1. Imagine that you are a level designer working in the 1980s. Knowing the
limitations associated with this era, what type of game would you develop?
If i were to create a game in the 1980s i would make an action adventure style game
with similar styling to the original "Legend of Zelda" game. Although where the Zelda
game has a earth like world setting i would go for more of a space like setting with
otherworldly themes throughout.
2. Play three games—one from the 1980s, one from the 1990s, and one
released after 2004. Compare and contrast how levels and environments are
designed in all three games.
The three games that i chose to play for this was the game Duck hunt for Nintendo
entertainment system, Star wars dark forces for the pc and Battlefield 3 for PC.
The game Duck hunt was one of first shooting games to come into the world.
Duck hunt has a very small environment in that it has one screen showing at all
times that doesn't change throughout the level. The one screen shows all of the information
that the player needs (Ammo, score etc.) The game duck hunt is a very simple game
and doesn't require a large game level to be a effective.
Dark Forces game play expands on the FPS standards set by Doom (1993) and featured game play
elements that are now common in the FPS genre. These include the ability to look up and down,
duck, and jump. The levels are quite large and are fairly free roamish. The thing i found so
good about the levels in this game is that they arent terribly easy to find your way through
and are a good challenge to get through to the next stage, there aren't any prompts or big things
flashing on the screen saying go this way like most newer games. It was a game that made you
think about what you actually had to do to finish it.
Battlefield 3 is EA's newest attempt to make a good fps game. The level design is pretty good and
the maps and campaign has its good moments but the whole game is ruined by the lighting effects
and the massive amounts of small bugs (get stuck on all sorts of small rocks)
that make the game a pain to play. Overall the levels have
their good sides and bad sides.
The game level design over the years has changed obviously but by how much. The biggest difference
is the graphics available on todays machines. Also the size available for the actual level sizes.
In some ways i preferred the old games over the newer ones because they are much simpler which can
make the game feel funner than the new ones. Also because the games are old you can sort of expect
them to have their faults with things where as with newer games they have a bigger staff and a bigger
budget you should be able to have less bugs and be better designed games.
3. How does a game’s genre affect the way its levels and environments are
designed? Choose one level from three different games—each from a distinct
primary genre—and compare how these levels are designed with regard to
setting, goals, puzzles, and risk–reward system.
The genre of a game can affect the level design in multiple ways, for example if the game is
a strategy game like Civilization there are multiple ways that you can win a game (through political
channels or through war and destroying the opponents) but with a fps game such as Serious Sam 3
there is only one way to go through the game and finish it, or with an rpg type game such as Skyrim
you can either just go through and do the main missions or you can go do some side missions in the
hope for a better weapon or maybe a level up from the extra experience.
