask somebody that they know for the answer, the fact that they are everywhere on the internet makes it extremely accessible for anyone to figure something out despite them not having any past experience. These tutorials can also allow people to learn how to do things that they may not have been taught before by their teacher for example and this can give them a beneficial edge to other users. Due to them being so accessible it means that there is a variety of lots of topics to be covered meaning that there will most likely never be a time when you cannot find something out about a topic. Some negatives of tutorials however can be people that post a new tutorial every day about something random that doesn't include any context on how to utilise what they are doing properly and what it would even be made to be used for leading to the quality of the tutorials actually slowing people down in what they are trying to create. Some positives of tutorials is that it will include peoples past experience and knowledge at a much higher standard than what you will be working ta which may make it easier for them to explain to the viewers how to do something and what actually happens after you do it and how you can utilise something well. As well as the viewer being able to learn at their own pace as if it is a video tutorial they can slow down the video or pause specific parts to see how exactly they did something.

Level prototyping for research involves making an early test build of a game or level so that you can test and evaluate the mechanics in the game or even things such as design concepts. These concepts are used for researching purposes so that the developer can get insight on what they need to improve into their game or what they should remove or add to make the game as best possible which will then build up to the final build of the game being the best thing that you can do.
Some negatives of level prototyping is that if the game is shared between friends or family then they may be biased and scared to tell you the truth about what to change in the game due to them not wanting to hurt your feelings, as well as this if you dont have 2 separate builds of the game such as the prototype and a build for what the game will be released as then it may cause some issues as some bugs may be forgotten about and left in the game. As well as this the prototype may recieve more updates than the actual release build and could waste time whilst other things could be happening.
The positives of this research is that prototyping is more efficient than building full game levels and instead only certain parts can be shown, another positive of this is that the prototypes can easily be modified to test concepts and mechanics without affecting the entirety of the game, issues and bugs will also be found and fixed which can mean that the risk of costly design mistakes in the final game wont be there.

Player surveys are research tools that are useful for gaining information about what players want to see in the game or what changes they want in the games such as updates to the mechanics or removing a mechanic that may be too overpowered such as a teleport mechanic that has no delay and can teleport you to anywhere you want to go to, these surveys are usually given to people who the developers think are in their target market so that their research is more beneficial to how they should make the game look feel and how the first glances of the game look.
Positives of this research is that is cost effective and can be done for completely free, and they can also reach a large number of people due to be being able to share the form to whoever you want to, these forms also included anonymity so that nobody is picked out and banned from playing the game if they say that the game is bad.
These forms can also include quantitative data which means that you can easily identify the trends of what people do and don't want to see.
Some negatives of this research however is the fact that people may lie just so that the developer doesnt get the correct benefits from the questionnaire as well as their being a biased responses if they are sent to friends. Closed ended questions are also not very good as you cannot get people to explain what is bad about the game and what to improve if there is only tick box answers to click.

Krunker shows multiple levels with equal spawn points and good routes to flank around on to the enemies and even has modes such as deathmatch and zombies shown below is some screesnhots of the maps and also the end screen once the game is finished showing your stats for that game. As you can see there is some levels that are completly open with someothers that are more close quarters maps.

Research Methods

One Primary research method is Playtesting.
Playtesting is a vital primary research method in game development as it involves real players engaging with the game at various development stages, providing valuable feedback finding any potential bugs or issues that are included in the game. This process serves lots of purposes as it offers direct insights into player interactions with the game pinpointing areas for improvement and ensuring a positive user experience. Developers use playtesting to refine game mechanics, level design, and overall gameplay by observing player responses.

One secondary research method is market analysis.
Market analysis is a vital tool for game development as it involves gathering insights from existing sources to view the gaming industry and the market of different game companies, target audience, and market trends. Market analysis keeps developers informed about current gaming trends, ensuring their games align with market demands. It also helps in audience segmentation by identifying demographics, preferences and behaviour, enabling the customization of games to meet player needs. As well as this it assists in evaluating the competition by studying successful games and finding unique selling points.

Feedback from peers for site

Great use of colour for the site, and you explain everything in a

great amount of detail, maybe date work? I'm not sure if you have to though.

nice background matches white text perfectly same with the red headers.

lots of screenshots and photos used to show work.

