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Composing in Three Dimensions:
Level Design Techniques and Challenges for Narrative-Driven Open World Games
Madison Schaeffer
Bachelor of Game Design, Sheridan College
Game 43557 Professional Profile Development
Professor Chris Crowell
December 13, 2022,
Abstract
Through the writing and explorations of topics and definitions related to open-world narrative-driven games, this paper will aim to enlighten the reader about popular terminology, approaches and perspectives related to my design perspective and outlook. Retrospection on previous popular games in the genre as well as expanding on elements of successful games outside of the genre to break down core ideologies and design tools level designers can use to best facilitate the development of their own levels.
Introduction
Level design on a whole and by practice requires a multiplicity of cross-disciplinary skills and abilities. From narrative to technical development, if a level or game falls flat, it risks the balance of the game's composition as well as leaves players unsatisfied with their game experience. So how can we develop perspectives and tools that help to better focus and develop our levels? This paper will cover some basic topics and key terms as well as my own unique perspective when it comes to level design and development. I will also cover some research material and key references that back up my design decisions, including games that epitomize or contrast with my own ideology.
When we look at the games we play we can break them down into levels, even in open-world games having a strong level design sense can help fill every inch of your level with interaction and engagement. Many games today are criticized for the presence of expansive maps that feel empty, or negligible, this can be due to an over-reliance on fast travel mechanics, as well as the absence of meaningful mechanics that suit the setting or convey very little sense of purpose aside from being graphically impressive. That's not to say, however, that including fast travel mechanics automatically dilutes or negates your world or game, but hopefully emphasizes the importance of including meaningful mechanics that the level or world can expand on, reducing the player's want or need to use fast travel. This is just a brief example of some of the dichotomies that ill cover in this paper, and hopefully introduces or reinforces some of our understanding in regards to designing levels with engagement and intention in mind.
As level and game designers, it is our job and hopefully, some of our passions to find and address the correct design problems with the appropriate solution, or balance of opportunities to ensure the player is presented with a fulfilling, and intrinsically motivating game world that grabs their attention and guides the player through the world and functions of the game in accordance with our own design intentions. What we choose to fill our levels, from mechanics to enemies determines how our design intent is displayed and presented to the player, and can reflect a greater understanding of the game's narrative, mechanics, and interactive intention, each of these, are hurdles and tools to us, and mastering how to dissect them and direct them to their best application, that is to say, understanding the where, when how and why of each one's unique affordances and shortcomings is the true goal of any designer when approaching a new project.
Background / Literature Review
Looking into some key examples of strengthening and weakening elements of level design in an open-world setting I'll be reviewing and elaborating on terminology as well as providing my own insights into the applications from different games, using them as a primary source, as well as giving some secondary source information to back up my stance or provide meaningful perspectives outside of the argument.
First id like to talk about world engagement through mechanics, And how they can feed Intrinsic motivation (That is the internal drive to complete a task or activity, in this case a game, for the sake of engaging with it or enjoying the experience for personal value) for exploration and testing challenge. The mechanics we provide can give players a focus and sense of footing before they encounter their first line of dialogue or enemy. This focus can be used to orient and motivate the player early, but can also change, shift, or become lost depending on the genre, playtime / total play length or design of any one game they may find themselves drawn to. That is to say that, depending on what game a player is playing, how long they've played or what kind of genre they are expecting, their motivations or focus might shift from intrinsic to extrinsic and back again in response to what tools, challenges and mechanics we as the designers present them within our games and more granularly in our levels. As designers, we aim for games that are intrinsically rewarding for the player to engage with, so let's take a look at the first thing the player engages with, the mechanics. Tools that we give the player, that is to say, mechanics, we designers use as tools ourselves to convey the games setting, rules and other unique qualities through which the player is able to interact and receive feedback from the game world, are one of the crucial elements that dictate what kind of experience we want the player to have. The mechanics designed, control how the level is laid out, what the world and story might hold for the players and can be a hook for your game all on their own. Consider the Portal franchise where the main and singular mechanic is using a gun that creates portals, this mechanic and how the player is presented and challenged with it can expand the player's perspective of the game world, and hint at the narrative. Sometimes this can end up working against designers however, Perhaps the player felt too challenged too early, or perhaps your mechanic is difficult to convey to the player in a way that suits the level. Or perhaps the player is just not interested in the mechanic at all and would prefer other ways of interacting with the world. In these instances, the mechanics of your game can also be used as a vetting tool that determines the kind of player you want to target with your game, but should not be used as a be all end all means of justifying its own existence, as doing so may alienate you from a wider audience. Mechanics and the levels we introduce them in and why should be a primary focus when concepting a game, at which point the designers should begin to consider challenges and levels of challenge their mechanic can be iterated on through levels and level design, particularly in an open world setting.
