Level Up.pdf

342 LEVEL 12 The Nuts and Bolts of Mechanics
and … they help the designer make “ music. ” 6 The goal of good level design
is to help the player achieve what psychologist Mih á ly Cs í kszentmih á lyi 7
calls fl ow. (I told you we ’ d get back to it.)
Cs í kszentmih á lyi ’ s theory proposes that there is a point between boredom
and difficulty. A place where players become so engrossed that they
become energized, focused, and unaware of time. But in order to create
flow, you need to know how to orchestrate these elements together.
Reaching the state of flow feels like making music; it ’ s the rhythm of a great
level. A natural rhythm of the player ’ s movement and actions — or flow —
starts to emerge as he traverses the level 8 .
To me, game element placement is orchestrated like the instruments in
Sergei Prokofiev ’ s Peter and the Wolf. In this famous musical piece, each
6 Yes, I went there.
7 Pronounced “ cheek sent me high - ee ” You can bet your ass that I cut ‘ n ’ pasted that name.
8 The ancient Greeks believed there was a correlation between music and mathematics. The
Playstation game Vib Ribbon (SCE, 1999) uses musical beats from any music CD to generate
gameplay mechanics and hazards. The same ideas shown here in my example can be applied
from a mathematical persepective, where the gameplay elements and mechanics are combined
to create a formula of successful gameplay. I am told that game designer Mark Cerny ( Marble
Madness , Crash Bandicoot , among others) works this way.