I Like the red headers good image to text ratio

Plenty of information for the tasks which includes some homework tasks as well

congrats on being the first person I've seen do homework, have a choccy milk :]

nice layout its easy to read and there's a lot of info

I like the colour scheme it works very well. you have a nice title and logo

your work is really organised which is good and your writing is clear and makes sense.

the pictures help envision what you are writing. your work is also really organised compared to

other ones and its clear which writing belongs with what piece of work you're working on

your writing all makes sense and is really detailed.

I like the ideas included and the images linked to the text

not really sure what to say is bad

good hyperlinks

maybe make text a bit smaller not sure though

Spiderman 2

Video used for gameplay
The level design contributes to player engagement by keeping the gameplay linear and straight forward when fighting enemies this keeps players engaged as it keeps them in the action and does not use many cutscenes at all so the player is always interacting with the game.

The role of the city of New York in the level design is useful as it allows for Spiderman to use all of the tall buildings in the city with his web swinging ability and the tall buildings all around allow for players to not only explore efficiently but fight in their own ways.

The game mechanics impact player engagement and level design by allowing players to try different combinations with the buttons that allows for mutliple attack methods and other things and this engages the player by allowing them to explore the mechanics as much as possible.

Underwater exploration

The importance of enhancing the atmosphere in underwater exploration levels is that it makes the game more immersive, this can be done by adding things such as the water making the vision be blurry/ having air bubbles that block the view if in a submarine of diving in the water, the fish in the water can also make it more immersive as there is no games that are about underwater exploration that include no fish as without it it wont feel right as everywhere in the ocean in the real world there is aquatic creatures everywhere and so removing a real world thing makes the game less realistic.
Submarines allow for exploration and looting and seaweed at lower depths when exploring can also interact with

Theme Selection

Now that I have a variety of different themes/genres to look through and pick, I think that I will pick a futuristic open world map with many interactable quests. The world will also be fully explorable and enterable everywhere, this can be done by using an auto generation map creator that has been used in some other open world games such as No Mans Sky which used map generation to create endless planets to explore. The interactions in the game will be similar to those in games such as RDR2 and Watch Dogs: Legion which is also an open world game that is based in the future.

Map design for open world map

Feedback for first version of map

You got colour to make out the different map design.
Could have structures in it.
Not a lot going on
Small map
Not much going on
Low detail
Looks like Ireland good ideas about random map generators not very much to see add some more POI's
Small map like 15% of the map is water like what's that about, and most of it is just empty would be good to make the map bigger and add more content to it.
Good design of the map just not interesting to look at.

Hogwarts Legacy Door Puzzle

The puzzle doors in Hogwarts Legacy allow for players to actually use their brains instead of just running around aimlessly following the long quests that are included in the game. The door puzzle is pretty simple once you understand the basics of it as you just have to look at the arithmancy tables and work out what the missing numbers are and whatever the missing number is for the ? on the missing symbol is what you change it to for the button thing on the left of the door.

Portal 2

In portal 2 it gives you the creative freedom to move cubes wherever you want to without limiting where you can place it as well as being able to place a teleporter anywhere you wish to this allows for every play through of the game to be different no matter how many times you play it, this allows for not only intractability but also replay ability for people which is good for the longevity of a game.

The Walking Dead Telltale

This game allows you to choose different dialogue options that will impact what will happen later on in the game depending on what you end up choosing and this is good for player interactivity this makes the game seem more immersive and as if you are actually a part of the story and creating the story with yourself experiencing it not just playing a game with the story already set in stone

Door Rotation

Finished BP_door blueprint

Finished BP_FirstPersonCharacter

Collectables

Key items - can unlock new areas of a map or allow a player to progress through the game to finally unlock a new item.
Power Ups - these can be things such as damage buffs or health buffs that allow the player to fight for longer.
Currency - currency can be used for in game purchases for example purchasing a weapon from a vending machine with gold in Fortnite

Chests

Chests can be very significant to the gameplay as a lot of games do not have random floor loot which means that players will have to either kill people with their melee or open chests in order to get loot.
The opening mechanism of the chest contributes
How does the opening mechanism of the chest contribute to player engagement?
Are there any sound effects that accompany the chest?
Is the chest seen frequently throughout the game or are they rare?

Unreal Engine Project with interactive doors and AI

Peer Feedback:

Name: Jamie Harris

Postitive: good textures used on the map, nice collisions and good interact-ability on the map, i also liked the addition of the wolf ai that runs after you and attacks you.

Feedback: could have tried experimenting with different things coming out of the gun or things that happen on impact after the gun has been shot such as exploding bullets.

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