The summary of the GDC China 2015 and the grooming of the level design tutorials

Last year Level tutorial Summary link: Listen to the GDC2014 about the level design lecture summary and own understanding

No. 24th went to GDC China to listen to the lecture, did not listen to unity did not listen to the VR, listen to a day level tutorial, and the last level of the tutorial or there is a difference, this level spoke a lot about camera things, and then the rhythm, puzzles and so on and the same as the last time. The next day did not go, and then the night under the heavy rain, Waitan swollen rose high, the third morning to see the summit of the week to do a game, and Wu Dashen of the PBR lectures, afternoon listening to the space engineer this game from the idea to success, feel this game do well ah ... In short, it benefited greatly, and got a lot of gold news.

make a game a week

First from the forward, a week to do a game, very admire the speech of the female developer, she told her development of the mentality, suffering from the pressure, and how to overcome their own, and finally in this year's game from the first game to the last game has been improved, but also learned a lot of knowledge. She is using unity to develop, show us a few she did several games, in her more than a year in the process of a few turning points, there are orgasms, there are troughs, but she has survived, but also to do the train on the Gamejam, if possible Bo master is going to, hahaha.
I've written three things in this book:
1. Summarize what has been done (learned) for some time
2. The game has learned experience and knowledge even if it is poorly done
3. A period of time (such as a week) only do (learn) one thing
She does a weekly game to send online, let people play, people can give him advice. The most popular is the little game about stealing farting, and she showed it to us. Her ppt, like a game manipulator, represents her own villain walking to one door after another, representing the time she has gone through and the games she has done. The following picture is her in the whole PPT most let me feel shocked, she means no matter through the failure or the trough is not okay, will tread on the past of their own success.

phenomena with imaging PBR

Wu Dashen's PBR, let me add a lot of missing knowledge points

space engineers from idea to success

I watched the video and thought this game would be fun. This series has space engineers and medieval engineers, updated every week, each update has new features, and weekly update video, feel very good, let the player think the company attaches importance to this game, and every week there are new play. Then talk about their viral marketing, more than the media focus on the community, let the player as a propagator, and provide game improvement ideas and so on. The priority to consider due date and functional quality, important task priority, the abandonment is abandoned, to save time to add better things. A dynamic list of agent items. Future trends in the game are difficult to predict. Try to iterate as quickly as possible to avoid running out of money.
And the pros and cons of the business model,
Negative:
1. The customer is only willing to pay the lowest price
2. It's hard to profit from
Positive:
1. Can be played by the gamer community viral communication game = Less marketing work
2. Satisfied players (clients) will be repeat customers, will also buy your other games, and new games
And worked matters about the game community.
I remember two things in Ben.
1. Prioritization: Choose the most important
2. Consider whether it is necessary to add new features to save time to add the most interesting features

Level Design

Then focus on the full-day level tutorial, thanks to three lecturers, from Ubisoft's Jolie Menzel,hangar Harrison G Pink,heart machine Teddy Dief.
This focus focuses on layout, aesthetics, rhythm and flow, narrative narrative and environmental narrative.
The knowledge point is more scattered.
The level is the space to create an art and game system.
Level design advocates a focus on the player experience.

Layout and Aesthetics layout

aesthetic Focus
Aesthetic focus focuses on physical space, and psychological focus focuses on the relationship between the player and the game.
Level design relies on visual composition, rhythm depends on emotional input and Time arrangement (later)
The focus of the level design is not on the optimization of the art, but on its foundation.
It is important to consider the levels in the player's eyes.

Psychological Focus
A lot of the game designer's work is to understand the behavior of the player
1.     meet player expectations
2.     Predict the player's style
players will play the game as a way of self-expression, so to give the player creative space. The

level represents what your game is about and conveys to the player the best way to play it. Layout is the physical composition of the level.
Mechanics, which indicates what the player will do. Various verb "verbs"
layouts, indicating where the player is doing these things, giving the environment context to do these mechanics.

