Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
cy will remind players that they're playing a game, not exploring a real
place.
Reduce the size of the building to four floors or fewer. A very simple
solution, but with the potential to clash with level design goals and narrat-
ive intentions. This is probably an extreme solution to a relatively minor is-
sue.
Include an elevator, but block access to it
. Depending on what is used to
keep the player away from the visible but inaccessible elevator, this could
feel frustrating, forced, and “game-y.” After all, in the real world we don't
expect elevators to be blocked. Also, if the player is able to access addi-
tional floors above, the level designer will have to repeatedly find ways to
block the way to elevator doors on each floor.
Include an elevator, but disable it and attach an Out of Order sign
. This
solves the problem nicely but does imply something about the building's
fiction; i.e. that at some point in the recent past this elevator went out of
service and was not repaired. If it's an affluent building in all other respects,
this may feel out of sync. Also, the taller and larger the building, the less
believable that there would be only one elevator, or that there would be
multiple lifts all simultaneously broken.
Include an elevator, but cut power to the entire building to explain why
it doesn't work
. This solution eliminates nagging doubts and implications
about the building's past, and it also solves the problem of multiple non-
functioning elevators. However, it establishes a reality in the present—i.e.
the power is out—that the level designer will need to reflect in the rest of
the design (other electrical devices, lighting, etc.).
As you can see from this simple example, every little decision when it
comes to architecture has the potential to reinforce the narrative back-
ground, or clash with it and negatively impact consistency and believabil-
ity.
For a level designer, then, it's important to at least try to balance creating
an optimized gameplay space against creating a location that has internal
logic—with all the elements one would expect to see in such a space, laid
out in a manner that is as consistent with expectations as is feasible given
other goals and constraints.
