Level Design Combat Spaces
This design incorporated some combat spaces following specific metrics and shape choices to present comfortable and interesting player choices when engaging in combat. Also, this design followed a predefined narrative and pacing using the voice of archetypes such as a ‘Herald’ or ‘Mentor’ to represent design choices that help guide and communicate to the player. Below is the narrative setup for this level:
”Many years ago, the cowboy's mother was a prospector, and struck it rich. Unfortunately, her partner betrayed her and stole all the gold for himself. The cowboy's mom tracked him down, but he died before she could find out where he stowed all the gold. Recently, the cowboy happened upon a some clues about the gold's location. But his sworn enemy overheard his plans to find it, and has gotten here first, with an army of desperados. They'll use any means necessary to keep the cowboy from his treasure.”
Golden path playing as a mentor for the player that guides them assuredly to their destination, accompanied by a heralding archway.
The beginning of this level has a heavy hand in mentoring the player down a path to guide them through the space, easing them into the level without overwhelming them. This path leads underneath a heralding archway to assure the player's direction pushing them further uphill. The town that the Cowboy heard about where the gold might be is near and as the player reaches this town, I incorporated some framing that clearly defines and teases their ultimate goal—the big red structure in the distance. There are multiple interiors in this space for the player to also explore, forcing exploration as a means for progression.
The player entering the town with their ultimate goal now in sight!
The mentoring path weakens here but the shape language remains consistent with the starting area—the player feels progression but less secure as the defined path gets blurred and their ultimate goal gets closer. Note the sharp triangles used in the structure of the windows to communicate potential danger and action.
Once the player locates a break of a wall in one of the buildings, the mentoring path lessens as they drop down into a new slightly narrower space. While keeping the shape language consistent with that of the beginning area with grass, trees and other greenery, I frame again more definitely now the structure that looms over them. As the player proceeds down this path, the structure gets even closer, until the path ends and the player now drops down into the first combat space. The desperados are out on patrol! But the player fortunately drops down into immediate cover to first survey their movements before engaging—this sets up the first battle nicely so that the player feels in control of their first encounter and has a clear sense of their cover or traversal options.
Clear readable geometry cover as well as having proper metrics in place for player maneuverability.
I’ve learned that creating readable geometry such as boxes/crates gives the player a clear understanding on how much cover they are in. Having broken geometry with cracked edges makes it difficult to read how much cover the player is in during combat. Also, spacing apart the geometry within 2 units of each other gives enough space for the player to maneuver and find cover through. Any less than this creates a lot of frustration, causing the player to get stuck in certain spots without being able to quickly take evasive action.
The interior spaces that lead after this first combat encounter insight further environmental story telling, as well as having framed composition points leading the player’s attention further towards the final structure. The structure has a fully explorable interior that funnels the player to a final combat space with a few more enemies than the first encounter and in a much larger area. The areas of cover are broken up a little bit more to provide little peeking areas that the player or enemies can engage the player through. After all the enemies are defeated, around the corner of the battle area is the treasure which fulfills the Cowboy’s mission in locating the gold!