Layout Basics
View,movement,geometry is the main three-point
we aim at the layout of the level in order to make the player feel feeling, So different kinds of games will have different layouts. such as single player/multi player, competitive competitive/cooperative cooperative, Story-driven story driven/mechanics-driven

orthographic projection and perspective projection
The layout of the orthographic projection orthographic projection and the perspective projection perspective projection in the camera is different
orthographic projections are mainly in 2d games, with no perspective at all (objects near large and small). The
may have spoofing on the same plane.
generally is the section or from the top to bottom layout, (figure is Bo main online search, love Pokemon series, Flame Emblem series. Is like radiation: refuge of the 2d game, do not know what the name of the
 
 
 
There is a pseudo-perspective effect of orthogonal projection (the figure is found on the blog, in fact, Diablo 2 is a 2d game, but also like the Final Fantasy strategy version, The Royal Knights. P.S. Bloggers are very fond of playing)
 

Perspective projection is generally a 3d game, for example, CS

But such a perspective projection 3d game has mobile restrictions on the camera, such as camera hit what buildings and the like, need to deal with.

Field of view view
The Frustum controls the field of view.
2d games have no real vision, we use a camera frame to simulate.
This limits what the player is looking at, but allows the player to focus on something that is partial, such as


View & Movement:approach vectors
The shape of the player's move path is the layout.
The difficulty of seeing the target location
Simple: Players don't need to adjust their perspective
Medium: The player needs to move the view, but does not need to change their position
Difficult: The player must change the viewing angle and find the appropriate location to see the target location


geometry geometry Layout & difficulty balancing Difficulty balance
The geometric layout brings occlusion, the more the player sees, the more the enemies are caught (enemies encountered), like this with occlusion, players can not see the back, will increase the playability. Especially in FPS Multiplayer, the geometry layout can be used to hide, allowing the player to specify a combat plan.


The level length is related to the character movement speed.
Increasing the vertical layout will increase the sense of space, such as Sonic.
Both the movement and the geometry layout are measured.


Flow
Flow is the rhythm of the player's experience created by the basics
Flow affects the feeling of the whole game feeling

Summary
View & movement & geometry are several elements of the level layout that affect the player's experience in the level
These factors directly affect the player's flow and, in turn, affect the player's sense of gameplay. The feeling of the gameplay


rules for layouts
The layout affects the difficulty the player gets to the target, and affects what the player chooses to do when the challenge is met.
Layouts are "natural" tutorials in the game (teach players how to play), layouts and hints foreshadow gradually teach players to play games.

Define the player path
This part of the blogger thought it was more detailed last year.


I missed a double finish here.

Aesthetics

Level Aesthetics
The level is deeply dependent on the visual composition of visual composition to communicate effectively with the player.
Composition composition should strengthen reinforce design
Level designers should be adept at composing composition, but are not required to implement

Then is to explain the golden section, three-way, triangular composition of the camera, such as the things, bloggers will then write the article specifically to explain the camera system and camera composition, post processing and other things.


To produce a very mass (heavy) visual effect on an object or foe by contrast of light, color, and size.


Spatial perspective Space Perspective
Linear Perspective Linear perspective
Aerial perspective aerial perspective, Aerial view

The character 180° relative principle, also is the camera knowledge, the blogger will post to explain

The role of landmarks was also mentioned last year.
Hide clues and hints in the scene.

Rhythm and Process

The rhythm is anticipation expected (after the foreshadowing foreshadowing) >decision decided >consequences results >re-evaluation re-evaluation of the repeated cycle.
Rhythm is the intensity of the player's experience over time
Not just using the rhythm, it is any form of media, but in order for the game to succeed must pay attention to the rhythm.
Rhythm refers to the timing of presenting events and emotions to the player in the level.
A good rhythm keeps the player motivated and emotionally engaged, so the rhythm is a very important tool.
Keep players interested by constantly presenting new experiences and game choices to the player.
Rhythm is used to control when a player does something.
Visualizing rhythm in a graphical form is useful.
A good rhythm allows the player to play the game the way you expect it to. If the rhythm is too fast, the player will not have time to feel the emotion you are trying to evoke. If the rhythm is too slow, the player will feel confused or lose interest.
If the rhythm is too strong and lasts for a while, the player becomes numb and no longer excited. It can also be very uncomfortable for players to release their nervousness before they can regain their emotions and feel new things.
The game needs to constantly push the player forward---"Just a little bit less" to keep the player motivated. can use anything to produce this effect, such as another encounter (war?). ), get items, or collect elements, transitions, etc.
A well-paced level can continue to provide players with agent and to see new things (here Bo master examples, such as the Killing prototype 2, let Bo main a cool, a task attached to a task, finish the task can walk around, see the scene landmark, Idle walk a few people, abuse several soldiers, rhythm very good)
Controlling the rhythm ensures that players have a purpose to play, which means they need to accomplish specific goals rather than wander around and expect something to happen.
If the rhythm leaves time for the player to watch the layout and form a model of the game space in their mind, then they will be able to make a battle plan, and you should keep the player active rather than passive.
The slower rhythm also gives the player time to experience a variety of operations, such as jumping around and trying out combinations of keys.
The rhythm of the game must be kept in mind when deciding the rhythm of the level, as your game is made up of many levels, each of which increases the overall rhythm of the game.
Ask yourself a few questions before you do the level.
1. What kind of player is your target audience?
2. What does this level need to do?
3. What kind of emotion do you want to arouse the player?
4. What tools do you want to use in them? (Car, moto, machine gun ....) ）
Once you know the answers to these questions, break your levels down into events of every moment, called "Beat Beats."
Beats can be anything, such as a single encounter in a level (war), item pickup, secure space, and so on.
In music, the Beats are combined to form music at different intervals, and in the same way the levels can be combined at different intervals to form specific rhythms.
The most important thing to build a good beat is to control the intensity of the beat.
String of Pearls theory

