Help: Level Design in Adventure Games.

Hey myself and a few others are currently working on an adventure game and I just wanted to take a moment to reach out to the community regarding a problem I've been having. Maybe it's just due to second guessing myself while I work on it, but I've been having a hard time with level design. Now this isn't a matter of aesthetics. I do have a very good idea of how I want it to look graphically/artistically. What I'm having problems with is the playability. Maybe it's due to not wanting to just create generic Area with little to do, which is a pitfall I've seen in several games. I just don't want exploration to just be filler. Does anyone have any tips on good level design in adventure games? Any answers are appreciated as I'm definitely stumped on this part of design. Thanks much!

 

God help us when exploration becomes filler in ADVENTURE games, an entire genre defined purely on exploration.

It sounds like you've actually fallen into an even worse pitfall where everything has to be original and unique. Look at Resident Evil 1. Mansions in horror weren't original then (not even to horror games), but they did it well.

If you really want to understand what good level design is, ask the question "what story does the level tell?" Good levels turn players into archaeologists. They cause players to read into the symbolism to understand more about the world and their own actions.

 

And to go deeper,......
Only your "gamers heart," can show you the answer to that, and show you the way!

 

You haven't really given us any usable info, is it an open world, linear, hub world, point and click etc. Just that one fact would change the game design a lot. But I would just look at the games that I love in the same genre. Play through each game a couple of times with a notepad next to me, and critically analyze what I like and dislike and go from there.

 

Start with a character you like.
Give him one trait you don't like about him.
Create a story to make him change that trait.
Break the story down into steps to accomplish that. ( the Levels)
Each step needs a very clear goal. (Find the treasure map..)
Communicate the goal to the player.
Now that you have the goal of each Level, it's easy to fill in between.
Simply expand on it, for example:
To find the treasure map, he needs to find out where it is, to find out where it is he needs to talk to someone.
It's in the chest (new intermediate goal)
To open the chest, he needs a key
and so on...

 

You should look at how some games does it, many do the filler thing which I dislike. Imo exploration should be functional to the game, not just a damn room with stuff to pick up and be done with it, but add something to it or even to reach it.

For example take Skyrim, it give the illusion of exploration by letting you visiting dungeons as you please, but everything fall under the same rule, explore the dungeon kill everything in it and watch in your map the added label "Cleared", this isn't exploration imo, is just when you have to clean your house and you are done with a room and go to the next, you know exactly what you expect.

Then there is functional exploration in games like Dark Souls or Arx Fatalis, where the exploration is not obvious and not forced, is there for you to unlock shortcuts or give a little of history of small areas that are not really functional on the game itself if not for the convenience of knowing that place exist.

This can work even to give the player alternative meaning to complete certain actions, like you find a key in level 1 in a hidden area that you use in level 4 to unlock a different route or something like that. I would disagree to give the player too much feedback on the exploration portion, in my view it should have no visual feedback in terms of information given like something in the hud or stuff like that, exploration whould be done on player will by trying things or it may turned in to a shopping list checkmarks. So put exploration there, make it functional to the game but not forced to be used, and give it a feeling of wonder of discovery, this can be achieved with the right visuals and audio.

 

Not sure if you know of this resource, but there's a ton of good info on this development blog: http://blog.thimbleweedpark.com

Jay

 

It seems like the purpose of your game should drive the level design. I mean there must be a reason why you are creating this game. What are your goals for it?

The game I am currently creating is an action adventure. The main design goal is to take the player on a fairly epic adventure within the environment of a 2d action game. Story is not a part of it but playing the game itself will end up (ideally) writing a story and giving the player the feeling at the end "wow, that was pretty cool. More to it than I expected."

Starting with a fairly mundane job events unfold that open up new areas to explore. The farther the player goes into the game the more interesting things they will discover.

Basically I see area design as just bringing the game world to life. You can use whatever you want from your designer's toolbox. Locks and keys are good. With a lock being anything that prevents the player from moving forward and the key being anything that gets them past that lock. Rewarding exploration is good. I want players to investigate the environment so they are rewarded for doing so. Blowing up some terrain may uncover a treasure or something else that is desired by the player. Guards are good. Some areas require more emphasis on the action aspect with several enemies the player must destroy. Discovery is good. By that I mean as the player progresses they discover interesting things. The idea being they will wonder what they will find next. What is waiting in the next area? This sense of discovery is something I think games have kind of lost to a degree over the years. Powering up is good. The player gains access to new technologies as they progress.

That is how I am approaching the design. Not saying it is the best way just that it is the reason for me building this game. Trying to capture some of the things I think games have lost over the years at least to a degree.

 

You are not alone. Level design is very difficult, and I think it's one of those things you don't realize how HARD it is until you start doing it!!!

 

Thanks for the link. Didn't know about this one. Good stuff!