Storytelling................................
Setting is a big part of storytelling, and levels are a vital component of establishing the
setting for a game. Therefore, levels are an integral part of telling a game’s story. If the
story is more than something tacked onto an already completed game, it only makes
sense for the game’s levels and the story to work in synergy. Depending on the type of
storytelling that the game employs, it may be necessary for players to meet and con-
verse with characters in the levels, such as inHalf-Lifeor in almost any RPG. Setting
up the levels to support the appearance of these characters becomes very important. In
some games it is obvious that the levels were designed from the very start with the
story in mind. For instance, inMyth: The Fallen Lords, the players’ goals for a certain
level are directly tied to the progression of the story. Similarly inThe Suffering,we
mapped the whole story out and then tried to figure out what interesting level environ-
ments would work within the narrative. In a historical wargame such asGettysburg!, the
battles players fight have to be tied to the story, since it could hardly be a historical sim-
ulation otherwise. Indeed, any game that hopes to tell a story really needs to make sure
its levels support that story; players will notice when the levels were just built
willy-nilly and are only barely connected to the game’s plot.
Knowing the story goals for a given level prior to constructing that level is crucial
to communicating the story effectively. The story should still be loose enough to allow
the level designer to be creative in making the best level possible. There are still con-
cerns about gameplay — about balancing the right amount of strategy, action, puzzles,
and exploration — and since it is nearly impossible to balance these components before
the level actually exists, the level designer should not be tied down by an overly restric-
tive story. Indeed, it may turn out that the story needs to change in order to
accommodate the gameplay needs of the level, but having an idea of what story needs to
be told on a particular level is essential to designing that level so it fits properly into the
overall narrative.
458 Chapter 23: Level Design
In a historical game
such asGettysburg!, the
gameplay is very much
tied to a particular story
from history.