Level Up.pdf

The Nuts and Bolts of Mechanics 333
You would think that something like doors would be easy to design; after
all, we all have used them in the real world, right? But doors open their own
set of issues. Think about how the player is meant to open a door.
Normally? Carefully? Aggressively? Remember, the character ’ s personality
comes into play when thinking about this. Kratos kicks open doors. “ Soap ”
Mctavish uses explosives to blow open doors. Jill Valentine opens doors
very slowly and carefully. Does a player have to pick the lock before they
enter?
Be mindful of which way your door opens. Does it open in? Does it rise up
like a portcullis? Does it lower down? Does it swing out? All of these
opening actions can lead to different gameplay scenarios. Mappy (Namco,
1983) used doors to whack and temporally stun enemies. A portcullis in an
action game might lower back down after raised, requiring the player to
dash under it before it drops down. Even a simple door in a survival horror
game can be closed in the face of an enemy to buy the player the time to
reload or escape.
Despite their benefits, doors can bring their own problems. Quickly opening
doors can clip into the player or cause the player to get knocked back.
Make sure your player doesn ’ t get caught on doors and doorway geometry.
It may seem like an insignificant problem, but after getting caught up in
hundreds of doorways, your player will be pissed off. That ’ s the reason why
so many games make opening doors a canned animation sequence. The
early Resident Evil games designed their level loading to correspond with
the player opening a door. Not only did it mask the loading of the level
section, but it built tension as the door slowly swung open.
Make sure you know the answers to these questions and then keep the
method of entry consistent throughout your entire game.
Some doors are just not meant to be opened. Locked doors are perfect for
getting players to find another route through a level, but just make sure it ’ s
super clear why they can ’ t get through. Your locked door can look like it ’ s
made out of unbreakable metal, have a huge lock on it that the player