Breaking down a challenge, convention versus innovation, pros and cons of placing a particular challenge at at particular time or place is also a tool we can use to vet the audience of our game. This process should of course be done during early playtesting to get a good idea of the kind of audience your game attracts, as well as what motivates that audience. In level design, understanding this motivation and presenting it in a fun and balanced way is critical to executing a successful level. It's at this point that as level designers, we need to ask ourselves this crucial question. Is challenge always fun? How can we let the player find the most fun in our levels in a way that rewards them adequately for any frustration they might have felt? A technique ive always found engaging as a player and designer is using the camera in an unexpected way to conceal a reward. As mentioned in Design Docs video, using a fixed camera to your advantage as a designer can help keep a player alert and engaged while exploring your game, a technique that goes tragically unused in open-world games, and can provide a moment of relaxed reward for the player to enjoy. It also allows the level designer to further feed that intrinsic drive the player has to explore and master the game world and its mechanics.
Use of hidden paths and rewards using fixed camera angles in Heart Machines Hyper Light Drifter
Speaking of open-world games versus linear narrative-driven games, let's look at some of the different routes designers have taken in the past. Specifically I will be comparing and contrasting sandbox-style games ( a game with non-linear or loose narrative/mechanics that the player can approach at their own pace and does not require the player to follow the story or gameplay in a linear way Think Minecraft, Breath of the Wild, or Death Stranding. In a sandbox-style game the player can interact with levels or challenges when and how they want through systemic game design. Verses episodic or linear open world that can direct the player through the world either through story or availability of mechanics or tools. Think Red Dead Redemption 2 or Hyper Light Drifter .
Wait a minute, (You might be thinking) Did they just call Red Dead Redemption 2 a linear game? Since when is Hyper Light Drifter an open-world game? For the purpose of this argument Ill be following the definition of open-world games as any game wherein the player is given access to the majority of the map if not all of it from an early point in the game or can revisit previous parts of the map at will. It's important to make these definitions moving into my next argument since the distinctions between the two can speak to the intentions designers have for placing incentives for the player in the game and in their levels. This is covered in depth by YouTuber NakeyJakey in regards to Rockstars game design in the latest Red Dead Redemption title. Which I would classify as a more linear or episodic open-world game as opposed to sandbox for the same reason Jakes youtube classifies Rockstars design for this game is structured in a very linear way. The puzzle pieces it gives the players follow a very structured set of rules. Though some elements may have an interesting premise that seems like a choice. If no consequence of that choice is presented to the player, and if no feedback is given, then its difficult to say that the player is given access to any solution they can find, making it, in my previous definition, linear as opposed to being given the choice between two actions with the same outcomes or feedback. Thats not to say this is not or cannot be a viable design solution, some players may certainly prefer more rigidly structured interactions within a game world. So long as the player is properly incentivized and rewarded to suit such a system by the designers.
