Hello, today we’re gonna talk about level design.
This is actually a presentation presented by one of my friend. I’m just simply wrote what he said, and add stuff here and there to make it more detail.
If you want to ask something, you can ask im on his facebook profile here.
WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT?
A. Provide Usefull Mastery of Character's Abilities
Character’s abilities will directly influence on how do you design your level. No level design, no mastery.
Let’s use mario for example.
He has four abilities, jump, destroy blocks, run, and shoot fireballs. If you don’t design your level carefully, there’s a chance that players wont master some of those abilities, and don’t know how to use them properly. (For example, running can increase mario jump height).
If you’re also a gamer. There’s a pattern on how do you complete each level of a game. In zelda, the pattern is like this :
enter a dungeon -> get a weapon ->test it -> defeat the boss.
Everytime you unlock a story mission, eventually, you’ll get a new weapon. Then, you’ll learn how to use it. And after some training along the way, you’ll finally master that weapon, and use it to defeat the boss.
B. Influences Player’s Decision Making
Take a look at this :
This level level has a secret path.
The guys at nitendo are very clever, they placed some coins with stairs-like pattern, to make the player aware that there are two ways to complete this level (arrow 1). The player will like, “these coins look suspicious, I’ll check if there is something up there”.
And then, to make sure that the player see those coins, make mario jump off the platform (arrow 2).