Exercise One: Camoleon - Completed

The final project of Semester one was the completion of 'Cameleon' my unique game concept revolving around the theme of camouflage and stealth. I can't help but feel this project got neglected a bit compared with the other two in Exercise Two. It's a shame too as towards the end I realised what an interesting concept this would have been to explore and build on. Perhaps I'll revist it in the future.

The project is presented over two A3 sheets, one sheet is the rough outline and introduction of the concept, explaining the key features and mechanics. The second sheet is a quick sample stage demonstrating proof of concept. Both presentation sheets feature a 360 controller diagram with instructions labelling it. I thought the fact the game only used three buttons was an important thing to point out as the simplest games are often the most popular amongst wider audiences.

One big difference between this stage and the other two is that this game is 2 dimensional. In a way it's easier to draw a two dimensional stage (it requires alot less annotations too) and it doesn't require complicated 3D diagrams. 

Conclusion: Despite spending little time with this project, I actually really like the concept and would consider delving deeper into it at some point. I seemed to put most my energy into Exercise Two as it felt like those were the two that would be most useful to show in a portfolio, to show I can work within limitation of a concept but still express my creativity. 

Exercise Two: Voodoo Dungeon - Completed

The next project I completed was the second half of Exercise Two, my Legend of Zelda dungeon based around the Carry/Voodoo Ball. The Voodoo Dungeon is a a three floor level, the objective being to reach the end boss like other Zelda dungeons. There are mini-objectives to reach this main objective, the most important being the capture of the Houngan's with the Voodoo Ball and carrying them to the main hall before firing them into the giant masks mouth.

The level is presented over three A3 sheets, one sheet per floor of the dungeon. Each floor has its only 2D top down perspective map with a key for all the icons and a 3D room layout of the more complex environments (usually rooms with puzzles). My main focus of this level was to show how versatile the one mechanic I added could be to the gameplay. There are various different uses for the Voodoo Ball demonstrated in both combat and puzzle solving. To keep things fresh I also tried to make sure the rest of the mechanics (hookshot, bow etc) were used in conjunction with my own concepts. As with God of War, a typed level walk through will be attached with the level designs with an in depth explanation of every room, puzzle and environment description. 

Conclusion: This brings Exercise Two to a close. Zelda was a very different type of game to design for compared to God of War. With Zelda I had to think alot more about the environments and puzzles rather than the combat mechanics. Infact, I'd say besides the bosses I didn't even give the combat much consideration at all. Also worth mentioning is it was interesting to do visuals for the presentation on both these games. I used a Zelda-esque colour scheme of greens and yellows for the Voodoo Dungeon and an older, orange and brown pallet for God of War. I imagine if I had the chance to revise all the work on these levels I would change alot. I would especially have liked to add more hidden areas and clearly illustration for a few objects.

Exercise Two: Hyperion’s Prison - Completed

The first thing I finished was the first half of Exercise Two and that was designing a level in an existing video game but implementing a unique mechanic of my own creation. The first one I finished was God of War with my Achillies Armour mechanic. The level is approximately 45 minutes of playtime and is about 50% combat, 20% puzzles and 30% exploring, climbing and platforming. 

The stage is presented over two A3 sheets, the first demonstrating the stage in its whole from a top down 2D perspective complete with a key on the right. Also on this page is some quick bullet point notes on the Achillies Armour and below that is a ‘Pacing Chart’. The pacing chart is something I had seen designers on previous God of War games talk about during development videos so I thought it would be worth doing one myself. The idea is to never let the pacing drop too low and if it does something should be introduced into the level to bring it back up.

The second page took a while longer than the first. The idea was to take the rooms from the 2D map that were difficult to communicate from a 2D perspective and draw them in 3D with annotations. The decision to do this came from the earlier ‘Reverse Level Design’ project when I had trouble communicating a more complex room layout in 2D.

To go along with the two level pages I will also type a level walkthrough with details regarding every room on the map. That along with the two map pages should hopefully be enough for anyone to pick up and understand the entire stage.

Conclusion: Overall I’m glad I picked God of War for this exercise. Although there were limitation on my creativity regarding the mechanics this level has taught me things the others haven’t. Unlike Zelda, God of War is a fast paced, adrenaline pumping game for the masses. It’s important to make sure the game doesn’t slack but it’s also important the game doesn’t repeat itself or start to feel tedious. I tried to make sure the puzzles and fights are placed appropriate in the stage so the player never feels they’ve had a bit too much of one thing at once.