Another dichotomy we can find in the narratives of open-world games lies in how information is given to the player in the game's setting. Is it conveyed through the environment? Characters you place in the world? As mentioned earlier, it can also be conveyed through the mechanics and allowances we provide the player. However, there is no small amount of controversy surrounding whether narrative should be conveyed through in-game documents or text walls of exposition given to the player. That is to say, information given to the player through extraction and interaction with non-interactive forms of narrative exposition. This is spoken on in the Game Makers Toolkit Video “How Level Design Can Tell A Story” contrasted with Design Docs VideoFFX VS FFXIII - Two Linear Games, Two Outcomes.“ Similar to the last comparisons on linear versus sandbox gameplay, it is interesting to look at how each kind of narrative exposition might appeal to different kinds of players. Some, like myself, have little to no issue with the text wall style of exposition, or world-building, The caveat here being that it must make sense in the context of the game itself. In games like Death Stranding, the player has access to these narrative snippets in the form of emails between characters. This of course does not replace the information the player receives through dialogue or interacting with the game world and main story, but provides a fun reward for players who read through logs to collect an expanded understanding of the game world and or the people within it. To simply dismiss it as a “bad” or “Non-interactive” way of providing narrative would be a disservice to all those who take the time and effort to integrate these narratives in a level design capacity in many text adventure games. As well, if we break down how dialogue between characters is implemented in games, there is very little that separates it from the same inaccurate definitions that we give pure text forms of narrative delivery. The core game experience should take the form that best serves the game and the audience, and so restricting the ways that we can convey our narrative is not only a disservice to the section of a game's audience that enjoys that kind of narrative conveyance, but also to ourselves as designers. Design restrictions can of course help narrow and refine our games experience, however, and should again, always be used with the target audience in mind. So, how can we take these two ideas and try to combine and apply them in a practical sense? Through my own practice and research have found that a common denominator between these contrasting ideologies lies within the enemy design of a game. The enemy of a game can be an NPC, or an environment, a challenge, or physical being, or beings the player must combat. An enemy has the ability to convey so much to the player through how the player chooses to approach it as well as what tools we give the player to tackle the literal or metaphorical foe we present them with, as the title of this article implies, it mirrors composition in the sense that, the rests and beats of a score, are equally as important as the notes. Level design is the complex art of composing the rests and notes for the player to interact with in a way that is meaningful and rewarding to them. It is composing in three dimensions.
Primary Source: Death Stranding Secondary Source Nakey Jakey : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJPKOLDSos
Secondary Source Design Doc : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZMJDFe1kc Secondary Source GMTK : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlnCn2EB9o
Secondary Source Don Carson : https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/environmental-storytelling-creating-immersive-3d-worlds-using-lessons-learned-from-the-theme-park-industry
Body
The main theories and topics ill address throughout this article involves best practices for engaging the player, including different methods of engagements and the rational behind implementing one technique over another, as well as going more in depth into the qualities and benefits of taking a linear versus a non linear approach to designing a level, keeping both audience and budgetary requirements in mind, in terms of both linear and sandbox approaches. I will also be looking into different kinds and approaches to enemy design to reinforce my perspective mentioned above, and highlighting some different enemy designs that stand out in popular and well documented games, and the role of enemies or antagonists to the player. Different approaches to narrative implementation in games and their respective pros and cons from a narrative and level design perspective, focusing on the different ways players seek narrative, and the appropriate technique corresponding to each respective player type. I will also be elaborating on the concept of challenge and its place as a perspective tool or hindrance to designers.
Primarily, player engagement is the way in which the player acts within the parameters of a game's intended emotional and play experience. Engagement dictates not only the rules of play within a game setting but also defines how and what kinds of feedback designers provide as response for these interactions. If a player's engagement allows for open-ended feedback to be given in the game's setting, it could be referred to as a sandbox or systemic game. These kinds of games are particularly hard to design for, since the player is given a high degree of ability and control over their play experience to seek and experiment with many potential solutions to any single problem presented before them.
Take The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for example. Due to the high level of engagement and interactivity between different options available to the player, there can be multiple solutions to a problem that designers may have difficulty accounting for when balancing the game, and levels. When these solutions become something that designers cannot, or struggle to account for, it can feel like there is little to no control that the designers have over the intended play experience. In fact, Breath of the Wild is somewhat notorious for being a game that many people choose not to complete in the traditional sense. Many players avoid confrontation all together and enjoy simply exploring the beautiful vistas and landscapes of the game world. Some players engage with these systems to such a high degree that a large speedrunning community has grown for the game, taking these systems and manipulating them to the point that their intended use is broken down to achieve unusual and creative results. Breaking physics or creating unusual allowances in the systems they have access to use, and creative liberty, to achieve results that are difficult to predict. In the instance of Breath of the Wild, the design allows players to decide how they want to engage with it. And though this is an expensive and arduous process for designers to implement, and can pose a significant challenge to the team developing the game as a whole. The payoff is that the game becomes more approachable to a broader audience. So, we need to consider when developing a game or level, “How are we engaging the player? Must we engage the player in the way they want to be engaged and create a targeted experience? Or must we develop an experience with elements that are appealing to all players?” By employing the latter, we bring the value of a customizable gameplay experience, appeasing both the casual explorer type of player and the mechanic testers and speedrunners equally (As well as the many other player types that the game appeals to), at the cost of tackling difficult design problems throughout development and opening the systems up to exploitation.
