The Components of a Level.........................
Once the levels a game needs have been decided on, possibly with some idea of how
those levels must support the story, the next task is to actually create those levels.
Regardless of its location in the game as a whole, the goal of every level is to provide an
engaging gameplay experience for players. When working on the levels for a game, it is
important to constantly keep in mind the focus of the game. What is this game trying to
accomplish? How important are the different aspects of the game? What will the level
need to do to support the type of gameplay this game has? In addition, depending on the
amount of preproduction design done on the levels, one may need to consider how this
level may play differently than others. Is it a “thinking” level after an action-intensive
one? Is this level more about exploration and discovery than building up the strength of
the player character or characters? InThe Suffering, we made a conscious decision to
make some areas stand out in terms of tone and gameplay, such as the asylum level.
Since that level was located in the middle of the game, by the time they reached it play-
ers had become used to a steady stream of combat and were ready for something a little
slower and more puzzle oriented.
Before level design begins, the design team should convene and break down the
different gameplay components of the game, since each member must completely
understand how the gameplay functions. For specific levels, this may mean the lead
designer makes a rough 2D map of the area and then lets the level designer finish it off,
or it may mean that the level designer draws up the map and runs it by the lead. Regard-
less, each level designer must understand how her level will use that gameplay before
she starts building anything. In some games it is easy to make major changes to the lay-
out of a level, such as in a tile-based game likeStarCraft. If problems arise with the
level, it can be easily reworked. For a game using the latest incarnation of theUnreal
engine, however, once a level is built and the art department has polished its aesthetics,
it is very labor-intensive to radically alter it. Producers will be reluctant to invest
454 Chapter 23: Level Design
In a game likeThe
Suffering, the story and
levels are so tightly
interwoven that the
levels cannot be
reordered and still
make any sense.