Exercise Two: Hyperion’s Prison

Just like the Voodoo Dungeon, I first drew up some concepts and locations by end before fiddling about in Maya to create a 3D model roughly interlinking rooms and demonstrating a sense of scale. God of War is more restricted in terms of design; combat is the most important theme of the game so alot of the areas need to combat arenas.  Between the combat there are some puzzles or short platforming sections.

One of the best bits about the franchise had been the sense of scale in the visuals and environments. With that in mind wanted to have that focus on scale and ways to portray that scale. The objective of the stage is to steal an item on a platform directly above the location of Hyperion’s prison, where the light is brightest and most dangerous.  At the very start of the stage the player is overlooking the prison, they can see the location of the objective far in the distant and they know their goal is to slowly make their way over to it, exposing themselves to more and more danger the closer they get.

The armour isn’t obtained till about halfway through the stage. The decision for this is the player would not fully appreciate it’s abilities without first witness the danger they would be in without it. The first half is getting closer to the objective and seeing the intense power of the light Hyperion emits, turning enemies to dusk upon contact. The player is at just as much risk and must spend that time avoiding deadly exposure. Once they obtain the armour however, after feeling the brutality of Hyperion’s light they will feel powerful and rewarded from being able to survive that intense power for prolonged time.

Exercise Two: Voodoo Dungeon

After I generated some puzzles and concepts for the Voodoo dungeon I started piecing things together to make very rough map outlines. I decided I would try something new in designing levels for this semester so thought it might be useful to very quickly block out shapes and sizes in Maya. I drew up some shapes and rooms to get an idea of the scale and overall shape on the dungeon. From there I could rotate them camera up 90 degrees to look straight down on the stage and import the image into Photoshop.

This very quickly gave me something to work from, I could annotate and draw notes on each room of the model and add/subtract areas I saw appropriate. With all the annotations and adjustments made I could start drawing around the model to fill out a 2D map of the 1^st floor of the dungeon. I hadn’t decided exactly what the contents of each room would be at this stage, so as I went along and filled in each room I brainstormed and came up with some different puzzles and obstacles the rooms could have.

From my earlier Reverse Level Design exercise, I knew it was important that my level should be communicated efficiently to anyone who read it. When I reverse designed God of War I soon found out that rooms with trickery geometry and puzzles were very difficult to communicate from a top down perspective. The most obvious solution would be to draw a 3D map of the stage but with the size of this dungeon, a full 3D map would just look too confusing. Instead, I decided to take the rooms I felt might look a bit confusing from a flat down perspective and created small 3D diagrams of their interior, making it (hopefully) alot clearer and easier to understand. 

The diagram on the left is the original version of the room on the right. The perspective seemed a bit confusing so the room diagram was recreated from a clearer perspective on the right.

I knew I had to come up with an overall objective for the dungeon and not just sorely rely on the ‘Get Boss key, beat boss formula’. Taking into consideration both the Carry Ball and the Voodoo theme of the dungeon I created a concept where the player would have to catch three Houngan (Male Witch Doctors) and carry them into cells which they would then have to present in the main hall of the dungeon to make the path to the boss. The boss of the dungeon could be either the leader of the Houngan’s or some kind of entity they worship. The important point in this objective is that the player needs the new special item to complete the dungeon, so it’s not just a secondary pointless object.

The first floor of the Voodoo dungeon is an introduction to the setting/feel of the stage before the real objective is shown to the player. I selected some of the basic Zelda mechanics (hookshot, bombs, bow etc) that the player would have at this stage of the game. The range of equipment the player has for this dungeon would probably place it mid-way into a full Zelda game.

I got the basic shape of the 2D map from the blockmap I created in Maya and then added the little icons to represent items or enemies. I created several unique mechanics for the Voodoo dungeon; the two worth mentioning are the Voodoo Portals and Voodoo Curses.

The Voodoo Portals are large masks on the walls of certain rooms. When awoken their mouths open revealing a green portal inside which the player can step into. The portal will take player to another Voodoo Portal somewhere else in the room. This mechanic is introduced on the first floor very briefly in Room 8.

The Voodoo Curses will be introduced on the second floor. They basically manipulate the environment into a confusing puzzle and the player must locate the mask that controls the curse and shoot it with an arrow. Doing so will return the world to normal. A similar idea takes place early in the dungeon in Room 2, the entrance hall. The large entrance door can only be opened by shooting the correct masks littered around the hall.

The second and third floors will revolve mainly around catching the Houngan’s which will open the pathway to the boss and the end of the dungeon. Whilst revising or populating some of the rooms I made sure that all of the equipment the player has is used regularly to make sure the dungeon has variety and surprise. 

Exercise One: Mechanic Development

At the same time as Exercise Two, I have been exploring the mechanics I picked for Exercise One several weeks ago. For each mechanic I brainstormed the ‘character’ a game concept could be based around, the tone and age demography and different ways I could use the mechanic. From the brainstorms I drew away the key points and notes.

