UE3 - General Level Design Theory - Engagement

[Hyrage]

I did post it previously on the Epic Games Forum, but I would like to get more feedbacks about it, because it is part of a Formation I'm writing since a few months about Game Level Design.
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Level Design
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To make fun maps is far deeper and more complex than most of us (I mean everyone) may think. It's all about taking advantage of the Core Gameplay Mechanics by creating maps that make them shine. The meaning of "taking advantage of the core gameplay mechanics" can be translated into "Make your maps as fun as it is humanly possible".

I'm not going to tell you "Level Design is this or that", but I rather suggest you to see Level Design from the following perspective and you won't find that anywhere else on the web unless you can connect dots; if you can understand what makes music, films, food or literature so great and apply all that to Video Games. There is no exception, they are all ruled by the same principles, life principles. It's just the same mechanics using different contexts.

So... to make a map fun, you must first understand what creates FUN; "Where does FUN come from?"

The answer comes from everything; psychology, sociology, memories, personal preferences and so much more. Each day you wake up and acts the way you prefer, the way you choose to do it... the way you love it; the way you accept to do it. Even if it is a bad day, your actions are all based on what you prefer to do. Life is a big experience divided by infinite sub-experiences. Life is ruled by natural Laws known for a long time, too bad most of us never really paid more attention to it, but there is one rule called the Law of Correspondence. If it sounds chinese; "A video game is an experience just like LIFE, but reduced in scale."

Basically, the only thing you should know is: a video game is an Experience. Now, how do we create a FUN experience? As I mentionned earlier, it is important to understand the Principle of Acceptance. A Player or a person can Accept ( positive - love - yes) or decline (negative - hate - no) an experience or a sub-experience. If Life is nothing but an Experience divided by sub-experiences, a video game is nothing but an Interactive Gameplay Sequence (core gameplay mechanics, music, sounds, story and everything else) divided by sub-gameplay sequences.

The Way we live an Experience follows a very specific structure or process to accept step by step everything we encounter. It indicates if you want "yes or no" to pass to the next step: The 7 Principles of Engagement.

The Challenge
It is nothing but the main goal. We didn't see or play it yet, but it needs to be created. Does it sounds fun?

If the player answers:

• YES - The player will pass to the next step
• NO - The player will find the goal dumb; he will not buy the game to start a level.

The Context
It is the presentation, the originality, the visuals, the image composition, how to orient a player through an entire level, the colors, the shapes and much more. How does that place look like? Can the players easily spot and Call to his partners all the specific locations? Does it take advantage of Communications (using a mic)?

A lot of FPS are using a similar Gunplay, but shooting Soldiers on foot is totally different than shooting Aliens from the top of a moving vehicle.

The Context is just the Presentation, so it may fake a Difficulty Level. By example, you may see 50 enemies jumping out from a building. It looks scary, but in reality... they are just really easy to take out, the the visual should never discourage a Player or distract him from the Experience.

If the player answers:

• YES - The player will pass to the next step
• NO - The player will think that the game looks like crap or remember that he did the exact same fight one hundred times before. He will shut down his platform.

The Action
It is the gameplay itself. How do you defeat the final boss? What must you do to solve this puzzle? How many repetitive jumps must you perform before you finally reach the top of the building to collect "X" Special Item. How difficult the Gameplay Sequence really is?

If the player answers:

• YES - The player will pass to the next step
• NO - The player may feel frustrated because it is too difficult, He may feel bored, because the gameplay is way too repetitive or just because any other FPS on the market does offer the same experience.

The Heart
What kind of feeling do you want your player to experience during your Gameplay Sequences? Fear, Stress, Surprise, Rage against a character... name them!! A player must be deeply involved in his action and he needs to feel it!! Feed him!

If the player answers:

• YES - The player will pass to the next step
• NO - The player may never find what is so unique and deep about your map. He may instead throw your game to the garbage.

The Results/ The Goodies
Cause and Effects, for his action, the player should be rewarded because he lost Health, Ammo and much more. You need something interesting enough to keep him continue.

If the player answers:

• YES - The player will pass to the next step
• NO - The player may never find his actions justified enough to keep playing your game. You are wasting his time.

The Perspective/ The Intensity/ The Time
Time.. time time time.... Yes, time is important. Time gives the intensity, time comes from changes, changes through actions. Once the player did get his Result, his "goodies" or his "little reward", only at that specific moment he will be able to perceive the TIME. Once he can perceive the time, the player can now get an idea of the Intensity, but he does only evaluate the Intensity of an experience by comparing it to his past Experiences. Time is also important, because it also give the Progression Curve.

If the player answers:

• YES - The player will pass to the next step
• NO - If it wasn't intense enough, the player will probably just forget your game.

The Realization, the True Reward

Call it the realization, call it the memory storage (DNA), call it the True Reward... what ever it is, it is the final step. The Greater each step is, the greater the Ultimate Fun will be at the Realization. The player can now close the bubble (experience) and put it among many others giving birth to a Global Experience. You may realize all the impact you can have by making something playable for all if everything can be experienced and registered in the human memory (or DNA)... it is a huge responsability.

The following principles of engagement are very similar to "how our human body works".

Because the player does have a memory, he doesn't evaluate a Game exclusively on what it is, but he constantly evaluate it based on all his past experiences. In other terms, if you want to be creative, you first have to know what has already been created. That's why it is better to play a lot of games. Another aspect of the 7 Principles of Engagement is to make sure that the Level Designer remains invisible to the eye of the Players. If the Player feels the presence of a Level Designer behind the map, the immersion breaks up. By example; that is mostly applied for Game Balance. When a Game Balance feels perfect, the player will never stop and ask himself.. "Why the hell this weapon is completely overpower? It's really frustrating!!". The Player stopped... got out of the game and thought it was bad... someone didn't do his job and the player had a bad experience.