Visualize the game intensity over time


The intensity of the peaks and lows of the game play change control, change = = Many different and interesting gameplay.
A variety of variations can eliminate the player's fatigue and boredom. If there is no change, the player loses the feeling of progress and discovery.
The open world offers change by providing players with many different types of activities at any given time.
For example, in Super Mario, one of the rhythm control methods of the level is the difficulty (number of enemies, movement, attack mode, and even the frequency of the enemy wave), which brings a lot of changes.
Changing the frequency of the enemy's presence forces the player to make interesting choices about the next action.
Cannot give the player sufficient time to pick up the loot, he cited an example is in a lot of enemy places dropped equipment, if to pick up is very dangerous to be attacked by the enemy, but get the equipment will enhance the role, reward and adventure coexist for the player to choose, this is a choice, The player must decide whether to make sure they are safe or to take the risk of obtaining these rewards, making the player very excited and having a good experience. (Bo's example, Super Mario's mushrooms are surrounded by enemies.) CF's biochemical model, the replenishment is randomly lowered, and the surrounding is likely to have enemies, bonuses and adventures coexisting. ）
Only a few places in a confined space can hide and fill a large number of enemies, will make the rhythm of the intensity of rapid rise. Another more open, multiple lines, there are several enemy patrols in the space to make people feel less strength, can be more sneaky, let the player free pass. The combination of the two creates a change.
Then lift
This example explains the rhythm.


Don't forget the power of music! Changing the background music BGM tunes can really make the player feel the emotion you want to convey to them.
Bloggers finally cite a case, there is a reversal of the referee, the rhythm of the fast time with the tension of the music to testify, the rhythm of a slow time several characters to each other to tell a few jokes, there are puzzles appear in order to ask and testify what, the rhythm is very good, let a person breath play down
Foreshadowing foreshadowing
Another useful way to control the rhythm of a level is to use the foreshadowing.
Foreshadowing is the hint of what is going to happen early in the game, and sometimes even at the very beginning. Here, for example, there is a game on the wall posted posters, the poster is the final boss portrait, and Doom (as if not very clear is a few generations) to start a player born in the safe space There are many players will encounter strange images.
This is a beneficial tool that keeps the player's nervousness growing over time.
Also helps to create tensions during the expected phase (as in the example above)
For example, the player starts the level in a secure space with a large amount of gain, and the player starts to feel little intensity at first, but they realize that the meaning of such a powerful item is so early that they will feel nervous about what is going on and feel the threat that will happen in the future. So that the player does not see the enemy began to uneasy.
The foreshadowing can improve the player's nervousness.
This tension is effective only if the tempo is slow enough at the beginning of the level, and if the player already has a high level of tension, this foreshadowing will not work.
Once the rhythm is too fast or too slow, the iteration adjustment should begin immediately. It takes a long time for a lot of changes to get to the right level, constantly adjusting until you feel right.
Rhythm is very subjective, you should have many different types of players to test your level. and record the behavior of these players, where they feel overwhelmed, where they take time to explore, where they scare them, and so on.
Keep in mind the importance of converting gameplay types, a sudden increase or decrease in intensity can create some excitement, but gradually increase or decrease over time to avoid exhausting the player.
Reward the player who has successfully passed the peak strength, which gives the player an opportunity to vent their emotions and let the player know that it is safe to take a break.
To improve the strength, avoid one-time to the player too much to think about things, so that the player overload is an easy mistake, the player can only focus on a few things at a time.
If the player does not know what is going on, they will move freely and hope that the lucky goddess comes to lead them through the level (haha, lecturer humor).
This overload includes:
1. There are too many different types of enemies at once
2. There are too many changes in a short period of time (definition of change on top)
3. There are too many branch routes at one time (Bo owner's question, = =;galgame count?) Joking)
So, focus on a rhythm and adjust it

