S4-1
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A Flow of Unexpected Situations
The key is to approach each asset in the game with these in mind.
Keep these in mind while working on embedding your theme and tone into assets:
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"Games with strong atmospheres are games with rich themes, resistant to oversimplification or being played just for the sake of being played. They are clearly about something."
~ Greg Kasavin, Supergiant Games
A game may require all, some, or none of these levels of abstraction:
(RW/FW = for Realistic/Fictional Worlds)
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Just remember, good worldbuilding is not a heavy level of detail, but about serving narrative & experiential goals -- i.e. realizing a world!
For 2D, draw on graphic design & photography composition concepts, like the rule of thirds!
The clarity of knowing your orientation within a space and delineating it from other spaces.
On a core level, make the space inherently interesting to dwell within!
"What people work to remove from a house when they try to sell it!"
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Secretly, all 3 verbs are higher-order mixtures of 2 basic concepts:
Contrast (focal points) + Repetition (through-lines)
What gameplay do you want to occur in the space?
What do you see when you look up? When you look down?
Size, shape, light, sound -- and how do these make you feel?
Does the level usher you through itself quickly,
or present [optional/required] chances to explore?
How does the space focus on 1 playstyle, or provide for more? Does it encourage or discourage certain playstyles? How?
How does the space express game narrative, if at all? Cutscenes? Scripted events? Environmental storytelling?
What spatial experiences exist in games similar to yours?
How do the level's environment assets work off one another (proportion, rhythm), as well as to any adjacent spaces?
Is the level geometry easy for avatars to move around, with everything in reach? Does it challenge/expand those abilities?
What environment art elements repeat? Are they interactive? If so, do they correspond to a specific gameplay mechanic?
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Also consider answering "and to what end?" at the end of your reply to each numbered way of seeing!
Focusing on the concepts that connect these corners prevents a game from feeling like its corners are good in isolation, but don't gel holistically. The corners are just a means to these corner-linking ends!
Consistent, Clear Affordances FACILITATING Player Intentionality = making Conscious Choices with specific Goals and Expectations in mind.
Make a world that feels Unique, Cohesive, and Meaningful. See Kasavin!
Make narrative interactive and ground gameplay in narrative goals.
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Let music have specific points at which it becomes relevant!
"When you have a really dramatic scene, when something is really happening on the screen, why would you put music to it? You can turn something dramatic into something melodramatic very easily."
How to Score a Film Too Safely: music says the same things as the picture, always what you expect, never risks challenging expectations. Predictable without message/identity of its own.
Oh My!
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"Also that if all you do is just iterate until what feels good without a context, I feel that's no different from just spamming Generate on AUD.js, but in a DAW it's way less intuitive to do that because of its interface (shy of the ghost channels trick)." ~ w/Andrew G.
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The 2 hours worth of post-end dialog text in Undertale.
Gamasutra: "Small Dumb Touches" in Pyre
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"What if we made small levels/games as gifts, tokens, and mementos to people and places we know?"
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(related: "Local Level Design")
