Virtual World - Week

So, this Wednesday we did not have full lecture. It was 1-hour-or-so Joe shared us his game design view in Disneyland then he gave opinion to everyone's level design (optional) - means not everyone was required to show him the level design. In summary, this is what I wrote from his Disneyland trip sharing:

Virtual World Note - Week 10

Only 10% of the total world population play games. The rest never even care about game nor will buy a console only because a cool game. This is the reason behind social game. In Japan, most social games even designed to be played only for 1 to 1:40 minutes to match the transit time between the high speed train station. 

Virtual World Note - Week 9

After we got all the game play mechanics, another thing to think about is who is living in this world. Who is the residents of the game world?

- NPCs (villagers, vendors, ...)

- Enemies (Goembas, ....)

- Players (you, others, ...)

- Objects (journals, vending machines, vehicles, signage ..)

- Ambience (animals, ...)

Functional or flavor

Functional: either can or can't interact with that effect the game play

Flavor: things made the game looks more live

Virtual World Note - Week 6

When designing a level, a designer should think what the player doesn't know about the level and how to teach them the mechanics. In game teaching can be done in several ways:

- Tutorial/ GUI (not favorable)

- Trial and error/ penalty

- Safety - no fail state

- Rule page (not favorable)

- Environmental cues

- By example

- Directed Play/ question

- Repetition

- The manual (not favorable)

- Introducing new features (paced)

- Teaching NPC

Virtual World Note: Week 5

Intents of level design can be anything. For example: power fantasy (domination), to force strategizing (text intelligence), frustration, exploration, discovery, emotion (sadness, joy, loss, fear, etc...), gathering/ collections, scale relationships, suppression, oppression, narrative, message, rhetoric, real world simulation, competition, cooperation, freedom, test of skill, test player physical ability, perception, confusion, paranoid, relaxation, intensity, hacking, experimental, trial and error, sensation, role reversal, role playing, teaching, time management and creation.

My first Level Design Document

In the past 2 week we learnt about making a level design document in Virtual World class. Too bad I couldn't put my real note in this post. The Level Design Document guide shown to us was a confidential document from EA. I respected Joe Bourrie for sharing the guide with us. So, I decided not to post anything about the guide. However I can still mention the importance of one page sheet that summarize your level design. Also picture speaks better than thousands words. 

So, this week after we submitted our LDD, we received some feedback - including me. I don't think I am a good level designer and I don't think I will be one. However, these good feedbacks are really useful to create similar document. Here it goes:

In level design map, scaling information are important. ( the size of the character vs the environment). Enemy placement is important in level design map. It mustn't be skipped. Together with the parameter of character (speed, movement, ...) can help others better understanding the level design. When lead designer looks into level design document, he/she supposes to play the level in his/her head and find the fun of the game.

There is no the right way to write a LDD. However there is a wrong way of LDD. The LDD is written in bad way when other people can't understand the level design.

Virtual World Note: Week 4

Topic: level design documentation process: mapped out --> documentation --> white box

Best practices at level design documentation

----- A lot of level design start with 1-page concept:

All levels and environments begin as an initial idea. It is important to capture the essence of any given level idea in a document called "The 1-page concept".

Virtual World Note: Week 3

Steps to build a level

- paper design (level design document)

- asset creation

- layout

- scripting

- testing and tuning

Virtual World Note: Week 2

Layout in term of player experience (intentional design)

Pacing: the speed player experience certain events in the game world

- continuity

- memory

- sense of flow (connected with what is going on)

- variety (good, well paced game, use pace to introduce different phase of game)

- play time (the link to the game and the link to a single session)

- defines the audience (who is going to play the game?)

Virtual World Note: Week 1

Level design is a mix of art, technical and design

Layout:

- Scale

- Visual Cues

     = Landmarks

     = Breadcrumbs

     = 180 rule (3D) / leap of faith (2D)

- Boundaries

- Sections

     = Each has landmarks and boundaries

     = Mood

     = How do the borders support encapsulation

- Navigation

     = open

     = directed

     = weird

Roger Roger

So, after struggling for a while on the game play, I decided not to pitch the game. I had a feeling we won't be able to finish it within a year or less. There were a lot of things we had to settle with - the camera and 2-D 3-D mathematics and more. Therefore I decided to work together with Chris to iterate his game concept: Triklo which was about single player cooperation.

New semester, new beginning, new game design

Three weeks winter break had finally passed and it's the new semester already. In this new semester, each of us need to pitch a thesis game either individually nor in a team. Then afterward, the faculty will pick some of the game idea and we will prototype those chosen game ideas in 3 weeks, presented it to faculty and industry, then final game ideas will be chosen for our thesis game. This will be a long process - 1,5 year.