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Why is that important to properly understand the Experience?
Because from that emerges all the Level Design Curves:

• Visual Variation Curve
• Gameplay Variation Curve
• Emotions
• Difficulty Curve
• Progression Curve (enemies, collectible, pickups, abilities and much more)
• And all the others including Geometry Flow, Gameflow and so on

In other terms, knowing all that gives you the Perfect Template you need to build your maps. What will the player do? For sure if you go deeper, you will need to find exactly "how must I use colors" or "how must I orient a player in a level" and such details. You may find everything you need by searching for Psychology (how do we react to image composition, colors and everything else of that sort).

Note:
When it comes down to Sociology, it is to understand who is your best Public Target. If you want to make a Popular Mod for UT3, you better know what the players are searching for, because even if you create the best Myst-like game... if nobody is interested... it will be an EPIC FAIL.

 

[Jetfire]

If you want to make a great Mod for UT3, you better know what the players are searching for, because even if you create the best Myst-like game... if nobody is interested... it will be an EPIC FAIL.

^^ If modding for public acclaim and player count were the only yardstick to measure success by? For UT3, sadly these days it is far from the primary reason. Your conclusion fails and cheapens the rest of what you had to say. Anyway, back to working on my apparently EPIC FAIL mod.

 

[Hyrage]

If you want to make a great Mod for UT3, you better know what the players are searching for, because even if you create the best Myst-like game... if nobody is interested... it will be an EPIC FAIL.

^^ If modding for public acclaim and player count were the only yardstick to measure success by? For UT3, sadly these days it is far from the primary reason. Your conclusion fails and cheapens the rest of what you had to say. Anyway, back to working on my apparently EPIC FAIL mod.

The only thing you should personally care about is what brings you happiness. If making that mod is the only thing you care about go for it. But if you make games or mods for yourself, than I really don't know why you did comment on what concerns "making games for others".

If you are making your mod to get more experienced, I don't see why you would consider who will play it at all. If you are making a mod for Myst-Life players, then you got your public target.

So in no case I see or understand what disappointed you so much in the final note... or should I change great mod for popular mod.

- Modif: I edited the first post, I hope it may help. Thx to Jetfire

 

[Sjosz]

I don't exactly know what your goal is writing this article, so please take the feedback with a grain of salt.
It seems that you are not entirely consistent in defining the role of a level designer as opposed to a systems designer, game designer. An overpowered weapon is not the level designer's responsibility, after all.


Points of interest:

- Do something about your grammar and syntax. You're not writing this in German, so there's no need to capitalize all those words in the middle of sentences. It doesn't contribute to your essay, and makes the inconsistency of your use of jargon all the more apparent.
- Standardize and cut down on the use of jargon. Nothing makes an article less interesting to read than constant use of words that have different or no context outside of the topic you're discussing, and have different synonyms or similar words used that may describe something different entirely. Gameplay experience vs. Core Gameplay Experience vs. Global Experience vs. Experience, Goodies vs. Reward vs. True Reward, maps vs. levels. It makes the article confusing to read and comprehend at the same time.
- Your analogy that compares your 7 rules of engagement to human physiology/bodily functions is both hilarious and terrible (IMO). I personally do not see why you even need such a comparison when you can easily just apply your rules to existing games. Analyzing a game using your rules and explaining how that all works together is a lot more fitting and a lot less vague than giving me a picture that makes me think the Challenge of a videogame relates to my crotch. (bluntly speaking, of course)
- A yes or no pass on individual rules without the context of other rules seems a bit black and white for a creative profession like a designer. A single no should not immediately constitute a failure.
- Some of the text seems a bit baffling to me. I don't wish to be negative about what you're writing, but the entire section under Perspective/Intensity/Time sounds too vague to make sense of. The section under Context should be clarified as well, since it's vague about what you mean.

I think that if you were to remove any sort of analogy where you compare game development/level design to life, and you actually applied your theoretical rules to an existing game so that you have a proven application of said rules it would be a lot more interesting to read for both developers and non-developers. Good luck with the article.

 

[Hyrage]

Thx Sjosz,

Well I must say you bring great points, especially on the grammar and syntax lol. I could also greatly simplify the "jargon", but that text is going to be part of a Formation using a specific Jargon so I couldn't really skip it here. I guess it also explains why it felt short, because it is mainly a resume, and everything would be explained later in the Formation like image composition, shapes and all the rest.

I do understand why you find the comparison hilarious, but there are plenty of books out there that you could find that may help you to understand the relation between both.. or I should say everything. The book "Flower of life" (it isn't related to games at all) could be a nice start or the study of Sacred Geometry. By example, our emotions creates electromagnetic field creating Geometry Shapes; that has been proven scientifically... recently.

That's why I mentioned that we may need to "connect the dots" at the beginning, because it is very deep. Maybe it would be less vague if I change the names for:

1. The Game (challenge/ gameplay or sub-gameplay sequence)
2. Graphics
3. Gameplay
4. Feelings involved
5. Classic Reward that the player will received
6. Time Factor
7. DONE

 

[Sjosz]

You might misunderstand what I said. It is not that I don't understand what you have written to a large degree, I can clearly see your intentions.
However, your intentions are most likely not met since you are very, very vague about the concepts you are describing.

It is a wonderful thing that you can go and 'connect the dots' between human physiology and your 7 rules of level design engagement, but doing simply that does not in any way clarify, exemplify or justify what your 7 rules are, how they work in an actual game, and if they are valid rules for level designers to be following.

The moment you can explain to me how me knowing that someone finds level design very similar to life, but on a smaller scale; and the rules to this theory are parallels to the way we humans work make me any more aware of what I can do within design, I'll start believing you. Right now this article does not at all convince me that your rules are valid or applicable.

