Level Up.pdf

x Contents
Level 8 Sign Language—HUD and Icon Design 171
Health Bar 172
Targeting 173
Ammo Gauge 174
Inventory 174
Score 175
Radar/Map 176
Context-Sensitive Prompt 177
The Clean Screen 178
Icon Has Cheezburger? 179
Don’t Get QTE 183
HUDs, and Where to Stick ‘Em 185
There Are Other Screens Than the HUD 187
The Pause that Refreshes 189
A Final Word on Fonts 195
Level 8’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas 196
Level 9 Everything I Learned about Level Design, I Learned from Level 9 197
The Top 10 Cliché Video Game Themes 200
The Name Game 207
Everything I Learned about Level Design, I Learned from Disneyland 208
The Beat Chart 214
Re-using Re-use 216
The Gary Gygax Memorial Mapping Section 217
The Dave Arnenson Memorial Mapping Section 223
Wrapping Up Mapping 229
Illusional Narrative 232
Gray Matters 233
Leave the Training Level for Last 239
Level 9’s Universal Truths and Clever Ideas 240
Level 10 The Elements of Combat 243
400 Quatloos on the Newcomer! 245
Now You have to Kiss Me 254
On Moving 255
On Guarding 258
State of the Art Bang Bang 261