Level Design, Implying a path to the player

Question

I am looking for articles on level design and particularly for techniques to imply a direction the player to go in, instead of another.

Like which game mechanics can be used, how graphics, sound, etc. can influence the player to go where you want.

For example in Donkey Kong Country bananas were used to show other paths or hidden areas, in Alan Wake, there were orange markers to show weapons caches.

If anyone has ideas, I'd be grateful to hear them too!

Edit: For anyone that is interested, I found a huge resource with thesis on this question, and others related to Level Design; happy reading!

http://guildhall.smu.edu/Level-Design.226.0.html

Answer 1

This isn't an article, but there is a chapter in the book The Art of Game Design by Jesse Schell that discusses a concept that Walt Disney referred to as "weenies" in reference to dog handlers holding up a hot dog to control where the dog is looking. The most famous weenie Disney used was the castle in the Magic Kingdom; visitors to that theme park were inexorably drawn toward the center by the castle visible right from the entrance and throughout the park. In the book, Schell talks about using this technique in the Magic Carpet VR ride by painting a stripe on the floor to guide player's to the throne.

More generally, a "weenie" is anything that draws the player's attention. Once their attention is drawn in that direction, they tend to move in that direction. One of the best ways to draw attention is to place a desired item over there. Your example of the bananas falls under this; a lot of games will put gems or ammo or health packs on the path they want the player to take. In fact, the bananas in Donkey Kong Country are discussed at length in a couple articles on http://www.sirlin.net/

Most of the other ways to draw the player's attention are specific examples of using contrast. For example, a bright spot in a mostly dark level will draw the player's attention. Similarly, a sudden change in the audio will draw the player's attention. If you think about those old Hannah Barbera cartoons then you'll recall how a different colored bush (or something in the scenery) told you something was about to happen there.

When done sparingly, it can be fun to play with this trope. For example, when the player is suspicious that the desired item or differently colored door is tricking them into taking a more dangerous path. You don't want to overdo that though, or the player will feel like the level designer is just a sadist.

ADDITION: Oh yeah and enemies can be placed to guide the player. Enemies are an interesting sort of guidance tool because they can be either attractive (the player tends to go towards the enemies) or repellent (the player tends to avoid the enemies) depending on context. How powerful the player is relative to the enemies, what kind of reward the player gets for defeating the enemies, etc. are all factors affecting how enemies affect the player's choices.

Answer 2

not sure if the is relevant to what your doing but I remember some games panning or jumping the camera the first time you enter an area showing you there were secret paths available if you wanted to go find them.

another thing I remember from blue dragon was the enemy placement. a path to a treasure room or the like would have different types of enemies guarding it from the story path.

having to unlock a path also works. finding a locked door but being told the key is here somewhere and I can get in there always drives me to explore.

Answer 3

I think you should specify a bit more about your game. Whats your game about? What genre?

But a common technique is to use game elements to "guide" the player. For example, if your game is bloody, you can use blood splashes in the floor. If your game is dark you can use light spots. Yoy can also trigger some event that gets the camera attention.

If the point is to avoid player to go somewhere, try always to do it with game elements or distracting the player. For instance, if you want to avoid the player to pay too much attention to one scenario that is not the best of your game, you can try to create a frenetic scene there, so the user don't have time to check the defects of the scenario.

You can also place rewarding things to pick-up. You can place a bot calling your attention... etc etc but depends a lot of the game.

Answer 4

try to make things point in the direction you want the player to go, Grass, angles, clouds, like in a painting. put a focus in a circle or arch, use s-curves as they are pleasing to the eye. hide the area slightly to create a sense of mystery. those kinds of things, but dont spend too much time and effort on that or it might not get done.

Answer 5

If you want to force the player down a path, just create one path and let them go at it! Any other paths must logically end in dead-ends or else route back to the main path.

It depends a lot on the type of game, too. In a rogue-like, for example, you can generate a single path of rooms leading to the exit, and just branch out dead-end rooms.

In an RPG, you can (as is typically done) block wrong routes with objects/people/etc. so that the user can't take them.