Then the rhythm of the third chapter of The Walking Dead is analyzed, including dialogue, puzzles, actions, explorations, and transitions. Do not repeat here (in fact, these have been said last year)

The rhythm also pushes the tutorial, does not control the player learns the game mechanism, lets the player follow his own rhythm to study. Players have the right to express themselves. Unlocking new systems, skills, and strategies over time gives the player space to focus on each item separately.

Game Narrative

The purpose of the game narrative
Narrative is the background of game mechanics and helps players understand the rules of the game. In the course of the game narrative and mechanism can affect each other, sometimes narrative is the focus.
Narrative hierarchy Story frame---tempo (top to bottom, from big to small)


the level of narrative
Dramatic curves



Scripted narrative-the character's story ..... (The plot arranged by the designer)
Burst narrative-The story of the player ..... (the player's unique experience (e.g. each battle is their own))
Scripted narrative-The story of space ..... (What is going on in this space, what is happening in this space, what happened in the past, what the goals and stakes are)
Burst narrative-player's choice ..... (How the player wins the battle, how the player explores the space)

Burst narrative-the moment of the player ..... (record player's choices, victories and funny moments)

the tool of narrative, cutscenes, dialogue (NPC dialogue or voice-over), environmental storytelling environment, narrative system narrative
cutscenes Transitions:
Positive: The narrative is clear enough to ensure that the player will watch
Negative: Player cannot control (cannot interact during), make expensive
Lets the player choose to skip the skip transitions animation.
Dialogue
Narrator:
Front: Flexible time and place, free to play, control of the player does not affect
Negative: Players may be distracted, may never be triggered, players sometimes don't notice (improper)
Dialogue also includes walking and saying, may be very false for example, in the battle NPC still say (bloggers play Final Fantasy 13-2 often this situation, NPC said on the encounter, and then play back to say half of the place to continue to say, feel good fake)
There are narration commentary, audio logs (such as Get a radio object put said, also has the above shortcomings may never be triggered, players sometimes notice, but more real, fresh), and shouts shouting (such as the discovery of enemies, NPC shouted to prepare for the battle, here Bo Main example, Bo Master in playing horseback and slash when sneaking into the local castle was found, just into the battle scene enemy that sentence, hey! You there stop! Still echoing in the ear)
Environmental storytelling environment to explain the story
Front: Use the visual to convey information to the player, is static, passive (players need to actively look for viewing), selective viewing, instant, extensible, ubiquitous
Negative: Everywhere is also a disadvantage, the player is easy to see leaks or missed.
Players can also act as narrator player as storyteller
The above foreshadowing the example of the poster staging and attention, here can be repeated to achieve the emphasis of the effect repetition (Bo master examples, such as the old 4 wanted gray fox posters, everywhere, whether it is the park, or the store inside, or the Black Horse Courier notice)
And the information about the scene building and the goods passing world building
Narrative system Narrative systems
Positive: There is a sense of generation, so that play and the script story into one, the player can be the author's identity, players to define the role
Negative: Pre-created is expensive and will produce a class-like feel that will be used consistently.

Summary

Although the record, but there are a lot of forgotten things, write this blog is to comb the memory of the brain. But the harvest is still very large, worthwhile. Or to thank this GDC platform, to a certain extent, to promote the development of Chinese games, haha, pulled away.

Last year Level tutorial Summary link: Listen to the GDC2014 about the level design lecture summary and own understanding

Blogger's recent renderings: some recent renderings using unity5

----by wolf96 http://blog.csdn.net/wolf96

The summary of the GDC China 2015 and the grooming of the level design tutorial