Deciding What’s Important

Despite the things that I’d like to think about the video game industry, there is one realization we all have to make: we have to compromise on some issues, for cost or time, whichever, and so not all games are going to be as imagined.

But with this idea comes a dilemma. How do you decide what you cut, or what is the least important aspect? How can you, as a developer, make a conscious decision about your product and what should or should not be a part of it?

It’s had to answer, but is something that every developer will and do face at one point in their project. And without the very best decision here, a game could be made or broken to some degree.

Designing a Level: How I would do it Today.

Before I begin, I think it is important to note that level design, like many aspects of game making, is a task that is taken in steps, and is constantly refined as the process goes along. As such as I move on in my education and in my experiences I’ll post some retrospective pieces comparing what I know at that point in time, as opposed to now.

First we should probably talk about what makes a level design good. For me, it’s any time I’m playing a game and I get to a part where the situation looks difficult, feels difficult, and by all means SHOULD be difficult. But thanks to the ingenuity of the level designers I have a multitude of paths to take to resolve the situation, good cover to avoid fire, while still being able to fire my own volleys. The visual clues in level textures that would bring my eye to look at them instead of the wrong path.

Level Designers are perhaps the most key component of whether or not a game will play well. A bad level design, makes a frustrating game, makes a bad review. A good level design, makes a playable game, makes a fun game. And that’s to put it as simply as possible. Note, I used the term “bad review” and “fun game” because they’re rather ambiguous. A frustrating game will still sell, given proper marketing. A fun game will do poorly, regardless how well designed and fun it may be. A lot of good companies have made games that just didn’t get the marketing they deserved and went out of business as such.

So what do level designers do to start their levels?

What works works, so why not do it?

It’s rather apparent to me that the dreams and aspirations of game developers, are much like the ones I have myself. They want to make the most original game possible, the most fun game possible, and the most artful game possible.

With this in mind many will aspire to go straight for their dreams, and set their marks too high. They’ll first set out to coding the most beautiful engine possible, or writing the most intricate story, or modeling the most perfect models to take part. They try with all their heart and passion to make the game they want to make, and inevitably fail.

What went wrong?

What makes you special?

Nothing… or at least that’s the way the world is going these days. No matter what you do, you can almost always guarantee 100% of the time that someone else has done it, they’ve done it before you, and they’ve done it better. Not one thing in this world can truly be called unique anymore, and as such we’re losing the individuality that we as a population of humans once had.

Now, I say these things not in bitterness, but in reflection. I’ve witnessed this, and have taken it to heart, in that I no longer truly concern myself in making a truly unique experience anywhere I go. Because it’s impossible, what I instead focus on, is making the best damned experience possible anywhere I go.

When applied to video games, I’ve come to realize that simplicity often works best on the story side of things. Early games especially required one main tenant for their story, and from there on you were good and content to play for the rest of the duration. It was not entirely essential that you throw in a bunch of complicated branching or ickiness that some modern RPGs require of you today. The gameplay was simplistic, the story was simplistic, the experience was simplistic.

But it was fun, and it was by no means truly unique from other games before it. People played and enjoyed them, and that’s because they were easy to grasp, and easy to picture.

The industry rarely thinks like this anymore.