For the Morph Ball, some of the key points I explored were perspective (either making a 2D or 3D game) and the use of secondary character. One of the points I discovered was the transition between Morph Ball and normal mode is almost like two separate characters so I thought, why not literally make it two separate characters? The concept I drew from my notes is some kind of 2D, puzzle/platform game where the two characters both have different uses.

The Octocamo was another mechanic I explored, I knew the key for this was finding unique uses for the camo and exaggerating its power. I thought as well as taking the camouflage the player character could also take the element/texture. So if they were to take a metal texture the character would literally become metal. Each element could have different uses to solve or get around the environment.

The others had slightly less interesting results, for Game Speak I developed a concept where the player would have different languages to talk with different species in the environment. They would have to talk in game to get out of situations or get NPC’s help. Right now, the next challenge is picking a concept I will actually take and develop a level around.

Exercise Two: Finalized Mechanics + Level Concepts

After further thoughts and input from some outside influences + opinions, I have decided upon the two mechanics I will be using for each game. For God of War, I have selected ‘Achillies Armour’. It really boiled down to the Sickle or the armour but I could think of more gameplay scenarios revolving around the armour.

I scrapped the Hades Helmet early on because I thought it would be pretty boring and unfulfilling to use as most of its perks are performed automatically by the NPCs.  I decided against the Mjolnir and Sword of Attila as there are already similar weapons on previous God of War games. So really, it was between the remaining three. The shield was next to go, first and foremost because the armour did the same job but the player wouldn’t have to be weapon-less whilst using it. I also had to try keep the appropriate God of War tone. Kratos is a character fuelled with rage and violence and him using a shield to protect himself didn’t gel as well as the other ideas.

To be honest, the decision wasn’t that difficult between the armour and sickle, I picked the armour because I’m already exploring Portal mechanics in Exercise One and wanted to make sure my work has some variety. So the Achillies Armour is the winner here.

Picking the Zelda mechanics were a little trickier as I thought I had several potentially interesting ideas to pick from here. First to the bin was the Climbing Claws. Although I can imagine some interesting segments using them, they’re pretty uninspired compared to some of the other ideas. Next was the Fairy Container, no real reason for chucking this one I just didn’t take a shine to it. I quite liked the idea of using the Spear in some of the level mechanisms but the scenarios in which you would have used it would feel incredibly contrived. 

I decided against the Magic Flute as it felt like it was giving me more work than I really needed to take on. So between the Magnetic Poles and Carry Ball, I had to write and see for which of the two I could think of the most secondary uses for it. Between them both, the Carry Ball won.  So the Armour and Carry Ball are the two selected mechanics for both games for which I will create a level design for.

It didn’t take me long after making those decisions to come up with concepts for a level. I knew for the Armour I wanted a level which would constantly expose the player to something dangerous that only the armour would protect them against. I quickly thought of the idea of Light or Heat. The movie ‘Sunshine’ (a film about astronauts travelling to the Sun), gave me the idea of the level I wanted. 

Keeping with God of War’s canon, I searched for a Greek God or entity that had the power of Sun or Light. Obviously Helios is the God of Sun in Greek Mythology but he has already been a reoccurring character in the franchise so I sought for something different. I found that the Titan Hyperion was the Titan of Light, also the father of Helios. From my knowledge Hyperion hasn’t made an appearance in the franchise as of yet so I thought that would be a good starting place.

Now in Greek Mythology, Zeus imprisoned all the Titan’s at the very pit of Hades in Tartarus. That gave me the idea that the level would be Hyperion’s Prison in Tartarus, over the years Hyperion becoming so furious and insane from imprisonment he emitted an intense light around the area. I drew some rough sketches and notes for the stage.

I wrote up a list of all the God of War play mechanics and tried to link them together to randomize and generate some order and time each mechanic could be used in the level. At the very start of the stage I want the player to see the scale of the stage from above it, so they know exactly what they are descending into.

My concept for the Zelda dungeon didn’t come as immediate as the God of War one did. I wanted to make sure the Carry Ball would get the right amount of expose so it had to be a dungeon where you had to shrink and carry things around.  Initially I drew similarities to the Carry Ball being like a giant Poke-Ball but it carried objects as well as living things but somebody made a passing comment about how it was like Kirby (a Nintendo character who sucks enemies up and spits them out). The idea of the item being alive instead of just an object seemed infinitely more interesting.

So with this idea of the Carry Ball being ‘alive’ in some way I gave some thought to scenarios. I thought maybe the item might once have been a person who had a curse put on them. Then I had to consider who would have the power to put a curse like that on someone. After a series of convoluted thoughts I came up with the idea of a ‘Voodoo themed dungeon.’ The Voodoo dungeon would have a series of curses on the rooms the player would have to solve, as well as enemies and environments being themed after witch doctors and Voodoo culture.

So with both concepts in mind, over the coming weeks my primary task is to come up with all the puzzles and environments for these levels before finding a suitable method of presenting these concepts visually. 

Exercise Two: Legend of Zelda Mechanic Concepts

Like before I brainstormed numerous mechanic possibilities for a 3D Legend of Zelda game, mainly with a dungeon item in mind that I could use to design puzzles and obstacles with. Unlike God of War I could be alot more free and unique with the Zelda mechanics without worrying about make sure the equipment had to all be combat based.

1. Magic Flute: The first concept is a Magic Flute, an item which allows the player to control NPC animals in close proximity. When played near one of these NPCs, they will follow and assist the player until the flute is withdrawn. Different NPCs will have different unique powers that can help the player, e.g. a large animal might help you lift a heavy object etc. When playing the flute enemies will stop attacking the player and dance.

2. Magnetic Poles: Two large magnetic poles. When activated the two are inseparable. The player can place the two magnetic poles in specific spots and activate the poles at any time. If the player is holding the other stick when they activate it they will be pulled towards the other pole. The magnetic poles can be useful for moving large objects or reaching out of reach areas.

3. Climbing Claws: These allow the player to climb specific surfaces and walls much quicker than normal. It also allows them to jump from a wall onto another surface. The player can also use them to attack or dig holes in damage floor surfaces.

4. Carry Ball: A large spherical object the player must carry with both hands. Certain objects, enemies or characters of sizes usually too heavy to transport can be pulled inside the ball. When empty the player can shoot a beam from the centre, sucking whatever it hits into the ball. Pressing the button again will release whatever is into the carry ball. This can be used to carry large objects, trap enemies or carry NPC characters.

5. Spear: At first glance this mechanic looks like a regular Spear but it has several uses within the context of the game. Besides being used a melee weapon, the spear can be thrown to hit objects or enemies. It can also be used to in the place of a broken leveller, sticking it in the mechanism and pulling it like a switch. It can be used in other mechanisms as switches or handles to twist and turn devices.

6. Fairy Container: A lantern like object the player can use to hold one of three coloured fairies in the world. It can hold one fairy at a time and with a fairy inside, equipping the containing will give the player a unique power. Green: Will freeze time for a few seconds. Blue: Illuminant hidden objects or writing in the room. Red: Attract enemies to the player.

Exercise Two: God of War Mechanic Concepts

From my brainstorm I selected six mechanic concepts to put into God of War and construct a level from. Above is a quick mock up of the six pieces of equipment I have created for God of War. Like I said earlier, it was important to make sure all the mechanics influenced the combat in the game but with a useful second function to solve puzzles or obstacles. 

1. Cronus Sickle: The sickle can cut portals in the environment to and from the underworld. Creature will emerge from the underworld and drag one enemies into the portal before they close. Once used again and a portal is reopened the remains/red orbs of the enemy will return to the player. The player can trap enemies in portals and then release them in deadly areas to instant kill them. The underworld portals can also be used for puzzles, pushing objects into them and making them reopen elsewhere etc. The Sickle is also a decent melee weapon.

2. Helmet of Hades: When worn, the helmet allows the player to see astral objects and undead spirits in the environment. Any undead souls in the area will flock to the player and protect/fight them in battle as well as assisting them proceed in the environment.

3. Achilles Armour: The Achilles armour makes the player invincible from all damage from enemies and the environment. The armour will appear on Kratos when selected and disappear once magic/stamina is depleted.  The armour greatly increases the players weight making them run slower and attack slower. On the plus side, the immense weight of the armour can prevent the player from being pushed, blown or pulled off a ledge. On top of that jumping from a height whilst wearing the armour can smash a surface or object below it. 

4. Sword of Attilia: A massive sword the player can use in combat to defeat enemies. Made from steel the sword also has the ability to conduct heat and electricity. Conducting heat in the sword might help the player melt ice paths or warm up water, conducting electric might trigger mechanisms in the environment.

5. Svalinn Shield: A defensive and offensive weapon the shield can be raised to protect the player from enemy attacks and projectiles. The shield can be thrown like a boomerang, cutting down all enemies or objects in it's path. It can also reflect beams of light or lasers into other objects and surfaces.

6. Mjolnir: The Mjolnir is a powerful hammer, the player can attack with normal swings or swing and smash down to the ground with it. When the Mjolnir smashes into the ground it can create shock waves which might effect the environment around the player. It can smash large boulders or walls that might block the player.

