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Designing great single-player missionsToolbox
Enliven the player’s experience with compelling
objectives, devious twists, and powerful pacingevel design is a discipline as old as
video game development itself: if
you were being pedantic, you could
argue that the addition of the sun
in the centre of the screen in 1962’s
Spacewar! was the first example of an object in a
level being used to augment core gameplay. Level
design can, of course, mean much more than
shaping terrain and placing objects. I’d suggest
that mission design is one intriguing facet which
deserves specific attention.
Missions are effectively a framework of
aesthetic and gameplay modulators that interact
with the physical space of a level; their goal is
to lend direction and significance to a player’sDesigning great
single-player missions
L
actions. They’re a weird and fascinating mishmash
of game and narrative design, and they can make
or break your single-player experience.
While missions often take place in a militaristic
setting, the principles I’ll discuss here can apply
to a far greater range of game concepts: a
‘briefing’ could just be a chat with a friendly NPC,
for example. If you conceptualise a mission as
a loose structure rather than as a restrictive
paradigm, you’ll discover a whole wealth of design
concepts which can be handy for getting out of a
development jam or making sure that your levels
stay on track.BREAKING IT DOWN
Let’s start by thinking about composition. Most
game missions have the following components:-^ Game Mode
-^ Objective and Obstacle
-^ Story Beat
-^ Setting and Theme
-^ Twists and Modifiers
I’ll be looking at each of these categories
individually, but it’s important to note that there’s
no set system for devising a great mission
design. A game mode could inform the story, or
a narrative beat could inspire a clever gameplay
trick: allowing time for both ideation and iteration
is key to allowing this process to breathe and
to result in a playable outcome. Being too
prescriptive early on can lead to dead ends. KillHouse’s Door Kickers
condenses mission design
down to its bare essentials
in its clear, highly readable
top-down levels.
AUTHOR
PAUL KILDUFF-TAYLOR
Paul is the CEO of Mode 7, an indie
game developer and publisher. You can
find him on Twitter: @mode7games