The Player employs an unusual solution in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
When we look at more targeted game experiences, using linear or episodic progression of narrative or mechanics, we create a more tailored and predictable game experience for the player. These kinds of games are easier to account for in terms of design problems that may occur during development. The systems are minimally interactive, and often address a single kind of challenge with a single kind of solution. With the benefit of ensuring a curated play and interaction experience that players can often identify from the trailer alone. Take for example Red Dead Redemption 2, although the game is open world, the core game experience is fairly predictable and the systems don't interact. Most challenges the player encounters revolve around being able to handle the mechanics of a gun, or the other limited inventory items and tools available to them, opportunities for creative problem solving are minimized but allow for the designers to create very intentional and polished gameplay experiences that the player can rely on to solve or account for obstacles they encounter throughout the story and in the open game world. Writing narratives for these kinds of game is also fairly simple, though the player may be able to encounter some lines of dialogue or be able to engage in activities that have influence on their notoriety, ultimately these decisions have no real impact on the games story or the character progression of the player character or NPC’s. That is not to say that this is an suboptimal way to design a game, but to inform designers of the unique allowances this solution may provide. If the designers desire to have a game experience be linear but still engaging and interesting, a higher challenge is placed on the level and environment designers to find ways to convey the game experience or allow for creative or interesting interaction in the game world. By integrating ideologies from both options into our designs we allow ourselves the opportunity to create a more whole, and more appealing game. Though designers may have to approach linear design with non-linear solutions, by integrating creativity through mechanic and narrative design, or by making environments with unexpected challenges to suit the linear development of abilities or story we ensure that the game is not simply a movie that the player presses buttons through.
This is true, and represented in the instance of games like Fallout New Vegas, and Undertale. By designing in such a way that separate linear story options are choices the player can swap between, or by integrating mechanics that affect how the game unfolds we can combine the best properties of both methods of approach. Alternatively, selecting the best too for the job, that is to say, picking the method of development that best aligns with your target audience is also a valid tactic for game and level development.
Looking at enemies and enemy design there are a few core types that come to mind, Characters as enemies, this is true in games like Pokémon, Portal and Cyberpunk 2077. Combatives as enemies for games like Monster Hunter, Darkest Dungeon, and Hyper Light Drifter, and finally environments as enemies in games like Outer Wilds and Journey. In my own experience as a player and as a designer I find the most engaging games and levels to contain elements of multiple types in their enemy design to be the most expressive when conveying meaning in the game world. For example, we have Disco Elysium, which presents both the game environment and characters as enemies. The Witcher franchise, with excellent execution of both combative and characters as antagonists to the player. Shadow of the colossus covers enemies that are equally environment and combative enemy types, and in some instances in games like death stranding, all three are combined and included, presenting the player with the challenges of character, combative and environmental enemy types. Of course, nuance and intention are important factors to consider when designing enemies and understanding the role they play in your game, so it is also important to understand what a certain kind of enemy says about your game world.
Enemies can communicate to the player intricacies that may be difficult to convey using dialogue or mechanics alone. What the enemy is weak to, what it is strong to, how it reacts and behaves in response to different strategies and what it is capable of acting on in the game environment can convey a lot of your games intention and express much more worldbuilding and narrative information than they are often given credit for. The same can be said of their position and presence, their number and motives as well as their connection to the game's plot when considering how they contribute to a level. In fact in games like Shadow of the Colossus and Hyper Light Drifter the entirety of the narrative hinges on what information the player passively absorbs by interacting with enemies. Enemies also play an important role in setting the standard for gauging and quantifying the reaction of the player in response to the level and game's layout. Knowing the kind of state you want the player to be in during a particular level and having the environment, and by extension, the enemies reflect that intention is central to the development of a level. This idea is explained with a focus on level design in the video mentioned earlier by Game Makers Toolkit. This video focuses on the development of level intensity charts that break down how much intensity, and what emotions the level is meant to illicit. The technique of developing and testing these charts is used in the industry and more specifically by Bioware when designing and testing levels for reaction to, and outcome of levels.
