Elements of Game Design, Part Seven: Level Design

Before I go into detail about Level Design and its purpose, elements, and functionality, let me give a brief description of what I think this whole thing to be. From my understanding, level design appears as the foundation to any game. It is almost like the blueprint of every video game for every asset to sit on and every character to articulate around. It also seems to have a hand in defining genre, for example FPS games such as Call of Duty or Halo would consist of maps. Various sizes and proportions, but none the less, closed of maps where the player can only roam around a limited space. MMO’s or open world games such as World of Warcraft and RPG’s like Skyrim tend to have a much larger space for the player to explore, not limited as such by closed off areas. In such cases players are encouraged to use transport within the game to reach locations which could take several minutes on foot, mounts can also be incorporated for the players to get from one location to another whenever they see fit.  

Whilst learning a little more about level design I came across a plan that takes you through the steps of the process. Initially you would go through its purpose before making any decisions at all. Why does it exist? What is it for? What audience is it aimed at? Bearing in mind that Level Design does not necessarily mean games such as Crysis or Uncharted: highly detailed and polished environments that should convey a great deal of credibility. Considering handhelds and mobile gaming, Level Design is a very open eneded building block to game development. The guide goes through the process, beginning with photo referencing and idea generating, to get a strong overview of what you initially want, photos and sketches help a great deal. Using mood boards to decide Location, interior/exterior, set design, lighting style and time period is also key. First hand photo referencing should be done very early on for textures and real life locations to assist the level.  

An easy way to confront something as open ended as maps and the general layout, is to first break down the obstacles you will create for the player. What kind of objectives will the level consist of? What kind of elements will constrict or challenge the player and why? Another element to the design process is ‘focal points’. Visual landmarks are very important in any game because for one, it helps the player navigate, so they understand where they are in relationship to the focal point. Aesthetics are very important, a landmark should not be a general asset dotted multiple times around the map/world/level but a unique structure to its location. Drawing attention using landmarks can sell the level, not to say it should be a enormous, majestic architectural masterpiece; more so a distinctive addition. Although majestic architecture is always a bonus.

After figuring out what you want, and how you want it to look, a key building block in this pipeline is concept design. Developing strong artwork that depicts your level as accurate as possible can be a major help down the line when it comes to modelling everything in 3D. The more artwork that is produced, the greater idea the 3D artists will have when it comes to the final thing. This is also why there can be tons of concept art churned out by a team but only maybe 25% of it actually used. White boxing out levels is a great step in visualising concepts in 3D space. This typically will occur around the idea generation period where by using basic shapes in software such as 3DS Max you can get a very quick overview of scale and design. It is also helpful as drawings are 2D so the very angle illustrated is what the artists have to work with; in 3D space you can view your design from all angles and ofcourse do paintovers.

The visual side ofcourse is a very large step in this pipeline; in fact visual design and development is almost the entire pipeline. However, we must not forget narrative. Storytelling is something I think can be overlooked with all the next gen consoles delivering high end graphics and aesthetic appeal. Before the previous generation of gaming (around the early 2000’s) selling points like high end graphics and online game play were nonexistent. Developers had to involve players on COOL narratives and clever story telling just as much as gameplay, ofcourse. As an artist hoping to break through into the games industry in a few years, I think it is very important to learn these steps so there is no confusion as to why things happen a certain way.    

Link: http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/how-to-plan-level-designs-game-environments-workflow.php

  

     

The forgotten posts, Vehicle Project, Week #5/6

For Week 5, the project was Vehicles. This area is something I am interested in so I really did enjoy working on the project. However, like last year I was slightly frustrated because there were no boundaries. The reason I dislike this amount of freedom is because I believe constraints and limitations progress creativity far more than the ‘do what you like’ approach. I think it can also minimize students who might not consider validity and purpose in design. That being said, it was time to crack on with some designs, I did land last year so I figured why not try air! This was the first time I had drawn/learnt about planes so it was a learning curve trying to understand the content before attempting to create something from it.

I love racing, the idea of pushing machines to their limits in speed and durability is fascinating so when I discovered they do this with planes at events such as the ‘Red Bull Air Race’ I was rapidly drawn to it. I also looked at classic WWII fighters such as the P51-Mustang, Spitfire and Messerschmitt Me 262 (jet), I tried to understand what makes these planes so famous, alongside their capabilities ofcourse. These designs seem to have aggressive forms, almost like a shark from the front, with short wing bases that suggest agility. The tip of the propeller got my attention first, if this attribute were to be exaggerated, I was convinced the results would bring a more bold design that shows its greater purpose of speed. I didn’t see reason in adding random shapes onto this well identified silhouette as I thought it would only alienate the designs ability to convey its purpose (racing). 