Just because I can imagine how your rules *could* be true, it shouldn't mean that you get to write something very vague, outlining little more than the rules' names and basic contents of said rules and then ask of the reader to convince themselves that your article has merit, value or truth in it. Where is the reasoning behind your rules? How do you apply your rules? Why are your rules the rules I should be applying to the levels I build?

 

[Hyrage]

I thought it was very clear.

If you create a Game, to be fun it needs a fun Context, fun Actions, fun emotions and fun rewards with the right intensity and progression (what is based on Time) to finally be a fun Game or Gameplay or Experience.

Context
To be clearer, the Context includes everything that is related to visuals. Here again, it's absolute, nothing vague. Everything we can see on the screen; the HUD, the Characters, the 3D environment, the FX, the water, the lighting... well everything must be chosen properly. Everything must to not only be beautiful, but also interactive even if it is static because the player is probably moving. Plus everything that moves should be considered as a Factor adding more lines to your Image Composition. Plus, everything you do create must be created to produce fun, no exception.

Because you can't allow a player to think outside the box (quit his dream state while playing), because he must not be distracted, the whole level must be build in such way that what the player can see will lead him intuitively, because you should build the environment in a way the creates invisible lines in the image composition that will push the player in the right direction. By example, in a corridor, there is a door at the end on the right side and by placing objects on the left side it creates a curve, plus you add a light in the other room that enters by the door on your right and it becomes clear that the Path to the next room is on your right and from your angle... you never saw the door yet... it's too far. You could have used a repetition of lights on the wall or the ceiling that would also create an line in the image composition. Creating path for Bots doesn't look so complex? Have you ever realized that every moving object does create a dynamic line in the Image Composition of your Rooms? By placing your path in very specific way basing your perspective on various Camera Plans (player position and looking toward X location)... you can totally increase the composition of your Map to make it more dynamic, more interesting, more fun.

You can use color codes to orient the player too like specific climbable pipes or such, same goes for shapes. If the whole world is Circular it wouldn't make sense to build something totally straight unless it is part of the design to make straight lined objects (angular objects should I say?) to make them special in that world, but if it's just about the architecture it would be wrong if it doesn't make sense. Ex: Do you want a more agressive area? Something hotter? Than red, orange and yellow would fit very well.

As Designers, it's part of our job to culture ourselves about all that, because our job is to make games for others and if we don't know our Public Targets and how to entertain them we will never evolve. So we must balance the rythm (repetition) of your 3D Assets (did you put too much? not enough? Is there enough space to use it a fourth time? That room is very small, but compared to the rest of the level is must appear as being bigger or it would feel like a medium size map. You could add mirrors, if it's going to eat your performance then you might want to make the Architecture higher and adding ray of lights will make it feel even bigger because the ray of lights indicate that there is a sky and it will feel even larger because the player is going to be aware that there is a sky! Or... will the player realize that you copy paste three times the exact same room just with different colors? For sure he will, it will disturb him. You can use camera angles (player position and look in X direction) to make his opponent appearing weaker or stronger (lower or higher), the same way films are using that kind of Camera Angles to produce that same effect. Are darker areas looking more safe? That first depends of the main gameplays, but darker areas usually feel more safe, because the player feels less visible.

Originality is important, to bring something fresh and interesting have always been a key for great success, but to creates something original you must first have a great knowledge of what already exist, so the creator of the experience must be aware of as many experiences as he can. Originality doesn't only apply itself to a whole map, but to everything in it. If you map is composed of Rooms and Doors, you already have a problem. It is all about rooms and doors, there is nothing original and fresh in all that. You can transform you doors into many things; a half-opened door, a broken door on the ground letting the whole entrance totally opened, a broken wall instead of a door, a whole in a floor instead of a door, a Jump Pad instead of a slope or stairs, a slope of water instead of long boring normal slope or maybe it's an interactive shortcut that also use our logical sense!, etc. Your doors aren't doors anymore, you changed the Context... but in reality, there still are all doors mechanically talking. Here is a good example of turning something repetitive in a funny... well hilarious context.

The Thematic can play a big role in your map and may help you to reach a very specific public target if necessary and/or lose all the others. Is it about Star Wars? Underwater battles? Sci-Fie battle on antoher planet? Survivors on a lost space ship in space, cold battles in a snowy landscape, etc. Usually if you make something for a public target, it's because you are supposed to know what you are doing...

Thinking is a good thing, but we often forget a lot of things so in the best case you should really make Graphs about your map and right down in each case what you do place, where and how. For each location you should note if there is a sufficient number of Orientation Elements and if every location is easily recognizable & called by a teammate (Around the pipes! In the Red Sewers! In the small tower! Under-glass!!...). You can right down these names on your graph for each rooms and locations.

Etc.

There are tons of studies available in stores or for free on the web about the Image Composition, the Rule of Thirds and information about how colors influence our reactions. The better all this is, the more fun your game will be, because the Context is seen all the time and must still be fun after a few months.

Action
It includes everything related to it: rules, game mechanics, how do you play, what are the strategies and so on.

The geometry of your map defines not only the Visual, but also the player movements. You msut make sure that the player will not always walk, not always run or not always jump, you need to bring a lot of variations on the table and the player must not walk, run or jump the same way everywhere. We must give him different mechanics. A player could walk in a corridor, run down a slope, jump over an obstacle, jump down to another floor and then double-jump through a broken window (what is both Action and Context mixed together), crouch under an obstacle, crouch to pass in the vents, crouch to avoid a moving obstacle above his head, etc. You can right down the gameplays on paper or in a graph and realize what the player will do all the time and it will indicate you what could be change to become more interactive. Here is how you do what (action), not how it looks like (context), but you can take advantage of the context to increase the Gameplay. If there is ice everywhere, why can't we slide? If we are on Earth, why is there freaking Low Gravity everywhere... it should have a faster gameplay. If you are on a very huge planet, aren't we all supposed to jump less high or move slower? The whole geometry must fit with the rest to support the gameplay and don't let the walking appearing boring (slower, easier to get tired of walking).

