Level Up.pdf

Everything I Learned about Level Design, I Learned from Disneyland 211
Even if your characters don ’ t physically travel anywhere in your game, you
can still use a map to show progression. The fighting game Mortal Kombat
displays a screen full of characters ’ headshots, with most of them “ locked
up ” at the beginning of the game. But by showing all the locked windows,
the game ’ s map provides foreshadowing that there will be many characters
that the player will eventually fight. As more opponents are unlocked, the
player is then compelled to “ collect them all. ”
Foreshadowing is a powerful tool to get a player excited about the activities
and dangers found in a level. Building anticipation is just as important as
delivering on it. In all my years of making haunted houses, I ’ ve found that a
scare is bigger and better if the victim knows it ’ s coming. It ’ s waiting for the
scare to happen that drives them nuts.
You can use lighting, sound effects, and geometry to make a level look
foreboding. And remember, nothing says “ beware ” like skulls and
skeletons strewn around an environment. You can never have too many
skeletons11 .
11 While I believe that you can never have too many skeletons, I think it is possible to go
overboard with filth and gore. Some horror games levels are splattered with blood and grime.
Maybe it ’ s just me, but I never find these environments scary. What is scary is a befouled
bathroom — but what makes it so scary is the smell and that you may have to touch
something: two senses that are completely absent from a video gamer ’ s “ vocabulary. ” And by
the way, having a room decorated with corpses strung up like Christmas ornaments doesn ’ t
make it particularly scary. It just looks … festive.