The Fundamentals of Level Design

According to E, Adams. (2014) level design is "the process of constructing the experience for the player" He believes that the level has many influences and effects on the player. Level design to him creates the aesthetic and mood of the game from the very beginning but also weaves the narrative with the gameplay. It's an equal balance which allows the game to be successful and effective. The level design also has an important factor of giving the player challenges and rewarding them with victory or loss. This is why it's so important as a creator to get this step right, as it will help the rest of the game fall into place.

Some of the key design principles he mentioned are having tutorials on easier levels and knowing the consequences of risks, but the main parts are about timing and strategy. With the level you need to pace the game correctly for the atmosphere, narrative and surrounding. And with the game play you need to inform the player of her challenges, short and long term. With these challenges you will need some rewards. Ernest believes you need small rewards throughout, and a bigger reward at some point in the level; it has to be enough to give the player a sense of victory. He also believes that when punishing the character, don't go over the top. A small punishment is enough, not so much it makes them want to quit because the game is too hard. Examples of this I can think of is games such as Sonic, where once you die 3 times you have to go back to the start of the whole game! This would stop some players from trying again. Yet then again if there is punishment there is a risk. You need the character to know it could end badly.

I agree completely with Adam, he seems to have looked at the technical side of the level and the more creative side. However my class and I did come up with some extra things he had missed out on. We think as well as short term goals, the player needs to know the long term goals too. This could be through our next point. Foreshadowing. You could subtly hint what will happen later in the game throughout the level, and possibly give a clue to a much bigger long term goal. Like a boss or a mini boss. You want different types of challenges in the level and usually a boss or a mini boss to make the player work a bit harder for victory. But you can't have repetitive challenges. You need to have varying battles along with a variety of scenery so the player doesn't get bored of looking at the same screen.

Overall I believe there is some points Ernest has missed but the theory itself is very good. He has looked it from both technical and creative perspectives and successfully identified what players want in a game. This is very helpful for our work this year as it gives our level a purpose and makes us think about it more through the players perspective.