Moving and jumping by example are fine, but you may add more difficulty gaps into your maps. There should be a place where jumping is just easy, another set of jumps that are Medium Difficulty and another set of Jumps that are harder or require a Wall-Jump. Variation, Progression and difficulty in one gameplay mechanic... how interactive is that? Does it also add shortcuts to your map that can be discovered? How cool is that?

The gameplay of moving can offers way more, it may also be used for exploration. Finding easter eggs, finding jump tricks, trying to find and remember all weapons, etc. It's an important part of the fun behind a map especially for replay value or for Fans.

Replay Value can be achieved by that or... adding a specific Gameplay Theme may be an answer depending of your Public Target, you may be allowed to design that. If your public target is mainly all old school shooting fan that hate interactive environment... don't create anything of that sort. Don't think they will love the idea, if they are old school shooting game fans it's because they have a preference for that... that's why they are that public target. So... in terms of Gameplay Theme, you could focus on underwater battles, aerial battles, you could just make each room using very specific themes (cover to cover, speedy battles, jumpy battles, etc), but whatever you do you must absolutely make it as great as possible because using Gameplay Themes is like a double-edged sword. If you screw it up, you screw it up badly because your theme is not only badly done, but the whole part of the map will really really suck. Playing against other players is fine, but can your Bots understand the Gameplay Theme of your map without looking stupid? Lucky for you if your map doesn't need bots.

Engagement Distance and Weapon Strategies... Each weapon does have his own range and characteristic, unless you play Halo that is mostly based only about range and situations. Does the number of players in a room does greatly affect the advantage of a situation? If yes, you will have to be twice as careful when you give space to your rooms to make sure there is a balance by adding covers, higher spots and such. If a weapon uses arc projectiles, palcing some kind of windows or holes in the top of the wall of a room will give the possibility to surprise your enemies by throwing grenades in it, BioRifle projectiles or Flak Cannon balls by example. The environment must offer a maximum of strategies. Can your weapons interact with the environement? Pass through walls, attract matters on the ground to increase the explosion of it's grenade (like the Grenade Launcher in the old game 'Pariah'), bounce on specific materials, etc. Make sure every weapon can be used differently everywhere in multiple ways (three at least at best). If the game already offers Weapon Combos, then it's great! it should be easier for you to find how to properly build the world to take advantage of the possible gameplays.

By building your geometry in a certain way and positionning your weapons/ pickups and powerups in very specific locations you may control the rythm. Because you placed many low walls or obstacles, the environment is going to be less favorable to jump and better to use the obstacles as temporary covers when in other locations it may be the complete opposite. You can slow down or accelerate the gameflow as you wish. If you want you player to move, jump or occupy a very specific location in the level, then you may force them to go there by adding Health, Powerups or anything else of that importance. Because creating the Context takes time, moeny and should be done for fun, it should be important to direct (orient) the players in sort that they can see every fun part of the map the same way as stated above, by placing your gameplay entities in a very strategic way. That way, everything is going to be optimized and valuable as well for the developer and for the player.

And could continue on many other points, but no more free time for me.

The Action is a very technical part that may require you to create Graphs illustrating per Location Maps the use of all the gameplays, how many times they are used (variation), how they are used (originality and variation), how hard they are (difficulty), which one is hard and which one is not (variation & progression), what are your key unique gameplays (originality and variation), etc. All about interactivity - fun.

It is usually what you should add on paper to create a very solid Level Design Document (LDD).

I hope it gave a better idea of how deep each Step really is... when I mentioned it was about everything related to Context, Action or Emotions... There is so many factors to consider, it would be hard to tell them all by heart.

 

[Wail of Suicide]

Counterpoint:

The enjoyablenessment of a Video-Game is expressed through the formula E = Fun^2 * pi * Ascendant astrological sign / Descendant astrological sign. Therefore and furthermore the key is to ensure that proper harmonious balance is achieved within the chakras of the celestial sphere with the Game Environment Experience-Architecture as well as within the Player Mind-Soul Matrix. Failure to do so is catastrophic, and as experience has shown, can even lead to Catastrophic Daikatana Regression.

It is also important to utilize the teachings of Feng Shui before the process of Level Design Theory has begun. Proper use of Feng Shui teachings have enlightened level design procedures in the Axis Mundi. Common examples are DE_Dust2 and Q3 Deva Station. When not properly incorporated into the Workflow Philosophy of a game level designer we can see meandering and aimless results much like Duke Nukem Forever, whose Pisces is forever dominant over Libra. Nostradamus tells us that "Whence the great duke / Took up arms after eternity / A great fire engulf the land / Anguish arises from many voices." From this we can conclude that the portents are an effective factor in the level designer's not only Level Design Process but also his forecast for game release dates.

The path to Level Designlightment is not one but manifold with the spiritual guardian spirits in the heavens. The following is a simple guideline to examinate what Player Expectations and align the Project Goals and achieve Spiritual Oneification.

Aries- Pioneer, independent, takes risks. Favors indie games with innovative concepts, or Soldier of Fortune games.

Taurus- Stable, physically secure. Enjoys turn based games with heavily reality-inspired terrain. Dislikes: Red meat, leather upholstery.

Gemini- Explorer of options. Likes games made by French people or with pastel color sets, but still willing to install EA games.

Cancer- Nurture, emotionally secure. Slightly overweight and self-conscious so requires sweets at regular intervals throughout levels. Notorious for the Tamagotchi Plague of '94.

