Level Design Exercises
Each of the projects detailed here is a level created for Chris Barney's Level Design and Game Architecture class at Northeastern University. The goal of these projects was not to create an aesthetically polished environment, but rather to block out a level and effectively conveyed a specific idea or emotion. These levels were created in Unity using ProBuilder, though a few assets were exported and edited in Maya or Blender to create a more unique and evocative silhouette.
The class focused on the use of Christopher Alexander's pattern language methodology as it can apply to games. While A Pattern Language and it's companion The Timeless Way of Building were written as a resource for architects, they are highly applicable to level design. The idea behind these two books was to create a shared understanding of what makes spaces comfortable and intuitive to inhabit, which can be used in game design not only to create levels that are easy to navigate but also to create emotionally charged spaces that can instill happiness, excitement, or fear.
To this end, the class had two modes of operation. For some exercises, we would take architectural concepts and create a level that highlighted them. For others, we would find patterns in existing games and use them to create our own pattern language specifically about level design, which we then used to create levels that solved specific problems that we found in our reference material.
Each of these projects was created in collaboration with three other students (Anna Hegyaljai, Carter Seggev , and Andrew Alcala) during the spring 2020 semester. I contributed to the design of the levels as well as the 3D assets, made mostly in Unity's ProBuilder tool.
Prompt: Contrast
For this level, we were attempting to showcase the concept of Contrast. We chose to go as far as we could with this, including contrasting color schemes, room sizes, and styles of gameplay. The initial inspiration for this level was the sequence of a thief in a fantasy setting escaping through sewers and eventualy finding their way into the forest outside of a walled city.
As can be seen in this schematic for the level, we chose to begin with player in a dungeon-styled area. This are was dark, claustrophobic and seen througha f ilter that caused it to be rendered entirely in grayscale. This area twisted and turned so that the player felt on edge, never sure what was around the next corner.
At the end of this section there was a door that stood slightly ajar. A shaft of light from the outside world filtered through. This transitionary area connected the dungeons with the open field that the player would soon see, making them feel less disconnected. We were particularly conscious of this becasue we knew that too much contrast could make the different parts of the level feel as if they belonged in different games.
As the player exited the dungeon area, they were treated to a purposefully garish scene, highlighting the amount of color that they were now able to see. In this space we also included a large placeholder that would, in a full game, act as a boss for the player to defeat. In this way, we transitioned from the more stealth-like feel of the dungeon navigation to a more action-oriented style of gameplay.
Prompt: A Boss Encounter
When we were specifically tasked with creating a boss level, we decided to create something significantly more detailed and ambitious than we had before. For this level, we decided to create a Zelda-inspired puzzle boss, focusing on a satisfying difficulty curve and effective use of the arena. We decided to create a boss that could not be attacked directly but instead could be damaged by reflecting its own projectiles at crystals that hung from the ceiling and would fall when struck.
As we planned, we were particularly concerned with the shape of the space and the placement of the mirrors. We wanted to make sure that the player would be able to simply hit the first crystal so that they were able to figure out what they were supposed to do, but that the later crystals would require more thinking. To this, we made the cavern irregularly shaped and placed blockages that would require the player to bounce the projectiles off of multiple mirrors in order to hit the second and third crystals.
The most difficult part of the project was ensuring that the projectiles would bounce properly and predictably. Because of this, we dove in and immediately started to prototype in a test scene while the art assets were still being created.
Once we had the art assets and the bouncing for the projectiles figured out, all that was left was polish. We added some intense royalty-free music, lighting, and a dramatic camera pan to get the player excited for the boss fight ahead.
Prompt: Awe
By the time we reached our third project, we had gained something of a reputation for our use of prospect spaces (i.e. large, open spaces that frequently are used to make players feel uneasy due to their lack of hiding spots). This wasn't helped by the third prompt that we receieved, which was "awe." Instead of fighting it, we chose to lean into it and draw inspiration from open world games like Skyrim, Breath of the Wild, and Horizon Zero Dawn. In these games, players become intrigued by the world partially through use of vistas that show far off areas that the player then wants to explore. Were this level to be part of a full game, the player would be exploring a ruined, floating city and utilize a magical crystal to slowly reveal its past glory and figure out what happened to it.
As it stands, we were only able to create the very beginning of this game. In our prototype, the player climbs the lighthouse shown in the foreground of our brainstoming sketch. When they reach the top, they find the crystal that would help them on their way. As they slot it into the lamp of the lighthouse, they are treated to the vistas seen below. To begin, the scene is dark and the buildings are ruined. As the light passes over them, there is a flash of lightning and the player momentarily sees the cities glistening in summer sun, unruined. After the light fades and the scene returns to normal, the player takes the crystal again and is able to continue on their way across a floating bridge that the light revealed.
We wanted this level to do a few things for the player. First, we obviously wanted them to be intrigued and impressed by the scale of the civilization that they would be exploring. Second, we wanted to give them an idea of their ultimate goal (a palace on the furthest away island) and a way to chart their progress through the game. Third, we wanted them to get excited about the time-shifting mechancis that they would be playing with over the course of the game.
