David Milam
ABSTRACT
Video games today increasingly situate play in imaginative 3D worlds. As a result, the industry devotes much time and effort to level design. However, this subject has received very little research. Documentation on the process of level design or how designers push or pull players through a level within a video game is very sparse. In this paper, we propose a set of design patterns for level design. The patterns were developed based on a process involving interviews with game designers as well as gameplay analysis of different games. We established face validity of these patterns through expert review; we also established reliability using inter-rater agreement. In addition, we also developed a timeline video annotation method based on these patterns. This visualization method provides a very effective approach to view players' play style and preference as well as level design problems. The patterns as well as the visualization method will be discussed in the paper.
Supplemental Material
- Adams, E. 2009. Fundamentals of Game Design. Second Edition. Berkeley, CA: New Riders. Google Scholar
Digital Library
- E. S. A. 2009. Essential Facts about the Computer and Video Game Industry. Entertainment Software Association. http://www.theesa.com/facts/index.asp.Google Scholar
- Byrne, E. 2005. Game Level Design. 1st ed. Hingham, MA: Charles River Media.Google Scholar
- Fiel J, and Scattergood, M. 2005. Beginning Game Level Design. Boston: Thomson Course Technology.Google Scholar
- Mcgregor, G. 2007. Situations of Play: Patterns of Spatial Use in Videogames. In Tokyo.Google Scholar
- Nitsche, M. 2009. Video Game Spaces: Image, Play, and Structure in 3D Worlds. Cambridge: MIT Press. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Rogers, S. 2009. Everything I Learned About Level Design I Learned from Disneyland presented at the Game Developers Conference - Game Design Track, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
- Smith, R. 2009. Helping Your Players Feel Smart: Puzzles as User Interface presented at the Game Developers Conference - Game Design Track, San Francisco, CA.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Design patterns to guide player movement in 3D games
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