After being inspired by the Heinkel He 178 (first practical jet aircraft) I looked at jet technology and came across the SR-71 Blackbird. Its jet designs truly do define the word ‘speed’ and I had to adopt this influence somewhere along my design process. At this stage I had the whole ‘function defines form’ state of mind, so I wasn’t going to add random forms simply for the cool factor, instead I wanted as much credibility as possible with this project so everything needed purpose. After doing some side views, I decided to jump into some perspective drawings to get a further understanding on what I wanted to develop from my silhouettes. This lead to an elimination process where I found myself drawing quite a few similar variations of planes, I did also draw pilots in most of the sketches just for a mental note on scale. I do constantly look back at Scott Robertson’s work as he is one of my favourite vehicle artists. I also had influence from a Sci Fi pioneer/illustrator called Chris Foss, his work is outstanding in all matters of design and innovative thinking; not to mention it is all traditional as he was doing these great paintings since the 1970’s before a digital medium had been developed. His work influenced me to add graphics, decals, and other patterns I thought could attain a retro style. I also added in these because I wanted each plane to be identifiable in its uniqueness, this idea came from the film ‘Red Tails’ which I have blogged about earlier.

After developing what I thought would be a functional design, I began coming up with finals. I do kick myself a little for not experimenting further into traditional colour, I feel as though it is always good to get out the paint pots before you jump into to Photoshop because it helps reach organic, fresh outcomes however, only having two weeks on this as well as a 3D deadline, I had to finish it all up quickly. I started looking at F1 cars, as well as the Japanese Touring Car Championship, after finalising the plane it was time to look for a method of presenting it. I found using these road racing cars as a template would work well because of its similar nature. At this point it did cross my mind to make up a manufacturer of my own including badges, sponsors etc. The reason I didn’t do this was because existing vehicle manufactures give far more credibility and are easy to identify with.

I wanted to push this idea further into a world where these things could exist, so I decided to continue with a ‘controversial’ final design from Nissan, it was inspired by the turbo charged f1 cars from the 70’s which claimed many lives, but still went on the track for many years. I decided to add excess fuel tanks to the exterior of the design to reduce the number of pit stops thus giving the plane a huge advantage. Ofcourse this design is very impractical and dangerous but I wanted this ‘sport’ to be in its early stages where rules and regulations had not been developed thoroughly. The idea is the manufacturer is claiming 100% safety with its new material that encases the fuel, claiming it to be ‘crash proof’. 

This project was very exciting and refreshing to work on, if I to add anything, it would definitely be details like designing landing gear, seat ejection/safety, pilot suit, and even the environment the planes could race in. I think when I do find time I will be adding at least a couple of these things to the project.   

The forgotten posts, Week #3 and #4 review

I do realise that these briefs I am about to review have been overdue as I completed them months ago, but it is something I have to get done because I do believe reflecting is important. For Week 3 we were taken through Leicester City Centre, the goal of the brief was to complete many quick sketches in an almost storyboard fashion. To get a better idea of what our tutors wanted we were directed towards an artist’s called Gordon Cullen, an artist who had alongside other finished works, completed many quick sketches. Cullen’s basis was architecture so things like perspective, horizon line, and scale appeared very accurate. This is what we needed to achieve in limited time to get us in the state of mind where we could draft ideas accurately.

 

 

I found this exercise quite nice to do, the freedom of just finding interesting areas and jotting them down without worrying about a final piece or development work. Although I am not a huge fan of standing up with an A3 sketchbook, awkwardly trying to draw, it does push you out of your comfort zone. I also think that when pushed out of your nice little room with warmth, internet and supplies, you do have to work harder to achieve a gratifying result. After working through with pencil and pen, I did quickly work with a black marker, I think it helps define lighting quite dramatically as you are only using two values. Overall I was happy with this brief and I think a few digital sketches could not hurt, maybe something more refined that explores colour.

 

 For week four we found ourselves beamed down into Bradgate Park. It is similar to Abbey (where we went during week one) in terms of what’s there, grass, trees and water; however it has some very dramatic hills. I do prefer it over Abbey myself because it’s not as ‘neat’; you can walk through thicker grass and reach up high hills looking down into other pathways. The day we went it was raining so I had to put the sketchbook away after the first hour or so, for its own safety ofcourse. I did manage to take many photographs and discovered my attraction towards the water once again. 

 

 

After working through some thumbnails in pencil I realised I wanted to develop my ability to portray organic foliage with realism and try to understand how light workings around these forms, I pushed what I preferred into acrylics to identify colours. This time the water didn’t catch my eye because of the ripples but more for a centre focal point. As now we are meant to be thinking of composition a whole lot more, I wanted something to contrast the various greens that would be making up 90% of the painting for my final. I was quite happy with it; maybe I could add more detail into the foreground alongside more contrast as well. What I did realise is that you can’t rely 100% on photographs and a camera (especially is it isn’t something of very good quality) it tends to compress the colours, so if you don’t add more vibrancy you tend to get a very gloomy outcome.  

