Level Design and Environmental Story Telling (11th June)

Before this week, I assumed that environmental story telling was just telling a story through the environment/level layout, which is true but there is far more depth to it then that.

I have recently watched multiple videos on environmental story telling, including a video by Game Maker’s Toolkit[1] who talked in depth about the use of environmental story telling and how it is used to such powerful effect in games. In the video he breaks down the different ways that Level Designers use the environment in games.

He breaks down the role of a level designing into three important categories: World building: which is constructing the world you are in e.g. developing a setting for the environments that your player will be playing in . Level Design: which is a more detailed/structured look at what the designer wants the player to see and how they want the player to play navigate through the game and Environmental Story telling: which is the ability to tell a story through the environment e.g. a warning written in blood will tell the player that this is a dangerous location. In the video he then goes on to state that it’s good practice to constantly iterate between these points to get the most out of each level and to get the player fully immersed in the worlds that you create. He also emphasises the importance of environmental story telling to indirectly tell the player about the world and getting them emotionally invested in the game. A great example of this is the use of skeletons in Fallout 4[2], where they are able to tell the player what life was like before the nuclear holocaust and give the player a deeper understanding of the world they’re playing in. This highlights the importance of environmental story telling when getting a player immersed in a game and as I am Level Designer that focuses on creating immersive experiences, having features like this in my game is definitely something that I need to leave time for when it comes to this project.

Another great point that was bought up in the video was categorising each section of your levels and making an emotion and intensity chart to indicate how the player should be feeling at each stage in the game. A great example of these charts being used was by BioWare[3] in the Mass Effect Series[4]. (Shown in image below)

Intensity Chart:

[1] Intensity Chart used by Mass Effect team

The intensity chart above shows the levels of intensity that the designers wanted the players to feel going through their level and then comparing this to how play testers would rank the level of intensity they felt during each part of the level. The designers would then make the appropriate adjustments to align these two factors. (Blue is the intensity they wanted the player to feel and Orange is the intensity the testers felt, they would then try and get the Orange to match up to the Blue). I love this way of thinking about a level, as it enables you to measure (quantitively) how successful your level is and allows you to directly measure the effect that your level has on players.

Emotion Chart:

[1]Emotion Chart used by Mass Effect team

Then there’s the emotion chart (image above) which indicates the emotions the player should be feeling when they play the game. This chart should directly correlate with the intensity chart to give the developers an accurate indication for how successful their game really is. These two charts have completely changed the way I think about level development and I will definitely be implementing these methods of testing into my work as they are such effective means of objectively testing the success and feel of your levels.

References:

[1] Game Maker’s Toolkit, How to Level Design Can Tell a Story 2020.[Access At:] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlnCn2EB9o&t=915s&ab_channel=GameMaker%27sToolkit

[2] Bethesda, Fallout 4 2015, [Access At:] https://store.steampowered.com/app/377160/Fallout_4/

[3] BioWare 1995, [Access At:] https://www.bioware.com/games/

[4] BioWare, Mass Effect Series 2007, [Access At:] https://www.ea.com/games/mass-effect/mass-effect-legendary-edition?setLocale=en-us

Images

[1] Game Maker’s Toolkit, How to Level Design Can Tell a Story 2020.[Access At:] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlnCn2EB9o&t=915s&ab_channel=GameMaker%27sToolkit

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