Print view Previous topic | Next topic

Topic Starter	Topic: Fundamentals of Gameplay Part II by Pat Howard
Pat Howard Insane Quaker Joined: 31 Mar 2009 Posts: 494	Posted: 08-11-2014 05:48 PM                  Fundamentals of Gameplay Part II by Pat Howard In the last article, I talked about how to structurally balance a map by following two fundamental relationships: the relationships between height and center point, and between height and footprint. This time I want to introduce a third height relationship, because while the first two are the most obvious and the easiest to describe, they actually didn't tell the whole story. Note: When I say, “the full story,” I don't actually mean to create a formula or instructions for Q3A level design. Not at all. I think it would be really lame to try to encompass such a creative activity in just a few short articles. There are infinite possibilities in level design, and I'm just trying to point out a few reliable patterns that exist in the most successful maps. Hopefully this will give you and me some tools to create interesting balance in our designs. Here are the first two relationships once again to recap from the last article: Relationship 1: Height and center point The highest levels of the map should generally be the furthest away from the map's center point. Relationship 2: Height and footprint The highest levels of the map should have the smallest footprint. The footprint of a level is a combination of both surface area and path width. Again, for the reasons supporting why this is, please refer to the last article. To visualize the relationships, imagine you're on a beach enjoying some margaritas and you push the bottom of your glass down into the sand. When you pick the glass up, it leaves behind a solid, circular imprint. Now you finish your drink, flip it over, and place the rim of the glass into the sand over the circular imprint. The rim would leave behind a larger, circular outline in the sand around the smaller solid circle. If you think about maps on a macro level, this is a good way to describe the difference between the high and low levels. The low levels should be like the solid circle, they have a large and fat footprint closest to the center point. The high levels should be like the circular outline. They look mostly like a thin outer rim of paths around the perimeter. Unfortunately, there is a major characteristic of Q3A level design that this two-relationship model leaves out. To see it, take a look once again at these diagrams of Q and Campgrounds. (Don't worry, I'll introduce a couple of new maps in this article as well.) Look specifically at the upper levels in red. Compare them to the “circular rim” analogy that I used to describe the high level before. What's different about them? Figure 1: Top-down view of Q by me. Figure 2: Campgrounds by id Software. Figure 3: An isolated view of the lower and middle levels of Campgrounds. Did you notice that in both cases, the upper level is divided into three separated regions, while the middle and lower levels are each continuous? The difference between this and a complete outer rim analogy has to do with something called continuity. Continuity is how straight-forward a path is from one point to another. So the most continuous path would be straight line with no changes in elevation. But paths can get broken up by gaps, turns, stairs and bouncers, choke points, and basically anything that slows down movement or makes the player more vulnerable. This is where the third height relationship comes in. Just like center point and footprint, continuity can be used strategically to create balance among the levels in a map. Relationship 3: Height and continuity The highest areas in the map should have the least path continuity. Too much continuity on the upper paths will allow players to run the entire map without ever needing to drop down to the low levels. This creates a situation where players will run the same high paths over and over again, only rarely visiting the lower areas to retreat or to collect items. After a few short games, players will hate your map and call you a loser. Luckily, there are a lot of ways to restore balance by disrupting continuity. Continuity can be disrupted by adding kinks, gaps, forced dropdowns, bouncers, dangerous bridges, and choke points such as confined halls or small rooms. Stairs are also very useful for breaking up continuity because they slow the player down and they are difficult to fight on. Interrupting path continuity like this not only makes the upper levels more precarious to navigate, but it has the pleasant side effect of being more visually appealing as well. Here's another example of the continuity principle in action. This time I am going to analyze Lost World which has quite a large upper-level footprint due to the map being made of mostly two levels. But notice the continuity on the high level (red) is consistently broken up using stairs, sharp kinks, tight doorways, dropdowns, and a central suspended bridge. You can see that the middle level (green) has significantly fewer stairs and kinks. In other maps with more levels, the continuity discrepancy between the ground and top floors is even more pronounced. Figure 4: Lost World by id Software. This map is largely consists of two levels, but has an extra two levels under the main atrium for vertical action around the low red armor. Figure 5: An isolated view of the lower and middle levels of Lost World. The classic map Blood Run is a composed of four levels and it's a great example of how long paths with a high degree of continuity can work perfectly fine on the ground floor (purple). Notice the end-to-end straight paths that have almost no interruptions. Now imagine if these paths were on the upper level. It would be way too easy for a player to run the whole map and still maintain a height advantage over his opponent. Instead, the upper levels are nicely broken up by long staircases, kinks, a few tight halls, and ledges for dropping down which completes the balance between high and low. Figure 6: Blood Run by ztn. This classic map is a great example of a four-level design. Figure 7: An isolated view of the lower and middle levels of Blood Run. Putting it all together If you follow the three height relationships between center point, footprint, and continuity, I can't promise that your map will land itself into the next QuakeCon Duel Masters pool, but you should be able to save yourself a lot of time and frustration during the layout process where many novices fail miserably. The best part is that these relationships can all be analyzed on paper before you even start building your map, which saves tons of time and frustration in the editor. I think this is a far better strategy than what most inexperienced mappers do, which is the map-as-you-go strategy. If you jump into the editor and make just whatever you feel like, it will be fun for a while, but eventually you will identify some severe problems with your map's gameplay. This will stall development with tons of revisions or even worse, cause you to scrap the map completely. Instead, try checking that each area of your map roughly follows the three height relationships before heading into the editor. The areas that deviate should have a very good reason not to. Finally, I'll just add that if you can break these relationships and still produce a fun map with lots of replay value, then by all means do! Your map will stand out against conventional designs and be a lot more unique for that reason. --- I hope you've enjoyed these articles so far. Of course, there's so much more to mapping than just to balance the high and low levels, but the principles I have talked about can get you off to a great start. Please feel free to join in on the discussion in the comments, and be sure to let me know if you would read more articles like this in the future. Click here when you're ready to continue on to my next article, "Connectivity Systems". pat Last edited by Pat Howard on 06-21-2015 03:54 PM, edited 3 times in total.
Top

CZghost The hell good boy Joined: 22 Jun 2011 Posts: 1922	Posted: 08-12-2014 05:14 AM                    Pat, this part of article is really outstanding and it should definitely be translated in czech Added it in my bookmarks, will see it in more details later _________________ [ Websites | Facebook | Twitter | YouTube | Instagram ] “When you feel the worst, turn to the sun and all the shadows will fall behind you.” - John Lennon
Top

Pat Howard Insane Quaker Joined: 31 Mar 2009 Posts: 494	Posted: 08-12-2014 06:34 AM                  thanks!
Top

Quake3World.com | Forum Index | Level Editing & Modeling