Leo- Creativity, enjoy life. Still plays with Mario Paint for Super NES.

Virgo- Heals and serves. Prefers games with strong interpersonal element like Sims. Dungeon decor triggers powerful sense-ations.

Libra- Balance. Crossbreed between a Lion and a Zebra, incorporating the ferocity and power of a Lion with the stripeyness of a Zebra. One of the few people who enjoyed SimLife.

Scorpio- Catalyse endings, seek emotional depths. Very good at Ecco the Dolphin. Even when I used cheat codes to get to the final boss I could never beat that squid thing.

Sagittarius- Seek higher truth, work for justice. Fond of shouting "OBJECTION" and jabbing fingers at people while anime action backgrounds speed by.

Capricorn- Organize, manage, use power wisely. Enjoys Civilization and Godzilla-inspired games.

Aquarius- Trust intuition, honour humanitarianism. Frequently attempts to interject themes of goodwill selflessness into the middle of videogames, resulting in thousands of hours of gamers' lives wasted in torturously agonizing escort missions.

Pisces- Contemplate, seek spiritual oneness. Responsible for Seaman.


I hope this sheds some light on the subject for you. These are only a preliminary elaboration of the seven major chakras to Gameplay Impressive and the gameological protaculitude. Feel free to elaborate with any questions or comments.

Note:
ALWAYS check your horoscope before using subtractive BSP brush in UE3. Not doing so may reveal a fatal junction between Planetary Rotation and Solar Cycles. You would not want to begin a mod project only to have it reduced to ash from incinerating flames because you did not examine celestial signifiers.

 

[Hyrage]

So, based on your post...
You assume that I did give random names on seven point because I just love it would make sense because the 7 human chakras look so cool. You wrote different random characteristics, when I instead wrote the origins that point out all the necessary characteristics.

At the start there is no experience, only space for it, space for thoughts. Here is the process...

The creation of the Challenge
So it needs to be created, so we create a thing. We don't know yet how it looks like, play like, feels like... but it first needed to be created.

The Context
So we can't play that experience yet, it's not perceptible by our human senses. You need to create the Context, something perceptible.

The Action
Now that it is perceptible, you can finally interact with it directly.

Emotions
The actions triggers Causses & Effects and the involvement triggers emotional responses.

Result
Each action gives a result.

Time
It isn't over yet... The time factor becomes perceptible when the result is received.

Realization
Only once you take conscious of the time that gave you the intensity it gave you the necessary information to realize what that exprience really was and it now gives the possiblity to compare it to any other previous experiences you had, what gives to the present experience a very specific value of fun quality. Your appreciation does not only depend of how you liked every step, but also include that everything played in the past also count.

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By the way, if fun is subjective; can you tell me which step above isn't necessary to produce fun?

 

[Jetfire]

"Aquarius- Trust intuition, honour humanitarianism. Frequently attempts to interject themes of goodwill selflessness into the middle of videogames, resulting in thousands of hours of gamers' lives wasted in torturously agonizing escort missions."

^^ zomg so that's why I always play 'Light Side' in kotor, mass effect etc >.<

 

[Hyrage]

"Aquarius- Trust intuition, honour humanitarianism. Frequently attempts to interject themes of goodwill selflessness into the middle of videogames, resulting in thousands of hours of gamers' lives wasted in torturously agonizing escort missions."

^^ zomg so that's why I always play 'Light Side' in kotor, mass effect etc >.<

Yeah, and that's the Action - choosing. From the public target, one of the focus of the game is that.
happy you ^^

 

[Sjosz]

I am glad that Wail of Suicide understands what I'm trying to say.

 

[Mclogenog]

If E = Fun^2 * pi * Ascendant astrological sign / Descendant astrological sign, then Fun = ((E*Descendant astrological sign)/(pi*Ascendant astrological sign))^.5 where Descendant astrological sign can be replaced by N where N = R * Fp * Ne * Fl * Fi * Fc * L.

Nothing is complete without the Drake equation.

 

[Hyrage]

I am glad that Wail of Suicide understands what I'm trying to say.

What is the most funny thing is that "The 7 Principles of Engagment" doesn't tell you "fun is that", but it rather defines the path on the "how you may think to create fun".

it is more like the "philosophy of fun", because what is fun changes all the time due to all our past experiences, so you must always be up to date, because maybe tonight you'll gonna play a game that will so much use X feature that tomorrow nobody will be interested in.

That's why it may be a nice Template that indicates you what must be there to create fun.

Without a first thing, a challenge you have nothing.
Without a Context you can't interact with the thing.
If you have no action, there is no interaction, then no fun.
If you have no emotions then nothing is involved.
if you have no result, it is because you have no action, context and emotions involved.
If you have no time there is no changes, then you have no action.
If you have no realization... then it's because you have nothing LOLL.

It is totally logical, rather than "esoteric or spiritual" and I think it is just stupid to use the fact that too many persons are skeptical about that kind of stuff... so because I mentioned a relation betweeen the chakra system and their roles... it would make the 7 principles of Engagement less accurate; especially when it is mentioned at the end for the people who can connect the dots about it. If you aren't familiar with that, maybe it's time to learn something new about life.

Because it doesn't come from the mouth of a scientific, but rather comes from a very ancient group of people, is this less valuable?

For the application into games, I wrote a very clear post about it and a lot of professionals among the gaming industry strongly suggest to make graphs about everything you create to make sure everything is there for a reason and is balanced. Everything is already mentioned in the 7 Principles of Engagement with a very clear separation: Graphics, Gameplays, Emotions, Rewards, Time and Realization (compare your map to all existing map you know to see if yes or no it is fresh).

 

[Sjosz]

It is ironic.