Exercise Two Brainstorming

Exercise two is taking an existing game and adding a unique mechanic created by me, then designing a level within that game to show off the mechanic. I thought this exercise would be easier than the first but when I actually started thinking about it I soon noticed it was trickery than I thought. I had to make sure the game mechanics I selected were appropriate for the game.  For example, if I picked Resident Evil it wouldn’t be appropriate to have a mechanic which revolved around platforming as that would completely go against the rest of the game.

I had a look at some of games and mechanics from my exercise one brainstorm to see if it would trigger any ideas to which games I should look into. I wanted to pick different types of games so that mechanics I created for each would have to be exclusive to that game and not something I could apply to another title.

The Legend of Zelda was my first obvious candidate. Not so much because there is alot of variety in the tools and mechanics but because Zelda games are made up of dungeons which revolve around puzzles and enemies requiring you to use the new piece of equipment you gain in each dungeon. That alone sounded like a good match to show off a level design using my own mechanic. 

Each dungeon introduces a new piece of equipment the player must use to solve puzzles and beat the boss at the end of stage.

My second thought was the God of War franchise. The reason I thought of God of War is because the mechanics and equipment in God of War usually have dual usage. Almost every piece of equipment is used to both solve puzzles/obstacles in the environment and to bloody defeat enemies. As mentioned in an earlier blog, I’ve always liked mechanics that have one than one obvious use.

As with Zelda, I brainstormed some mechanic concepts in a God of War fashion, it was important to make sure they felt consistent with the rest of the series, the equipment being primarily combat oriented. I started by researching some mythic object/weapons from Greek mythology but it soon became apparent the series has already exhausted the most obvious/coolest Greek mythic concepts. So I looked into other mythologies to find some ideas that God of War hadn't used yet.

I tried coming up with different uses each mechanic might have besides fighting (some alot more interesting than other). My next step for this exercise is to define each of the mechanics with specific features and from there pick the one best suited to design a level around.

Exercise One Brainstorming

As stated in the previous blog, Exercise One is for me to create some unique game concepts based around existing game mechanics. The first thing I did was brainstorm as many games with interesting/unique game mechanics I could think of onto a piece of A3 paper. I tried to avoid obvious mechanics found in a broad range of games and stick with ones that are mostly exclusive to the title they are found in.

From the brainstorm I picked several different mechanics that sounded like they had enough weight to base a game concept around. I collected some reference images from each game and compiled them together below.

MORPH BALL: From the Metroid series (specifically Metroid Prime), the player has the ability to transform into ball allowing them to roll around the environment, access smaller areas and rolls up ramps. The Morph Ball also has the ability to drop bombs and climb 'spider tracks' to reach otherwise inaccessible areas. I picked this mechanic because I liked the idea of switching from first person perspective to third person when you control the Morph Ball. The Morph Ball was almost a game within itself, the controls and abilities were completely different from the regular mode and it gave the environments a completely different perspective. Conceptually I also like the idea you turn from a character/human into an object almost, often using the morph ball as a object or conduit in complex mechanism in the environment.

OCTOCAMO: Based on an octopus' ability to change it's appearance to blend in with it's environment, Metal Gear Solid 4 gave the player a special auto-camo suit which would change it's texture to blend into the surface the player was leaning against. The core concept of Metal Gear Solid is stealth and the player would use the octocamo to blend seamlessly into the walls, floors and objects of the environment to sneak past guards undetected.

MASKS: Majora's Mask's central theme was 'masks' the player would collect throughout the game which would help them beat dungeons and solve quests. When worn masks would transformed the player into a totally different character, with new moves and advantages to get around the world. I usually find games with 'transforming' mechanics pretty uninspired but Majora's Mask managed to get it right and all the main masks were useful and more importantly, fun to use.

GAME SPEAK: From the Oddworld series, the player character of the game, Abe, uses 'Game Speak' to communicate with members of the same species as himself. Buttons are assigned which allowed Abe to shout commands to other characters, including 'Follow me', 'Wait' and 'Work'. Using game speak the player must guide Abe and his friend to escape portals avoiding the enemy NPCs who too, have their own unique game speak which they use to talk to one another.

BRUSH TECHNIQUES: The Celestial Brush, was the one of the most prominent mechanics in the PS2/Wii game 'Okami'. At any time during the game the player could use brush techniques to fight enemies, bloom flowers and trees or alter the environment. This could including painting stars in the sky, manipulative water and fire or change the environments from night to day.

PORTALS: As the title suggests, Portal's unique mechanic revolves around the Portal Gun with the power to shoot an entrance and exit portal anywhere in the environment. The Portal Gun was used to solve small environment puzzles usually contained to one or two indoor rooms. The player could send objects or themselves through the portals in order to reach the exits.

The next steps for exercise one is to take these six mechanics and brainstorm some scenarios and different obstacles these mechanics could be applied to in the process creating some unique game concepts based around them. I will then select the mechanics with the most interesting scenarios and take them on to the next step of the project.

Semester 1 Objectives

My key area of study this semester has been the relationship between mechanics and level design. These two subjects are the fundamentals of game design and what makes a game a game. Mechanics are useless without the player being able to apply and cause a reaction with those tools and levels can’t even be considered a game until the player can have some input and cause a reaction in the game universe. Last month I did a quick exercise of performing reverse level design on some existing popular video games. The purpose of it was to see how easy/difficult it would be to map level designs so they could be read by anybody else on a team. So really the three keywords this semester for my work are communication, mechanics and level designs. All three equally important as one another.

From my objectives I sought to find a method where I could apply and learn these skills. I suggested in an early blog some possible ideas. The two that have stuck with me are:

Exercise One: Create a unique game concept based around an existing mechanic from an existing video game.

Exercise Two: Take an existing video game and create a unique mechanic that can be used within the game. Demonstrate the unique mechanic in a detailed level design for that game.

These two exercises are good ways to explore both ends of the mechanic-level design relationship. In exercise one the thinking revolves more around the level/game design my work is going to take place in. In exercise two the mechanics are the starting point and the levels are to be designed around those mechanics. Both exercises will be useful as they let me to both express my creativity whilst at the same time working under constrains. At the end of the semester I will hopefully have examples of both exercises. The first task of work is to select the existing video games for exercise one and two that I will be working with.

Literature/Contextual Reviews

Been a while since my last update, so I’ll churn out a few blogs quickly within the next week to make up for it. My main focus over the last week and a half has been the Literature/Contextual Review module which basically requires everyone to pick a topic related to their work and research, analyse and evaluate different methods of research to expand upon our existing knowledge. We are given advice and lectures on Fridays to assist with this module but the lectures are absolute dire and a completely waste of time. They usually revolve around one or maybe two usefully points then the lecturer will just rephrases the same point about 7 or 8 times to drag it out to an hour. Maybe these lectures are useful to other students/courses but to me they are just an utter waste of time. I wanted to make sure I at least take something away from this module so I looked into an area that I would find interesting and usefully towards my work and a subject that would be easy to find plenty of sources for. I looked over my previous blogs to find a relevant subject,  some time back I spoke about the impact video games had on me growing up, the attachment I have for specific games and how they made me felt. I thought an interesting topic would be to explore how video games can produce those reactions in players on demand. So my subject became ‘How can emotion be produced through decision making and player actions?’

Fortunately I had already been reading some design books before I decided to start this essay so I already had some sources I could draw info from.  The assignment required two essays, a Literature and Contextual Review. The Literature Review required 30 sources (10 books, 10 journals and 10 websites) I think it’s a bit unreasonable to expect us to read 10 books in the time span but thankfully it’s easy to jump to relevant sections in most books. Another reason I picked this subject is that it’s pretty easy to find sources related to emotion/player reactions in video games, it becoming such a growing area of interest in the industry at the moment.

I’ve always found it pretty easy to just write and write loads of drivel as I think it up but for this assignment there was a word limit of only 750 words so after the initial flood of words I typed up I probably had to cut out nearly double the actual word limit.

The Contextual essay was easier I found, maybe because it was easy to pick 5 sources from 10 non-word sources than from 30. Most of my contextual sources related with ‘making of’ videos from game developers or interviews with successful creative directors. I attended the Bradford Animation Festivals some days earlier so it seemed only sensible to stick that in my sources as well.

Regardless how well I did or didn’t do I can honestly say not a single Friday morning lecture actually helped or felt relevant to my assignment, which just furthers my dislike for it. Also, we couldn’t even hand our assignments in till about 10:10am (10am deadline) because the tutor was running late, so technically everybody failed anyway.

Reverse Level Design 2

Like I mentioned in my previous blog, I set myself a warm up project to map out level designs of games already on the market so I could analyse the flow and what parts of the level are easy to communicate and which are difficult. The games I went with are, God of War 3, Left 4 Dead and Oddworld Abe’s Odyssey.

I tried to pick games both different in genre and game style, God of War is adventure/action heavily combat orientated with some puzzles and exploration to break up the action set pieces. One of the things God of War has always been good at is keeping the battles varied and interesting through changing environment obstacles, enemy patterns/routines or simply because the game is great to look at graphically. Some parts of the level were more difficult to map than others, mainly when a puzzle was involved. The puzzle room towards the top of the map became very difficult to explain and show due to the complex nature of the puzzle. 

God of War is renown for it's bloody combat and large scale environments. Battles are often broken up with puzzles revolving around switches and box pushing.

Left 4 Dead I chose because I wanted a first person perspective game and developer Valve are renown FPS game designers so it seemed like a good candidate. Also, I thought it would be interesting as this game is heavily dependent on its co-op nature and the level designs must take into account 4 players will always be present in the game. This game was relevantly easy to map. Unlike the other two games L4D doesn't have many environment interactions or puzzles and is based sorely on the survival combat between the players.

Finally, I chose Oddworld most importantly because it’s 2D and therefore would be designed and communicated in a completely different way to the other two games. From all three of the maps this one is probably the easiest one to communicate. It's also probably the most accurate one for an artist or programmer to pick up as it clearly shows the exact positions of the obstacles whereas the maps for the 3D maps are a bit vague to the specifics and more a 'general design' for the level.

Oddworld is broken up screen by screen, presenting different challenges in each one. 

Less blog, more work

Right now, I still haven’t nailed down exactly what I want to get from Semester 1. I want my work this year to be appropriate to show employers in a portfolio once I’ve finished my M.A. It would make sense to play on my strengths of mechanics and concepts but it’s becoming more and more obvious that employers are only interested in people with diverse skill set, so I really want to expand my skills in the next year. I’ve considered going back to the dreaded Maya because I think it would help alot in the long run to have that added to my skills. I just wish I had made more effort getting to grips with it in the second and third year of my B.A.

After a discussion on Friday with the M.A course leader and some other M.A students, I’ve sort of got a handle on the direction I want to take. I’m really keen to explore relationships between mechanics and level design. As of yet I’m not sure whether it’s a better idea to create my own mechanics to show off what I can do with my own creations or take the limitations of already existing mechanics and show off what I can do with them. For a while I’ve thought it would be an interesting idea to design levels for existing titles to work within their constraints but I don’t want my M.A. to come up as some ‘fan art/fiction’ instead of something professional that’s going to really impress people when they see it.

I’ve thought I could maybe do a combination, create my own levels and mechanics for my own unique games, taking existing mechanics into a new game and maybe designing levels for an existing game with a new mechanic. I’d like to have as much creative control as I can over my projects because I know, when/if I do get a job in the industry I’ll have little to no real creative control over the titles I work under.

Some games with interesting mechanics/themes;

Dark Cloud/Chronicle – The player collects resources in dungeons to rebuild the villages/towns in the world. NPC can be moved into houses, but some often have requires e.g (one person might want to live next to a river). As part of the story the player must travel into the future versions of their to advance the story.

Majora’s Mask – The player must collect and use a variety of masks to gain different abilities and even transform into different species.

Oddworld – The player can possess enemies and take control of all their actions. The player can also speak with other NPC’s using ‘gamespeak’ shouting introductions to other characters to escape.

Okami – The player controls of a wolf with the abilities to use the ‘Celestial Brush’ to paint stars in the sky, change from night to day, make flowers/trees bloom, slash enemies, draw broken bridges and much more.

Portal – Using a portal gun, the player can create portal entrances and exit points to solve puzzles.

Ape Escape – Using a large net and variety of tools, the objective of each stage to catch a certain number of escaped monkeys.

Shadow of the Colossus – Traversing large open fields, the player must hunt down and kill 16 Colossi, massive, boss like creatures which the player must climb to stab its weak points.

Wind Waker  - Sailing large open world on the sea, taking control of the wind directions to solve puzzles and sail.

Reverse Level Design 1

My main goals this year are to develop my communication skills as a level/game designer. I feel confident enough in my abilities to create game concepts and mechanics so this year will be about developing my skills to make those concepts and mechanics actually mean something. Research seems pretty limited in terms of actual level designing; there are few books available to me and even fewer examples of professional industry work. At the moment it seems like I’m going to have to do everything by myself.

The books I have been reading are based more around design philosophies and how to evocate a reaction in the player. They provide great information and advice in general games design experience but again, little to nothing in terms of actually describing the best way to communicate level concept/designs to other people.

When actually playing a game everything is tightly bound together, the sound, art direction, the design and programming all mesh together to create a virtual world in which the player steps into. Trying to look at one of these separately can be tricky with all the other distractions around them.  I was lucky enough to come across The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World, which had some of Bungie’s very earlier level design sketches. It’s great to see the first stages of creation, when something went from nothing to something.

Taken from The Art of Halo, Original sketch concepts of levels from Bungie's Halo series.

This inspired a good warm up exercise related to my M.A project, instead of creating a concept on paper with the intention of it being developed into a real game I would do the opposite. I would take an existing game and take it back to the development stages. There are a few reasons for this. First, it will allow me to see that even the most visually impressive game, look exactly the same on paper as a cheap one. Second, it will allow me to see ‘the flow’ of level more clearly, how they are broken up into different gameplay sections. And thirdly, it will let me see which areas of the level are difficult to communicate through visuals.  Hopefully I’ll have the results posted on here soon.

Screw the rules I have money!

If you boil it down to the core, video games involve nothing more than holding a cheap piece of plastic, hitting buttons and watching shapes on your TV react. Even the most artistic, breathtaking, expensive games boil down to the same principles. The actions on screen only become a game when they are given context and context in video games is all about rules. So by definition there is nothing that separates indie or retail games other than their budgets and production values. They are both a collection of rules the player must abide by.

From my experience all games have two types on rules, generic or game specific. Generic rules are the rules that we don’t even think about. For example, in the majority of games the player and the game world abide by the laws of gravity. The player sticks to the ground and falls if they step off a ledge. These are rules that go without saying, the rules that we live by in our real everyday life.  Occasionally a game may change generic rules for the sake of gameplay but generally speaking they are rules commonly found in all games.

Game specific rules are the rules which make up the game itself; these rules are the constraints put on the player and the rules on how beat or lose the game. The game mechanics are the tools for the player to operate within these rules. Take any FPS for example, the rules of the game state if you are shot by an enemy a certain amount of times you will die. The weapons and abilities for you to defend yourself with are the mechanics.

Good game design should be efficient, making the most of the limitations and tools the designers have to work with. Efficient game design is using few game mechanics and using those mechanics in surprising ways, coming up with bizarre obstacles that use the mechanics in more than one way. Take for example, some classic multiplayer FPS’ (I’ll use Halo Reach as my example as I’ve played that recently).

The rules/mechanics are pretty straight forward, you point gun at bad guy and press button till it dies and the enemy does the same to you. You can pick up certain items/weapons, you can jump and crouch. These are the mechanics of the game; in most FPS’s there are different rules for different game types. Capture the flag adds no new mechanics to the game but instead changes the rules of play entirely. The game is no longer about killing for points but instead stealing and escaping. Similarly Halo Reach’s ‘Infection’ mode is another great example of this. The rules of the game split the players into Infected or Regular players. The infected players are forced to use the Sword weapon only capable of killing the regular players up close. Once killed by an infected player regular players become infected. No mechanics are added to Halo Reach for these game modes. Instead it is a simple adjustment of the game rules to make the game almost, entirely new.

Oddball, Infection and Capture the Flag are just a few of the game modes in Halo Reach.

There are some great games which bend the rules of their world, fully utilizing all the game’s resources and mechanics. It might just be a personal preference but these are often the sort of games that impress me the most, there’s nothing less fun then having the same dreary challenge again and again for 8 hours till the credits roll.

I recently purchased Limbo, from Playdead Studios an indie game studio based in Denmark. Limbo is a great example of coming up with creative obstacles in an otherwise restricted game. The game has a surprisingly small amount of inputs, the player can move left or right, they can jump and they can grab objects. That’s it. Despite this the game rarely ever slacks, it consistently throws unique and clever traps at you without having to add any extra moves. For indie developers this seems like the  most efficient way to design a good game. Other indie games which use minimal game mechanics in place of sophisticated obstacles and level designs are Splosion Man, Critter Crunch and Angry Birds.

Giant spiders, serious business.

This isn’t to say that games with plenty of mechanics aren’t good, they are very different types of games. Metal Gear Solid 4 has heaps of gadgets, weapons and mechanics so much in fact I didn’t even discover some on the moves until my second or third playthrough. MGS4 was great in alot of ways because it allowed the player to play the how THEY wanted, the players was given an objective, some tools to complete those objectives and that was it. It’s admirable in alot of ways as this much freedom gives the player a sense of accomplishment when they beat the game in their own way. 

Having said that, sometimes too many mechanics can make the game feel like a mess. With MGS4 it was warranted due to the ambiguity of the gameplay. In Darksiders, the game had almost an overwhelming amount of features and equipment to the point some of the button inputs became absurd. 

Anyway wrapping up, last year I made alot of effort to make sure I made the most of the mechanics and features I designed in my games. Different rules, and mechanics have different requirements depending on the game. Whilst a huge amount of skill, time and money goes into making open world games it’s a bit of cop out in a way to just let the player decide what to do and not present any interesting obstacles for them to overcome. My work this year will revolve around making efficient level designs based around a few good simple mechanics.