Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

Room Flow
C H A P T E R 1
Room flow is important because it gives shape to your game play function ideas.
Many current games depend on room-to-room interiors as environments for play.
For example, first- and third-person shooters are routinely set within building interior
components. At the high concept level, rooms must connect in some fashion,
such as through direct or implied hallways. An “implied” pathway (such as a wellworn
dirt path would be an obvious example, a logical connection in level areas from
front to back or top to bottom might be another less obvious example) is generally
very helpful for the player in navigating your level, if a path isn’t obvious. Different
room types and room scales (such as the size of a room compared to the size of your
character or vehicle) are connected through implied pathways. For example, you
might be exploring a “prison cell” section of a level, which connects with a subterranean
command center, which in turn connects with a tunnel system that connects
with a vehicle hangar.
Room interiors vary in function, mood, scale, purpose, and many other particulars.
So, then, how are the rooms put together into a cohesive level? Previsualization
for room flow often requires a look at two critical areas: logic and symmetry.
When considering the logic of your room layouts during previsualization, you
need to ask some basic questions: Is there a logical connection between rooms? How
will basic room flow work as a transition from one playing space to another? What
kinds of play and primary action elements do you expect these rooms to contain?
Gameplay direction should always influence and shape environmental design
choices. If you’re going to be using long-range projectile weapons, you probably
don’t want short or cramped spaces. Room spaces can even be used to prompt certain
responses from players; for example, the lay-out logic of a room space may suggest to
players that it would be a good area to search, that it would be a potential high-conflict
area, or that it would be a great cover and resupply area.
Physical symmetry is probably most important for team-based games like capture
the flag (CTF) and others. When you’re invading another team’s area to capture
something and bring it back home, the distance your team must cover should be the
same as the distance the other team must cover; otherwise, you have an immediate
imbalance. Yet, even for two player co-op or single play maps, those that offer some
kind of physical symmetry are often less confusing, easier to navigate, and generally
more enjoyable than those that feature no symmetry at all. Maps or levels with an unending
series of connected rooms laid out in a serial chain, one after the other,
quickly lose their sense of “place.” It becomes hard to tell where you are as a player in
relation to anything else in the level. On the other hand, levels that have a direct or
implied symmetry in their layout provide the player with valuable visual reference
points (for example, the tower is at the center ring). Symmetric levels seem to “feel”
better and make traversal (running around) easier than levels that offer little or no direct
symmetry at all.
11
Previsualization