You post an article and ask for feedback.

I give you feedback.

You defend your article against the feedback, whereas you could consider what I'm telling you as a professional designer, and adjust your initial post/article into something that encompasses your essay-like later posts in this topic to justify what you're typing in your first post.

But hey, no skin off my nose if you'd rather not. I can keep telling you that it is not about me not understanding your article, and that I understand your intentions, and that the problem with your article being confusing and downright trippy to read is because of an inherent flaw in your way of writing (grammar, syntax, spelling) and lack of being descriptive and clear, and you will not get the message.
I'm not trying to be a dick about someone else trying to put on paper good design principles, but if after several posts you keep to your opinion to say that your article is crystal clear and many other professionals agree with it, then I wish you good luck writing these things and I will refrain from trying to help you make your articles better in the future.

 

[Hyrage]

Than you probably got me wrong, because I wasn't referring to your criticism, but rather to Wail of Suicide post.

I already did agree with your criticism and you asked for more detailed explanation. I gave you more detailed explanations, but you never post back about it. However, I would like to know more, because you actually seem to always refer yourself to my first post.

I thought it was very clear.

If you create a Game, to be fun it needs a fun Context, fun Actions, fun emotions and fun rewards with the right intensity and progression (what is based on Time) to finally be a fun Game or Gameplay or Experience.

Context
To be clearer, the Context includes everything that is related to visuals. Here again, it's absolute, nothing vague. Everything we can see on the screen; the HUD, the Characters, the 3D environment, the FX, the water, the lighting... well everything must be chosen properly. Everything must to not only be beautiful, but also interactive even if it is static because the player is probably moving. Plus everything that moves should be considered as a Factor adding more lines to your Image Composition. Plus, everything you do create must be created to produce fun, no exception.

Because you can't allow a player to think outside the box (quit his dream state while playing), because he must not be distracted, the whole level must be build in such way that what the player can see will lead him intuitively, because you should build the environment in a way the creates invisible lines in the image composition that will push the player in the right direction. By example, in a corridor, there is a door at the end on the right side and by placing objects on the left side it creates a curve, plus you add a light in the other room that enters by the door on your right and it becomes clear that the Path to the next room is on your right and from your angle... you never saw the door yet... it's too far. You could have used a repetition of lights on the wall or the ceiling that would also create an line in the image composition. Creating path for Bots doesn't look so complex? Have you ever realized that every moving object does create a dynamic line in the Image Composition of your Rooms? By placing your path in very specific way basing your perspective on various Camera Plans (player position and looking toward X location)... you can totally increase the composition of your Map to make it more dynamic, more interesting, more fun.

You can use color codes to orient the player too like specific climbable pipes or such, same goes for shapes. If the whole world is Circular it wouldn't make sense to build something totally straight unless it is part of the design to make straight lined objects (angular objects should I say?) to make them special in that world, but if it's just about the architecture it would be wrong if it doesn't make sense. Ex: Do you want a more agressive area? Something hotter? Than red, orange and yellow would fit very well.

As Designers, it's part of our job to culture ourselves about all that, because our job is to make games for others and if we don't know our Public Targets and how to entertain them we will never evolve. So we must balance the rythm (repetition) of your 3D Assets (did you put too much? not enough? Is there enough space to use it a fourth time? That room is very small, but compared to the rest of the level is must appear as being bigger or it would feel like a medium size map. You could add mirrors, if it's going to eat your performance then you might want to make the Architecture higher and adding ray of lights will make it feel even bigger because the ray of lights indicate that there is a sky and it will feel even larger because the player is going to be aware that there is a sky! Or... will the player realize that you copy paste three times the exact same room just with different colors? For sure he will, it will disturb him. You can use camera angles (player position and look in X direction) to make his opponent appearing weaker or stronger (lower or higher), the same way films are using that kind of Camera Angles to produce that same effect. Are darker areas looking more safe? That first depends of the main gameplays, but darker areas usually feel more safe, because the player feels less visible.

Originality is important, to bring something fresh and interesting have always been a key for great success, but to creates something original you must first have a great knowledge of what already exist, so the creator of the experience must be aware of as many experiences as he can. Originality doesn't only apply itself to a whole map, but to everything in it. If you map is composed of Rooms and Doors, you already have a problem. It is all about rooms and doors, there is nothing original and fresh in all that. You can transform you doors into many things; a half-opened door, a broken door on the ground letting the whole entrance totally opened, a broken wall instead of a door, a whole in a floor instead of a door, a Jump Pad instead of a slope or stairs, a slope of water instead of long boring normal slope or maybe it's an interactive shortcut that also use our logical sense!, etc. Your doors aren't doors anymore, you changed the Context... but in reality, there still are all doors mechanically talking. Here is a good example of turning something repetitive in a funny... well hilarious context.

The Thematic can play a big role in your map and may help you to reach a very specific public target if necessary and/or lose all the others. Is it about Star Wars? Underwater battles? Sci-Fie battle on antoher planet? Survivors on a lost space ship in space, cold battles in a snowy landscape, etc. Usually if you make something for a public target, it's because you are supposed to know what you are doing...

Thinking is a good thing, but we often forget a lot of things so in the best case you should really make Graphs about your map and right down in each case what you do place, where and how. For each location you should note if there is a sufficient number of Orientation Elements and if every location is easily recognizable & called by a teammate (Around the pipes! In the Red Sewers! In the small tower! Under-glass!!...). You can right down these names on your graph for each rooms and locations.

Etc.

There are tons of studies available in stores or for free on the web about the Image Composition, the Rule of Thirds and information about how colors influence our reactions. The better all this is, the more fun your game will be, because the Context is seen all the time and must still be fun after a few months.

Action
It includes everything related to it: rules, game mechanics, how do you play, what are the strategies and so on.

