Navigable Areas Clearly Marked ....................
Players should have a clear idea of where they will be able to go in the level simply by
looking at the environment. Slopes that players will slide on should appear to be signifi-
cantly steeper than the slopes that can be walked on. Textures may be used to
differentiate between areas players can navigate and those they cannot. It can be very
frustrating to players when an area that appeared to be unnavigable turns out to be the
only way out of a particular area. Another example might be a room with ten doors in it.
Players try three of these doors, and they are all locked. At this point, players will prob-
ably conclude that the doors are there only for show and will stop trying any of the other
doors. No information, whether visual or through a verbal clue, is given to players to
indicate that the other doors might be openable when the first three they tried were
not. If it turns out that the only way out of this room is through the sole unlocked door, I
would suggest that this area has been poorly designed. The only way out of such a room
is through tedious trial and error. The fun in a game may involve trying to get to certain
areas or the thrill of running around in those areas, but there is little fun to be found in
determining which areas the designer arbitrarily decided could be navigated and which
could not.
Choices..................................
This may seem obvious, but choices are something level designers can often forget to
keep in mind as they are building their levels. Good levels give players choices of how
to accomplish goals, just as good gameplay gives players lots of choices for how they
will play the game. Choices do not necessarily mean multiple paths through a level,
though that may be a good idea as well. In a first-person shooter, choices could mean
giving players different options for how to take out all of the enemies in a room —
plenty of different places to hide, different locations that the enemies can be shot from,
and so forth. Such a setup creates a variety of different strategies that will successfully
defeat the horde of advancing demons. Choices could also mean bonus objects that are
challenging for players to get, such as a rocket launcher in the middle of a pool of lava —
players have the choice to risk going for it or not. In a strategy game, interesting
choices mean different places where battles may play out or different places players can
choose to rally their troops or gather resources. In adventure games, the genre most
notorious for not giving players enough options, choices mean multiple solutions to the
game’s puzzles, different characters to talk to, and plenty of different ways to move
through the game. Indeed if a designer is going to add choices to her levels, it is impor-
tant that she make sure she is adding interesting choices. The decision to go left or
right around a pillar is a choice, but if both lead to the same place and produce basically
the same experience the choice is not terribly interesting. If one side of the pillar is on
fire while the other side has an intimidating thug guarding it, the choice is more inter-
esting. Players become frustrated when they feel that they are locked into just one way
of playing the game, especially if that one way is not the way they would like to play it.
A Personal List..............................
Certainly the list I have provided above is far from complete. As you work as a level
designer, it makes sense to establish your own list of design goals to keep in mind while
466 Chapter 23: Level Design