 

Assessments, Stress, Procastination and Christmas Break

So, it has been around 2 weeks since my assessment and whoever is reading this is probably wondering why I am so late in blogging about that. I WAS OCCUPIED!! In deep procrastination and… home stuff (which means nothing… at all). OK! Anyway, throughout these past weeks I seem to have been caught in a spiral of doing not much at all, this may be because during the first semester I kind of burnt myself out in trying to meet every deadline which I did succeed at to some extent. Of course there are always things you can add to, when you don’t have too many constraints. I have been dabbling in a few personal works here and there so not all time has been wasted although I do feel I can always make more out of these free days. It is of course the holidays so SOME slacking is in order, but I think now I have had enough of all that.   

As far as assessment goes, everything went well. Much better than last year, that’s for sure. At this stage I am working towards a 2.1 grade, which I am very satisfied with but of course, why not aim for the highest mark, right? All my modules seem to be going smoothly; it was a bit of a pain with critical studies because I was not sure where the ‘should be’ mark was. This happened to be put on our blackboard system (online database for updates and information from the university) the day before our assessment so a last minute catch up was almost impossible, however our tutor Mike will always say ‘should have referred to the critical studies handbook’ which is, I hate to admit… true. Visual Design also went ok, the main thing I learned here is to make sure I put everything up on Facebook for the tutors to see, because no matter how much work you do, if it is not posted online, it will not be given much feedback as no one would have seen it. Game Production went extremely better than expected because I really did think my project was a bit of a last minute mash up. I was ill during the 4 days before the deadline, I thought my personal set brief was not amazingly thought out, and I felt it was a lot of random decision making. To my surprise I was told I met the criteria very well and it was what Blitz were looking for. Nice. 

So what have I been doing these past few weeks? Well, like a lot of people I did go see The Hobbit!! I decided it would also be good inspiration as films like this go to great lengths to not only construct in depth storylines, which can be very difficult when done from books, but also create amazing CGI sequences. As I had never read any books from the franchise, my only reference point was the previous trilogy, Lord of The Rings. Though the film takes its time grasping into this ‘adventure’ it does set a very convincing stage for the characters to progress the narrative by means of another trilogy. I had no idea myself until I saw the film, that there would be more. It is also nice to see a team of people take their time to encompass the books events into trilogy’s instead of cramming it all in to 2 hours and 30 minutes. A key part of the film involves Gollum’s re-introduction, in a deep cave inside the mountains where Bilbo unwillingly finds himself, of course here is where he also unites with the ‘precious’ ring. This set of scenes really got me thinking about lighting, and portrayal of characters; so when creating artwork I found it is important to think in ‘camera mode’ so you don’t always have be eye level standing up with everything. Setting up angles from various locations around the scene can convey illusionary attributes such as dominance, power, and scale. 

I also think I have been neglecting character design so this film consisting of Hobbits, Dwarfs, Wizards, Goblins and Orcs, really made me question what direction my future portfolio my look. I really found the Dwarf kings attire to fit very well, these characters also don’t seem to dress in crazy, colour armour so instead of looking like something out of Warcraft they do seem like they are not too far from our world. Although Gandalf does seem to appear more and more like a homeless person in each film.

 

Characters are a weak point for me so I may have to come up with some interesting designs to assist my learning in this area. There has also a few blogs I have had ‘planned’ which need finishing so it’s time to really catch up with everything and start planning this portfolio stuff too. 

Loughborough Station!

The second assignment for visual design leads us to Loughborough train station, an old place that seemed not to be in use, although we were told trains were active on tracks throughout certain times of the day. This turned out to be much more exciting for me than the parks we visit because of the change from natural environment to hard surface man made constructions. The station had a workshop that sat further down the tracks, with many old (what looked like) steam engines that were in repair or maintenance. It was great to get up close to get a real idea of their materials and scale. I personally really enjoyed this place, though I didn’t think much of it then, I have come to realise that it was also a perfect place to get surface textures for 3D work; dammit brain!! 

I did some quick thumbnails on sight, very quick mark making to get achieve a better understanding of the trains in perspective and what type of environments they sit in. Though it wasn’t perfect weather the outcomes helped provide a starting point. After going through my reference images I moved on to using marker and paints with a prominent focus on the trains themselves, I felt that to achieve a decent final piece the perspective will have to be as accurate as my ability will allow so I practised that here. It wasn’t all too difficult, but it brought reassurance that I am learning more and more, kind of like repeating a task over and over until you know it inside out, and then repeating it a few more times. I must say I always stay away from acrylics or any sort of paint but after looking at 70’s and 80’s sci artists such as Syd Mead, John Harris and Ralph Mcquarrie and their outstanding abilities before digital painting even existed, I felt I needed to do some traditional painting, even if it was quick mark making. 

After doing this, I began digital colour studies to assist my final, though none of the thumbnails here made the final; it was a great way to understand the existing colours in the area and the lighting of the exterior studies. The final went well but it was a little rushed as I had to move on with other work, I may go back in to add more detail but for now I will call it finished. A good weeks work for learning basic vehicle forms and hard surface lighting.