The geometry of your map defines not only the Visual, but also the player movements. You msut make sure that the player will not always walk, not always run or not always jump, you need to bring a lot of variations on the table and the player must not walk, run or jump the same way everywhere. We must give him different mechanics. A player could walk in a corridor, run down a slope, jump over an obstacle, jump down to another floor and then double-jump through a broken window (what is both Action and Context mixed together), crouch under an obstacle, crouch to pass in the vents, crouch to avoid a moving obstacle above his head, etc. You can right down the gameplays on paper or in a graph and realize what the player will do all the time and it will indicate you what could be change to become more interactive. Here is how you do what (action), not how it looks like (context), but you can take advantage of the context to increase the Gameplay. If there is ice everywhere, why can't we slide? If we are on Earth, why is there freaking Low Gravity everywhere... it should have a faster gameplay. If you are on a very huge planet, aren't we all supposed to jump less high or move slower? The whole geometry must fit with the rest to support the gameplay and don't let the walking appearing boring (slower, easier to get tired of walking).

Moving and jumping by example are fine, but you may add more difficulty gaps into your maps. There should be a place where jumping is just easy, another set of jumps that are Medium Difficulty and another set of Jumps that are harder or require a Wall-Jump. Variation, Progression and difficulty in one gameplay mechanic... how interactive is that? Does it also add shortcuts to your map that can be discovered? How cool is that?

The gameplay of moving can offers way more, it may also be used for exploration. Finding easter eggs, finding jump tricks, trying to find and remember all weapons, etc. It's an important part of the fun behind a map especially for replay value or for Fans.

Replay Value can be achieved by that or... adding a specific Gameplay Theme may be an answer depending of your Public Target, you may be allowed to design that. If your public target is mainly all old school shooting fan that hate interactive environment... don't create anything of that sort. Don't think they will love the idea, if they are old school shooting game fans it's because they have a preference for that... that's why they are that public target. So... in terms of Gameplay Theme, you could focus on underwater battles, aerial battles, you could just make each room using very specific themes (cover to cover, speedy battles, jumpy battles, etc), but whatever you do you must absolutely make it as great as possible because using Gameplay Themes is like a double-edged sword. If you screw it up, you screw it up badly because your theme is not only badly done, but the whole part of the map will really really suck. Playing against other players is fine, but can your Bots understand the Gameplay Theme of your map without looking stupid? Lucky for you if your map doesn't need bots.

Engagement Distance and Weapon Strategies... Each weapon does have his own range and characteristic, unless you play Halo that is mostly based only about range and situations. Does the number of players in a room does greatly affect the advantage of a situation? If yes, you will have to be twice as careful when you give space to your rooms to make sure there is a balance by adding covers, higher spots and such. If a weapon uses arc projectiles, palcing some kind of windows or holes in the top of the wall of a room will give the possibility to surprise your enemies by throwing grenades in it, BioRifle projectiles or Flak Cannon balls by example. The environment must offer a maximum of strategies. Can your weapons interact with the environement? Pass through walls, attract matters on the ground to increase the explosion of it's grenade (like the Grenade Launcher in the old game 'Pariah'), bounce on specific materials, etc. Make sure every weapon can be used differently everywhere in multiple ways (three at least at best). If the game already offers Weapon Combos, then it's great! it should be easier for you to find how to properly build the world to take advantage of the possible gameplays.

By building your geometry in a certain way and positionning your weapons/ pickups and powerups in very specific locations you may control the rythm. Because you placed many low walls or obstacles, the environment is going to be less favorable to jump and better to use the obstacles as temporary covers when in other locations it may be the complete opposite. You can slow down or accelerate the gameflow as you wish. If you want you player to move, jump or occupy a very specific location in the level, then you may force them to go there by adding Health, Powerups or anything else of that importance. Because creating the Context takes time, moeny and should be done for fun, it should be important to direct (orient) the players in sort that they can see every fun part of the map the same way as stated above, by placing your gameplay entities in a very strategic way. That way, everything is going to be optimized and valuable as well for the developer and for the player.

And could continue on many other points, but no more free time for me.

The Action is a very technical part that may require you to create Graphs illustrating per Location Maps the use of all the gameplays, how many times they are used (variation), how they are used (originality and variation), how hard they are (difficulty), which one is hard and which one is not (variation & progression), what are your key unique gameplays (originality and variation), etc. All about interactivity - fun.

It is usually what you should add on paper to create a very solid Level Design Document (LDD).

I hope it gave a better idea of how deep each Step really is... when I mentioned it was about everything related to Context, Action or Emotions... There is so many factors to consider, it would be hard to tell them all by heart.

If that isn't clear enough, I would love to know what clear means to you, because it's what I mentioned in the first post, but in details.

The Context
It is the presentation, the originality, the visuals, the image composition, how to orient a player through an entire level, the colors, the shapes and much more. How does that place look like? Can the players easily spot and Call to his partners all the specific locations? Does it take advantage of Communications (using a mic)?

A lot of FPS are using a similar Gunplay, but shooting Soldiers on foot is totally different than shooting Aliens from the top of a moving vehicle.

The Context is just the Presentation, so it may fake a Difficulty Level. By example, you may see 50 enemies jumping out from a building. It looks scary, but in reality... they are just really easy to take out, the the visual should never discourage a Player or distract him from the Experience.

The Action
It is the gameplay itself. How do you defeat the final boss? What must you do to solve this puzzle? How many repetitive jumps must you perform before you finally reach the top of the building to collect "X" Special Item. How difficult the Gameplay Sequence really is?

Were you waiting that I go deeper into what X color does what? What type of architecture does what? The methods perfectly orient a player?? I don't feel the need to if there is already tons of books in stores about psychology, arts, etc and even free information on the internet.

