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.
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.
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