Is this image true of today's level design?

scrlk

scrlk

scrlk

Soldato
Joined
25 Sep 2009
Posts
3,630
BITmX.jpg


Sadly, linear level design is just becoming too common in today's games. :(
 
Also, cutscenes sell, they make for trailer videos and nice screenshots which all helps market the game. Along with that as graphics have improved the newer generation of players has become a lot more obsessed with how a game looks over how it plays. Hell just look at the threads on this forum and look at all the times people talk about a games looks rather than its gameplay, we even have an enormous thread dedicated purely to a games looks, but no similar thread for gameplay. I've even seen people often say that they won't play game x because of its looks, sometimes missing out on some awesome gameplay. Imo , games will continue to get "smaller" and more linear as more effort gets placed into appearances (as appearances create the wow factor that sells) than on longevity , replayability and depth.
 
Both are legitimate approaches to game design, there's currently a thread blowing it's load over Half Life 2 and that's a version of the image on the right (albiet in many peoples eyes the ultimate version of that).

The opposite would probably be Crysis, Stalker etc, both of which have some heavy detractors.

If I'm honest the balance is probably leaning quite heavily towards more linear games, but I don't think it's accurate to say open = good / linear = bad or old games = open / new games = linear.
 
I think doorkeys are why old games are more complex. They needed to find a way to stop you rushing through the levels so they had to invent the doorkey, they couldnt have decent cutscenes in them days so they had to do something to incur a sense of stacked progression.
 
Also if you took that image and replaced 1993 and 2010 with far cry and crysis, games are getting more linear as I type.
 
Eames said:
I think doorkeys are why old games are more complex. They needed to find a way to stop you rushing through the levels so they had to invent the doorkey, they couldnt have decent cutscenes in them days so they had to do something to incur a sense of stacked progression.
Click to expand...

Or puzzles which made progression more interesting :)
 
so youve got 'travel to one end of the map, get red key, travel to the other end of the map, open red door, get blue key, go back to the beginning of the map' ect ect VS Shooter on rails.


hmmm, yeah both have their cons dont they?
 
Right, lets be a bit more realistic though. Doom was linear. You moved from point A to point B. If you took a top down model of a single player level from Crysis and compared it by scale to that Doom map, it would be ridiculous.

How many truly non-linear games do we have? In recent times I think I'd classify Mass Effect as having a fairly decent go at being non-linear in it's structure.

So in answer to your question. No, that image is a complete dramatisation of how some individuals perceive the state of level design without any real rational thought into how far we have come.
 
If that 2010 example is true, then surely most of us here could do better. If +that's+ true, then why aren't we all polishing our level design skills and having a go ourselves?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom