Ultimate Game Design : Building game worlds

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C H A P T E R 1 PAPER-BASED LEVEL BLOCKING Every map, level, arena—in short, every game environment—should still begin on paper. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it’s just plain easier to edit, update, and try out ideas. Second, it can save large amounts of time and money spent on wasted resources. You can play around with spacing, room flow, and the logic of the level very easily. I’ve found that huge dry-erase whiteboards are very helpful. They are great for team brainstorming sessions, from which useful notes and ideas can be quickly gleaned. Paper-based level blocking is also great for discussing and making quick changes to level flow ideas, boundaries, prop placement ideas, and segue areas planned for your level. Quick Topographic Maps Yes, we live in a world of amazing editors and 3-D packages—each with its own subtle and frustrating nuances—but many “concepts” can be tested faster and easier on paper than by using any other medium. You can more easily identify flaws in logic, build out transition spaces, and test your ideas, and really get a more solid grasp on the global view for your level. Also, it’s important to start thinking modularly, which means planning how to build up your level out of simple, adjoining, and reusable components. It’s like building up a level with a toy construction kit out of several pieces joined together in a meaningful way. Okay, you have your graph paper, now what? Generally, you want a nice topographic or overview-style map. Figure 1-4 is an example of what a section of your map might look like. I like to draw it out on paper or whiteboard, clean up the notes, and build a quick and clean version using the Microsoft Visio software application. The small level section illustrated in Figure 1-4 might be a cathedral area for part of your level. The circles represent cathedral turrets or towers. The smaller circles are simply columns. You can use a legend that identifies what each element on your topographic map corresponds to, such as in this legend for Figure 1-4: � T Towers or turrets � C Columns � P Pews � O Pipe organ � OB Organ bench � A Altar Now we have a basic positioning layout (not to scale, of course) and legend system. Keep in mind that a topographic sample like this is only a reference point, a way to start off on the often long road to a complete level. Now let’s take an introductory look at how we begin to detail our level using textures, props, effects, and scripted events. 13 Previsualization
Building Game Worlds 14 U L T I M A T E G A M E D E S I G N FIGURE 1-4 Topographic level map sample Textures Textures will be mapped or placed on our geometry constructions. Textures are surface material information—colors or patterns, contrast and hue, but they also indicate physical characteristics like bumpy, rusty, or stone-like, etc. Think of a texture
Page 3 and 4: A BOUT THE AUTHOR Tom Meigs is a ga
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Page 23 and 24: 2 THE game design process begins by
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86 YOU now understand the developme
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108 UP to this point, we’ve cover
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130 Building Game Worlds 130 U L T
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136 SCRIPTING in games gives develo
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166 ONCE your game environment has
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Building Game Worlds 174 174 U L T
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188 A whole new avenue for games ha
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216 ANOTHER new content horizon for
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238 THERE is a wide and growing ran
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266 AT some point in your skills gr
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274 Building Game Worlds U L T I M
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Building Game Worlds 278 FIGURE 11-
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286 THIS appendix includes useful r
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296 MANY types of software tools we
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304 TO assist you to further define
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310 I’VE gathered together a few
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322 AS a point of reference and as
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Building Game Worlds 336 Baseball s
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Building Game Worlds 346 crowd, 146
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