SM3120 SM3120 Game Level DesignGame Level Design

Lesson 03 – Level Design: Architecture and SpacesLesson 03 – Level Design: Architecture and Spaces

Ryan LamRyan Lam

Building Architecture and SpacesBuilding Architecture and Spaces

Many games rely solely on designer-created architecture to be the environment for their games.

From true-to-scale buildings found in real life to strange alien structures, game designers have used just about everything you can imagine as settings for their games.

As a level designer, it will be your job to create these environments and place them within your game.

Building Architecture and SpacesBuilding Architecture and Spaces

Architecture form space?Architecture form space? Youtube 01 - Youtube 01 - Unreal Engine 3 VS CryEngine 2Unreal Engine 3 VS CryEngine 2

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How? How?

Using Toolsets:Using Toolsets:1.1. BrushesBrushes2.2. 3D modeling Software3D modeling Software3.3. TilesetsTilesets

BrushesBrushes

Brush is not the thing we use to paint a portrait.

However, in level editors, a brush is a form that you use to make simple or complex 3D objects within your game world.

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3D Modeling Software3D Modeling Software Tool like: Maya, 3DS MAX, or lightwave. (Picture)

Advantage:• Powerful than your standard level editor• Most professional game studios use these programs to generate

their buildings and environments.

Disadvantage:• Expensive• Need exporting software to place the models you make into your

game.

Or you can download/buy it online! Click here For warcraft 3 model: Click here

TilesetsTilesets

One more way to generate architecture is through the tilesets that come with the game’s level editor.

Some games, like Bioware’s Neverwinter Nights, use Lego-like modular tilesets that allow you to snap together walls and the like to create a building.

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TilesetsTilesets

Advantage:• Easy• Quick

Disadvantage:• Much less freedom to make unique

building• Only have few modules to work with

Architecture has a benefit over open terrain because you can direct the player’s movements much more easily .

Buildings are also easy for players to identify as places for encountering conflict or finding information.

Architecture and FunArchitecture and Fun

Linear GameplayLinear Gameplay

When you’re designing structures, it’s easy to create linear gameplay.

This just means that your level must be played in a certain order.

The player goes from one room to the next, conquering each mission in the same order for every player

Linear GameplayLinear Gameplay

Good: Linear gameplay will help you tell that story the way you want it to be told.

Bad: However, linear gameplay means less choice and less freedom for the player.

Non-Linear GameplayNon-Linear Gameplay

If we use “Linear gameplay” for first-person shooter maps, it wont make any sense.

For these types of games, having levels that allow for circular movement, with little or no interruption in the form of doors or locks, makes for much better gameplay.

Non-Linear GameplayNon-Linear Gameplay

Good: Better gameplay, more choices and more freedom

Bad: Every possible choice and action that the player might want to make has to be planned for, creating more and more work as you build in reactions for every possible action.

Tactics and Tactics and Architecture Architecture

How will the player use your structure to his benefit?

How can you create interesting tactical puzzles for your audience?

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Tactics and Tactics and Architecture - Architecture - ExamplesExamples

1. Within a closed environment, a sniper can find a safe point with a commanding view of the rest of the building, giving him a powerful advantage.

2. A blind corner along a central pathway is an attractive place to set a trap (or ambush)

Always try to imagine all the possible benefits and traps that your structures present to the tactically minded player.

SeamsSeams Seams in your architecture occur when

two objects don’t fit really well together.

As you run through your level, you’ll see thin lines that let you look between objects and into the sky above or below, or into the room beyond.

Remember, when you’re placing things like walls and floors, it’s perfectly acceptable to sink one into another to hide the seams.

CollisionCollision

Collision is the force that keeps a player from passing through an object, or an object from passing through another object.

Normally, the level editors that come with games create collision with the game’s geometry.

Sometimes, however, you might have to jump through hoops to get imported objects to have collision.

Wrong Collision!Wrong Collision!

Correct!Correct!

Review Questions

1. Why wouldn’t a level that perfectly duplicates an average living room be fun for players?

2. How do architects encourage movement of people from one space to another within a building?

Review Questions Ans 1: Because of the speed at which

game characters run, and the fact that they run all the time, a normally furnished living room would be very frustrating to navigate.

Ans 2: By the use of corners, which push people away, and open spaces, which pull people toward them, an architect can encourage the flow of people from one room to another.

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