Design Rules, Basic Level Design Drafts & Lists upon lists of stuff needed to make this blasted thing.
Originally, the game was meant to be called Shadow Shard, and was based as a stealth game inspired mostly off of Thief & Bloodborne. I had planned on starting it up earlier on in the academic course, but didn’t find the time out of class to do so. Instead, the project remained cemented in my mind.
A 2d stealth game, where the player used a bow as their main tool. They could not fight effectively, being too weak to do so. Only the amount of arrows and types of arrows at their disposition could provide aid in combat, alongside the Shadow Shard, which was an item that allowed them to turn invisible, dash through shadows, etc.
The issue was the following: it would have been easier to make a game that correlated with my final thesis project, so that any research I did for the essay would also count towards my FMP, and help me better understand my final project.
As a result of this, I chose to fully incorporate Environmental Storytelling into my FMP, rather than be a simple stealth game replica, I would go about making a 2D platformer that would tell a story through the setting alone. Something that would allow the player to still make use of those stealth mechanics I’ve been trying to implement in.
Hollow Knight, Hyper Light Drifter, La Mulana
I give you the Silent City instead: a 2d stealth exploration game, where the focus is to find a mythical item using clues left behind in the environment. The player will explore a dangerous, half flooded ruin, hoping to find the solution to their village’s incoming destruction. Its essentially the same concept, however the focus will be entirely on level design. Death itself won’t be a crucial part of the game, however the way the world is set up, and its navigation will be. In that sense, I’ve decided to examine two games that I believe execute levels/dungeons rather well.
Hollow Knight & The Legend of Zelda are both excellent examples of branching level design, making use of various rules and a rich environment to also give birth to interesting challenges and environmental narrative. My main research was through Game Maker’s Toolkit’s video essay series on Stealth, Level Design, World Design and Environmental Storytelling, where Mark Brown critically analyses various games, namely those I’ve previous mentionned.
As of now, I’ve begun a rather basic GDD for the game itself, going to detail the final project’s recipe, the story behind the game’s ruin, inspirations and basic player movement. I’ve also drafted some basic world design, based on the temple I seek to create. Here’s an early sketch of it:
Finally, in addition to this early draft, I’ve come up with some level design rules that will guide my process through the project, using what I’ve learned and read from various books and video essays.
Arthur’s Level Design Rules:
* Keep it simple stupid, each room should have a challenge.
* Every room must be unique enough to warrant its own existence.
* Every room must be connected to at least 2 other rooms.
* Connections between rooms can be before/after acquiring a key item.
* Every room must be thematically and narratively evocative, as well as relevant to the game’s environmental storytelling.
* ‘Logic’ between rooms must naturally pursue to the other. (I.E: If there’s a waterfall, where does the water go?)
* Every room needs to be kept in a simple, but cohesive artstyle. There’s no need to overly complicate your life.
* Every room should have elements that can help facilitate stealth gameplay, and freedom of movement.
Thanks for reading c: