Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
atmosphere are better understood in terms of the spatial layout of the level, at least
if the story concerns a journey.
In our analyses of game levels in this topic, we ind it important to keep the two
perspectives separate when trying to discuss them (although of course in the final
product they must work together to form a harmonious whole). We refer to the
mission of a level when we focus on the sequence of tasks or challenges in a level,
and we use the term game space when we focus on the spatial layout of a level.
Separating these two aspects of level design helps us see how they relate to emergent
gameplay. In some games, the mission of the level maps directly to its space (see
the “The Dungeon Is the Mission?” sidebar). However, this is not always the case.
Games can reuse the same space for different missions, as in the Grand Theft Auto
games. They demonstrate that the same space can accommodate many missions if
the designer makes imaginative use of it. This saves the developers time and money,
because they don't have to create a new space for every level in the game. It has
gameplay benefits as well. For example, players can use previous knowledge of the
space to their advantage, adding to their player's sense of control with each mission
that reuses the space.
What iF the dunGeon is the mission?
sometimes it can be useful to design a mission and a game space as one. in hack-and-
slash table-top role-playing games, the dungeon is a good way to quickly create a level
(or story) that is easy to manage for the dungeon master. all she has to do is draw a maze
on a piece of graph paper, litter it with monsters, and put some rewarding treasure at the
end. she can even rely on random encounters to spice up things as needed. in this case,
the dungeon map almost resembles a flow chart for the level's mission; the structure of
the game space dominates the level, and the mission (if it has any independent structure
at all) has little impact. although this works well for a particular style of play (the Diablo
games demonstrate that there is a viable niche for that type of gameplay), it is an approach
to level design that does not work for all types of games. as a designer, you have little
control over the pacing of the game, and the action tends to get repetitive fast. if you
seek to offer a more complex gameplay arc, you would do well to consider the mission
separately from the game space and create quality structures for each.
A level's mission and game space do depend on each other, even though we discuss
them separately. A space must accommodate the mission, while the mission should
ideally guide the player in her exploration of the space. In the next chapter, we'll
explore in more detail how progression mechanisms, and lock and key mechanisms
in particular, serve to connect missions and spaces.
When designing a level, it often makes sense to start by designing its mission rather
than its space. A mission is easier to write down and organize; its structure is usu-
ally quite simple. However, this isn't an absolute rule. There is a risk to beginning
with the mission: Designers sometimes create a very linear space to fit the mission,
 
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