Designing Gameworlds - IDG5160

General

Most games are built upon the spatial navigation of gameworlds (or levels) which determine how the player can progress from one point in the game to another. A game’s tone is often set by its gameworld(s) and the challenges it poses. Like real-world architecture, level design must take into account both visual impact and functional affordances of the artifacts it creates. Designers of gameworlds must anticipate players' diverse personalities and the emotions elicited through level design.
The course will cover the following topics:

• architecture and city planning theory, and how they are applied to level design

• persona theory, and how it can be used to create personalized level designs

• the emotions elicited within game levels based on environmental psychology, color psychology and cognitive psychology in general

• connections between game mechanics and game levels

• connections between narrative and game levels

• gameworlds in non-digital media: tabletop games, augmented reality, and playground games

• case studies of different game level designs

• hands-on tutorials on designing levels using paper, 2D or 3D editing software

• hands-on tutorials on designing levels using game engines

Please, check regularly the course plan for detailed information on lectures, tutorials, and project plan. Note that the course plan is subject to changes.

Final Assignment

Apart from class assignments (taking up 20% of the grade), 80% of the course grade is based on a final project (60%) and its accompanying report (20%). Both the final project and the report are individual (no groupwork, although you can discuss and inspire each other). The final project is a playable level, and the report describes the level from a design perspective focusing on one or more of the theories discussed in the class. Note that more details on the project will be provided towards the end of the lecture period.

The project is graded on:

1. Appropriate Scale: an ideal project has a level that is sufficient in size to show the theory substantially, and all parts of the level are well-done.

2. Adherence to Design Principle: an ideal project has a level perfectly exemplifies chosen theory, as argued in the report.

3. Technical Skill: an ideal project has no bugs, collision glitches, out-of-place elements, and has intuitive editor groupings

The report:

Should be at least 1000 words and less than 3000 words (around 2000 words would be ideal).

1. Must help describe the level: an ideal report highlights all relevant project strengths, connects practice to theory, focuses only on the right things.

2. Must show knowledge of the design principle: an ideal report shows comprehensive understanding and application of the subject matter.

3. Must correctly attribute background knowledge/assets: an ideal report should include all adequate references provided (including links to assets/code/tutorials used), and show evidence of considerable additional reading.

How to submit:

(a) An executable of the project, (b) the source files in the latest stable version of Unity and (b) a PDF of the report. It must be handed in during January 2022 (specific date TBD). Details of the delivery process (physical or virtual) are TBD.

Assets:

We have prepared a set of assets to help you with building levels for your projects in Unity. Please find the assets in different packages here, and use or combine any of the packages or use your own.