Bioware Emotion (Left) and intensity charts (Right, blue represents intended intensity and Orange represents intensity experienced by players during playtesting)
Many of my game development colleagues may recognize these as potential elements of a beatmap, a document we use in level design to project and plan the intended experience for the player as well as other elements that influence its perception by the player. Using this development tool allows us to accurately convey intentions and allowances that are present in a level, and can be combined to plot and map the overall feeling and emotional response patterns the game as a whole evokes.
Beatmap I developed for the execution of a level design intention
As seen in the example to the direct right of this paragraph, Beat maps can take many forms and serve many functions, its important to be explicit in the tone and requirements of each level on a moment-to-moment basis, and depending on the project, can contain large or small amounts of information that relates to the intent. Making sure a beat map is concise and readable to fellow designers is also important to note, personally, I like to use iconography to help convey intentions, ideas and feelings in my own beat maps, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words!
I also like to employ an ideology I call “The talkative punching bag” By having an intentional enemy design, we are able to express and convey so much to the player about the worlds and settings they find themselves in. Designing an enemy that tells the player as much as possible about the game world ultimately creates a better atmosphere and encounter for the player, and presents fun and interesting challenges to us as designers. The process of creating this “talkative punching bag” is one I find to be very expressive and rewarding. Learning about how the player feels and what the player gains when interacting with a level through playtesting and feedback, and using it to inform designs moving forward is one of the elements of level and game design that draws me to the field as a whole, and fulfills me as a designer to produce.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I hope this article has helped to highlight some terms, techniques and processes that I use as a designer to get the most out of the creative process. These are the notes, beats and rests I use when composing my levels, and the perspectives that are focused on are my own and of course open to interpretation and change as my design abilities grow and evolve in my practice and field. The focus of the writing is for the development of open-world narrative-driven games, but can of course also be applied to many other styles and genres of games as well. Some of the key takeaways I intended for this deep dive are
Linear and non-linear styles of games are both relevant and useful techniques when developing a level, the important factor is determining the kind of audience you want the game to attract, and how that audience should be catered to.
Enemy design can be a cornerstone to combining game mechanics and narrative into a single design challenge that players find rewarding to interact with and designers can use as tools for conveying intent, narrative, and worldbuilding.
Strategizing and setting gameplay intentions and experiences are required to make a well-rounded and engaging level. Setting up documents that reflect these intentions can ease the design process and aid in level composition.
Thank you so much for reading through this document, if you have any feedback or questions I would love to hear them and adapt this deep dive to better reflect my practices and perspectives
Acknowledgements
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my teachers, colleagues, and fellow students at the Sheridan College of Art and Design, your feedback, knowledge and support in my growth as a designer has influenced my design senses and perspectives in no small part.
I would also like to acknowledge and thank the talented designers and creators that I've referenced throughout this document, your work has helped me to clarify, exemplify and adapt my own perspective throughout the course of this deep dive.
And finally, I would like to thank the development teams of the games mentioned in this deep dive, your work inspires me every day, and the worlds you build are paramount in my own motivation and inspiration as a designer.
References
Adams, E., & Dormans, J. (2012). Game mechanics: Advanced game design. S.l.: New Riders.
Building non-linear narratives in Horizon: Zero dawn. (2017, April 12). Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykPZcG8_mPU
Don CarsonBloggerMarch 01, 2. (2000, March 01). Environmental storytelling: Creating immersive 3D worlds using lessons. Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/environmental-storytelling-creating-immersive-3d-worlds-using-lessons-learned-from-the-theme-park-industry
The Living World of the Witcher 3: The wild hunt. (2018, December 12). Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB28lsqUT3Q
McBacon1337. (2020, March 11). How level design can tell A story. Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlnCn2EB9o
MegaBearsFan. (2020, April 24). Death stranding: A case study in open world game design (2/2). Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBGljh65HOs
MegaBearsFan. (2020, March 24). An inflection point in open world game design? (1/2). Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgq2co97IAI&t=0s
Rockstar's game design is outdated. (2018, December 17). Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvJPKOLDSos
Warbot40. (2017, October 16). FFX vs FFXIII - two linear games, two outcomes ~ Design Doc. Retrieved December 15, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMZMJDFe1kc
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