Level Up.pdf

202 LEVEL 9 Everything I Learned about Level Design, I Learned from Level 9
3. Dungeon/cavern/tomb. The connections between Dungeons and
Dragons and Tolkien ’ s Middle Earth run strong and deep in the DNA of
video game developers. Dungeons are laden with traps to avoid,
puzzles to solve, and mechanics to circumvent. Dungeons offer up
waves of enemies (without a whiff of explanation as to why they live
there) and of course, there was always lots of collectable treasure to be
gleaned. Even when the game world isn ’ t themed to medieval fantasy,
players still thrill in raiding uncharted dusty tombs. Technically, dungeon
locations offer game artists many advantages: great opportunities for
dramatic lighting, and intricate carvings and statues. Even in the early
days of gaming, cave wall textures were made from easily repeatable
(or “ tiled ” ) art.
4. Factory. Factory levels became a staple of platform games, especially
as the platform game genre exploded on home gaming systems. The
dynamic mechanics offer game developers easily created, combined,
and repurposed hazards that can be tuned to a wide variety of difficulty
levels. These adaptable factory mechanics quickly spread to other
locations too: moving platforms, conveyer belts, and turning gears were
present in the tombs, circuses, and space stations of just about every
action and platform game 6 .
6 I consider it a triumph of the video game industry that Star Wars creator George Lucas, at
the last minute, added a factory level to his 2002 movie Attack of the Clones . The movie ’ s
heroes ride conveyer belts and make timed jumps through smashing presses worthy of a
sequence right out of a Nintendo platformer.