GAME DEVELOPMENT ESSENTIALS
Game Level Design
Authors: Travis Castillo & Jeannie Novak
Series Editor: Jeannie Novak
Ch 1 – History & Background the world of the level designer
1. Imagine that you are a level designer working in the 1980s. Knowing the
limitations associated with this era, what type of game would you develop?
Personally Ive always like the side scroller type game and think that I would try and develop a game that fits into this kinda genre. Similar to the donkey kong games that I really enjoyed playing as a kid.
2. Play three games—one from the 1980s, one from the 1990s, and one
released after 2004. Compare and contrast how levels and environments are
designed in all three games.
Started by playing original sonic just a lil flash remake on a web site but it gave me the same feel I actually remembered playing this game as a flash game a while ago in high school it’s fun and a very fast pace game with lots of different paths that u can take. Leaving replaying options as u might end up taking a completely different path to complete the same lvl.
Remembering the dk on the super Nintendo which happed to be the main game that I spent most of my childhood playing combining minior puzzle solving with a side scroller based game led to many hours spent playing as a kid.
Recently I been playing a lot of DotA 2 a moba based game based around 10 players and 5 player teams battle to destroy the others fortress (very basic description of the game)
I think the big thing that differs from the first 2 to the 3rd one is the lack of 3d environments to support the game. Sonic and Donkey Kong support very similar types with the side scroller and progression from left to right. While DotA2 is a 3d enviorment and very different game play.
3. How does a game’s genre affect the way its levels and environments are
designed? Choose one level from three different games—each from a distinct
primary genre—and compare how these levels are designed with regard to
setting, goals, puzzles, and risk–reward system.
DotA2 environment is one map on which 10 players battle it out supporting an RTS style feel with the top down view and map size goals are destruction of enemy fortress leaving risk reward in the act of going about that goal as in do u push towers and run the risk of getting caught out or do u team fight risk losing the fight - Moba
DayZ dayz is a game played out as a survivor game based with zombies and other players on a 225k2 map lead a quite large map and several towns and cities on map leave a very wide open playing field for the players on the server to battle it out with each other and or Zombies using FPS or 3rdps the map is essentially a kill box for people to gather gear survive and kill players/zombies basic when u die and DayZ u lose all of ur items that you have found in that life time and death is pretty instant if ur getting shot at by another player this adds risk to everything that u do in this game am I gona get shot crossing this field… is there someone waiting in this town ….. so on so forth- Fps
World of Warcraft – WoW is a mmorpg based game and using a massive world environment to portray a massive story and progression though for a player. WoW is based around 2 end game content options while not limited to one they are very different Raiding or PvE is based around a grp of players taking on bosses and how u go about killing them is ur puzzle based system PvP is all about out playing the other players decision on how to go about this.
Now in all of the games above maps are key to winning or losing the game DotA2 maps knowing paths through trees to hide or attack best ways to gank or likely locations of wards that the enemy has placed down. DayZ in knowing the map u know where to hide were to attack and were most of the good loot spawns giving that lil bit more of an advantage. Using WoW environments to progress through boss encounters and in pvp LoSing opponents or catching them in the open are very big parts of the game all these things are dictated by the environment around u at the time and place u are in the game.
