Design Challenge: Level Cues

[jillduffy]

Post your questions and comments here about the Game Design Challenge: Level Design Cues.

[iL DuCe]

Just wanted to clarify that we can choose any situation or scenario in which the player must beat a level. The example provided is escaping a prison cell, which sounds very intriguing, but I would like to create my own scenario if I can think of something more interesting.

[LegalArcade.com]

Yes, are you actually supposed to choose any scenario, or just the given prison one? I'm a bit confused on that.

[iL DuCe]

Well, I went ahead and came up with my own original game with its own scenario in which players are given cues for beating a level. Hopefully that's okay

[Protector one]

Hmm... Cues, eh? Well, assuming we use common hardware (no Philips AMBx type stuff), we can have: visual (stuff on screen), auditory (sounds and music) and tactile (rumble) cues, no? Anything else?

[ronnoc10]

Well, anyone who played the Director's Commentary on Portal should have an idea of what to do here. They were obsessive about level design, to the point that I believe it ended up hurting their game.

[jillduffy]

Originally Posted by iL DuCe

Just wanted to clarify that we can choose any situation or scenario in which the player must beat a level. The example provided is escaping a prison cell, which sounds very intriguing, but I would like to create my own scenario if I can think of something more interesting.

The intention was that you would work with the prison cell scene.

However, if you were in a job interview, would you answer that questions or say, "I'd like to make up my own scene instead" and take it from there? What would you do?

[TG1]

ok, so I don't have anything concrete yet, but these are some points that I think should be addressed in the response to this challenge:

• what stage in the game the player is in (in the beginning of the game the player will need more clues then in a more advanced stage. also, is this the first time the player encounters the prison cell?)
• why is he in the prison cell
• does he need to do anything there (gather information? save another prisoner?) or just escape
• is being in the cell part of the game's story or something that happens if the player fails a mission?
• is there only one way to leave the cell or several options?

I think that deciding on these points (and more, like those in the challenge itslef) will affect the clues the player will receive, so although there is only one scenario (prison cell) I think the amount of possible solutions to this challenge is infinite

I wonder how the dynammics are during a job interview - will I be able to ask about these points or will I have to state my assumptions and go from there?

[iL DuCe]

Originally Posted by jillduffy

The intention was that you would work with the prison cell scene.

However, if you were in a job interview, would you answer that questions or say, "I'd like to make up my own scene instead" and take it from there? What would you do?

Good point. By creating my own scenario, I would show creativity. Maybe I will do both. The prison cell scenario is interesting as well.

[TG1]

Originally Posted by iL DuCe

Good point. By creating my own scenario, I would show creativity. Maybe I will do both. The prison cell scenario is interesting as well.

I actually thought about it the other way around - by using the given scenario I will show an ability to adapt and be creative in unfamiliar situations (ie - a scenario I never thought about myself and this is the first time I'm handling it), creating my own scenario (probably something I though about before) is a bit like avoiding the unfamiliar one and might not look good in an interview. (I look at it as if someone asked me what is 1+1 and I chose to answer what is 1+3 instead)