Donny Evason

I say 101 but it's pretty basic and not ironclad by any stretch of the imagination - For all intents and purposes this is the most primitive design ideology/common sense that should be utilized when making levels - I'll stress the point here this is why we do a quick mock up level! when I started my original block out of what I wanted the level to look and feel like I started running into the basic issues that always arise; a few of these are generally aesthetic but a select few are general design principles - Let's examine: This was the first pass of an elevated stairway - the main issue is apart, think of this as a third person or even isometric game, what would the first thought be around the circled areas??? Space!? There's a lack of it for sure. Given the size of the room, the character, the enemies, puzzles and environments etc etc etc, there will be little space to move around/up the stairs without causing some obvious issues. Now this is of course dep...

Embed The Narrative!  And the mechanics I guess!  Something I enjoy doing a lot with assets is to embed them into the narrative, again this is simple stuff but often times it goes unnoticed. If done well it pays off in the long run, though this is often limited to assets available when creating levels (in this case I don't have loads). This method of asset placement or mechanic introduction can help teach the player without being intrusive about it. Here's an obvious example: Now this is the most rudimentary example of embedded narrative; a dead corpse propped against a wall. First thoughts on seeing this from a players perspective are generally: "eh a dead guy" or "that's interesting" - a few other thoughts are likely related to why the corpse is there/what happened to it/can I loot this etc etc. This can be used to a heightened degree later on, and be more inconspicuous, for example - if you were to create a boss room later on with say a l...