Prompt: Environmentally-Based Mechanics
The prompt for this leve was given to us by our fellow students. We were to create something akin to Dishonored's Blink ability and tie it to some aspect of the environment. Teleporting between shadows was too overdone, and so we decided to instead create a level where you had to ride wind currents between platforms.
For this level, we wanted to make sure to train the player to look for opportunities to use their dash ability, and so we created a course that would allow the player to explore the utility of this ability. We envisioned this level as a tutorial and so it was very simple. First, the player would be required to dash over a gap that was close enough to make the maneuver very easy. Then, they would be faced with a gap with a single platform in the middle. They could jump to this platform, but the second jump would be too far for them to make and so they would have to become comfortable stretching the dash to its limits.
While this tutorial was effective, we found ourselves wnating to create a more engaging use of this mechanic, and so we actually created an additional level that was not only significantly less linear, but required the player to combine jumps with dashes both for distance and height.
Prompt: “X” Marks the Spot
In games with large maps, it is important that players are given structured ways to explore the space. If players are dropped into a huge map without structure, they will have no way to know which locations are important and which are simply fluff. Because of this, we decided to design a level based around a treasure hunt. A treasure hunt is perhaps the most heavy handed way to get players to explore, but we were excited about the idea of creating something in the grand tradition of pirate fiction, and so we went with it.
Our level was centered around a treasure map that that would give the player clues about what landmarks to look for. By following these landmarks, they would be able to avoid the dangers that we placed around the island.
We were particularly mindful of the sightlines that we created while building this level, as it would be incredibly frustrating for the player to complete a step and feel stranded in the middle of nowhere with no clue as to which direction to head in. Because of that, we made sure that the landmarks that we chose were incredibly prominent.
Before entering the cave, the player would firt have to search for palm trees that grew to form an arch. Following the path through these trees, they would be met with a cave that featured a rock shaped like a skull. These were meant to play on the very stereotypical pirate aesthetics that we were all used to due to the pirate media that we had consumed. This level was meant to feel somewhat campy and ridiculous, because we felt that there has to be a degree of that to maintain suspension of disbelief on this sort of treasure hunt.
Once the player entered the cave, they needed to be a bit more cautious. Because they were no longer in the middle of a forest, we felt more comfortable hiding the clues. The player had to make sure that they looked above door frames as they descended toward the treasure room. This ran the risk of being frustrating, as there was a rather large jump between obviously angled trees and carvings above an arch, but we found that it actually felt like a rather natural progression, at least in the minimal testing that we were able to perform.
Prompt: Something Bad Happened Here
At about this point in the semester, real life started to seem lightly too real. The global pandemic that would eventually see us moving to online classes was ramping up and when we were tasked with creating a level with an implied narrative, we decided to pour our frustrations into our work. This level plays on the trend of video games showing that something awful has happened in a place by setting on fire. This can be seen in everything from The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion to Sonic '06.
We chose to tell the story of a plague that struck a town. We placed burning piles of bodies in the street and oriented them so that it was clear that they were attempting to get to the cathedral at the center of town. When we laid out the town, we actively decided to keep fairly long sight lines. We wanted to make sure that they player was always able to see a specific goal, such as a pile of bodies or the cathedral itself.
This was the project that we had the most completed assets for. Given that we ahd a little extra time, we were able to have actual, modeled houses to line the streets. I was also able to take the time to make a flame shader in Unity's ShaderGraph, which was slightly more difficult than I anticipated but was definitely a huge learning experience.
Because one of our main features was fire, we decided to go with low, moody lighting. This way, the player would always be able to easily pick out the flames and follow them and, as a bonus, it helped create an uneasy atmosphere as the player wandered the empty streets.
And, of course, we devoted a significant amount of time to the weenie at the end of the level. We wanted to make sure that they player frequently had a sightline to the cathedral so that they could be sure that they were heading in the right direction.
Prompt: Making a Small Space Feel Large
For our final project, we chose to take inspiration from Japanese gardens. These gardens are full of twisting paths that allow the viewer to go on a lengthy journey through the space even though the actual footprint is small. We chose to apply this to a hub level, specifically that of a space station. We envisioned this game to involve taking on the role of a smuggler who takes jobs from various people who spend ther time on this station. The player would regularly return to the hub to turn in quests, find new work, and obtain new items.
There were a few things that were very important to us when designing this level. First and foremost, it needed to be navigable. This meant that the structures in the space needed to be unique and comprised of interesting shapes. Second, we wanted to make sure that there were no direct sight lines from one wall to the other. We wanted to make sure that the player couldn't see the opposite side of the space from the entrance because we believed that would make the space feel smaller.
Because we were intentionally creating a relaively maze-like area, we took steps to make it easier to navigate. First, we organized the space into districts. In our prototype, these districts were differentiated by different colors, but ideally they would have instead been differentiated by architectural style. Each district had a support column at its center. These columns were styled like the buildings that surrounded them and were landmarks that players could use to orient themselves regardless of where they were in the space.
While we did not have time to produce a fully polished version of the level, we were able to get our ideas across using primarily ProBuilder assets. We were able to create enough visual interest that the space was highly navigable even without the full context that a fully realized game would give.