However it may be realted to game here, these 7 principles of Engagement are only about creating an entertaining experience... what could be evertyhing, not just games. I think it is a very nice point to share.

 

[Sjosz]

So quote him instead of me.

Than you probably got me wrong, because I wasn't referring to your criticism, but rather to Wail of Suicide post.

I already did agree with your criticism and you asked for more detailed explanation. I gave you more detailed explanations, but you never post back about it. However, I would like to know more, because you actually seem to always refer yourself to my first post.

If that isn't clear enough, I would love to know what clear means to you, because it's what I mentioned in the first post, but in details.


Were you waiting that I go deeper into what X color does what? What type of architecture does what? The methods perfectly orient a player?? I don't feel the need to if there is already tons of books in stores about psychology, arts, etc and even free information on the internet.

However it may be realted to game here, these 7 principles of Engagement are only about creating an entertaining experience... what could be evertyhing, not just games. I think it is a very nice point to share.

... and adjust your initial post/article into something that encompasses your essay-like later posts in this topic to justify what you're typing in your first post.

1. I believe I do reply to your explanation, though calling them essay-like posts probably masked that a bit. You should incorporate the example in the later post into your first post so that it makes a lot more sense.

2. You are writing an article. You are making assumptions with regards to psychology and sociology etc. yet you demand from the reader that if he wants to makes sense of your article or the references you make to said subjects that they go out and read books covering those subjects first. This is not the way a thought provoking or discussion inducing, or even educational essay/article works. You don't even cite source material for the references you're making. What you're doing here is writing a piece on something that is based off of all sorts of source materials that we as the public readers have no way of knowing you used unless we know said source materials before reading this article, OR if you cite the sources you're using. (that is, assuming you have sources like that, and are not pulling all of this out of your ass. Giving you the benefit of the doubt here)

3. You name the topic of your thread Level Design Theory, you introduce your post with stating that you're writing an article on Game Level Design, but now somehow this article is about any and all experiences in life?

 

[Hazel.H]

Totally agree, it's quite similar to my all-inclusive chakrealed theory

 

[Mclogenog]

What? No Decal chakra?

 

[Hyrage]

1. I believe I do reply to your explanation, though calling them essay-like posts probably masked that a bit. You should incorporate the example in the later post into your first post so that it makes a lot more sense.

2. You are writing an article. You are making assumptions with regards to psychology and sociology etc. yet you demand from the reader that if he wants to makes sense of your article or the references you make to said subjects that they go out and read books covering those subjects first. This is not the way a thought provoking or discussion inducing, or even educational essay/article works. You don't even cite source material for the references you're making. What you're doing here is writing a piece on something that is based off of all sorts of source materials that we as the public readers have no way of knowing you used unless we know said source materials before reading this article, OR if you cite the sources you're using. (that is, assuming you have sources like that, and are not pulling all of this out of your ass. Giving you the benefit of the doubt here)

3. You name the topic of your thread Level Design Theory, you introduce your post with stating that you're writing an article on Game Level Design, but now somehow this article is about any and all experiences in life?

1. I agree, but unfortunately I have no intention to update the first post. I would rather spend that time on the formation itself and then make it publicly available for everyone for free, sources included to make sure everything is clear. I will probably work with a friend of mine, a Game Designer at my studio, to get a better grammar...

2. I agree for the sources, but while discussing about something... if someone wants to argue he usually also bring valuable arguments on the table.

3. I think it is a very interesting question. As stated in the first post; it purely describes the process of creating an experience (game) or a series of experiences (gameplays), not just games. So it can be applied to music, films, literature, sports, or anything else that can be called "experience", because they are all generated by the same logic or principles. I wrote it most especially for games and used games as an example to better understand it. It would have been very confusing if i was using sports to describe the context, cooking for actions, etc. I thought it would have been better to stick with games and use a few life comparisons on the table to clearly show that it is no different for any other fields of study, just like psychology helps us to understand how to orient (or manipulate the mind of) a player, but psychology isn't Level Design, isn't it? Arts aren't psychology. Films aren't psychology. It's just how it works. By example, you may never find a video game that doesn't require you to Aim (select) something to interact with. You always have to place your character in front of an enemy, aim at a target to shoot it, select (aim) the right Sentence to answer or influence a Conversation, aim to put a block in the right spot, aim (time) your note with the right timing, etc. You always need to aim because you must interact with something that is perceptible, the context is just different all the time, but the mechanic remains the same. Whatever you do with your own body or everything else you could possibly do, you always aim to perform an action, move a finger, place your feet while walking, look at the right target, press the right key on the keyboard, kick the guy in the balls to save your ass, place the right word at the right moment while cruising a girl in the bar, do the right thing at the right time to avoid many problems during your "X (game, film, etc)" production, etc. Same can be applied while you are thinking, you aim at the right thoughts.

I'll go a bit deeper in the subject...
If you master different field in your life, you would quickly discover that what you can learn in one field is very similar in another field, but simply applied in a different context. Music composition follows the same principles as film creation or cooking new recipes. Fighting games and martial arts also follow the same mechanics. Maybe you won't believe me, but I was deeply involved in both competitive gaming (shooter games) and combat sports at a very high level and can now affirm that both follow the same principles & share the same mechanics just on different range (context). That natural fact is mostly called "correspondence", it's just a natural law. The very ancient teachings behind "The Kybalion" explain it beautifully as well as other life principles and for everything that exists, they are all ruled by those laws. So it is a real opportunity to know them and apply them (the higher VS the lower) in our lives as well for others. I would suggest you to read about The Kybalion for sure, but what you will find in there is very heavy stuff, it's deep and it could sound chinese to a lot of people.

Totally agree, it's quite similar to my all-inclusive chakrealed theory

LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL