Afterhours Devlog 01

Hey folks, got some stuff to say about the project. Like, 90 percent positive info.

Firstly, this weekend I've completed dishonored 2 for the 54th time and got to its level and game design dissection. I've explored 3 missions I was especially interested in, those being Addermire Institute, Grand Palace and Royal Conservatory. In all of those maps I've tried to pinpoint examples of level design principles Arkane employees were talking about in their interviews. Here are the main few things I've found.

Asymmetry. On quick glance, places like the Institute are symmetrical, but when you get to explore them, it quickly shows that they, in fact, are not. Different rooms and entrances location, balcony on one side VS security post on the other, etc. This makes player's exploration more enjoyable, since you can't really know what lies ahead. 

Hotspots. If we take a look at the maps, we could approximate on how they were designed. For example, Duke's Palace is highly asymmetrical, but not random. In my opinion, the pipeline was something like this. Firstly they designed Duke's office shape and added an elevator (numbers 1 and 6 on the map), then they've copied its shape to create the mezzanine and the dining hall, again, connected by an elevator. Also stairs (number 7) and the triangle room between those two locations. From here it was just a logical expansion of the rooms, adding rooms that would suit the gameplay and the worldbuilding. For example, Duke's bedroom is on the last floor, with its doors locked. You can just storm in using grenades, but if you play stealth, you are forced through a challenge, since the only stealth entrance is through the staircase. Chatter. Every NPC in dishonored talks. Most of the time it's just worldbuilding stuff, but sometimes (i.e. Duke's mission) it can give player tips on how to complete the level.

Denial and Reward. Every good game has this principle. Show the player something that would interest them, deny them a pleasure of receiving it, make them apply some additional work and only then the player will get a reward. This is like edging, but instead of jorking it, you're exploring the world and finding new ways to interact with it.

Players DON'T LOOK UP. Verticality is cool and great, but most of the players are usually searching horizontally when looking for solution. I've known this rule since first playing Arkane's games, but caught myself finding a new vertical passage on recent playthrough of Dishonored I've never seen before. How did I discover it?

Player Attention. I've noticed a hornet nest on the wall, it was going up and curving weirdly. I thought that was interesting and looked up, and there it was. A hidden passage.

If the game wants player to look somewhere specific to get story bits, they use either visual or audio cues. Light something up with spotlight, make it visually interesting or maybe place a glitchy radio near the point of interest.

Combat Distance. Even when the game takes place outside, the farthest you can ever be to an enemy is probably 15 meters. When indoors, most of your enemies are in a 'few seconds crawl' reach. This makes combat more personal and intense. You won't care about a pixel 100 meters away as much as you would care about a guard who is right in front of you, right? However, in the mall setting of Afterhours, this would be hard to make. Maybe place a few advert banners here and there, obstruct the view. But it won't eliminate the problem completely. However, Arkane themselves violated this concept since in Deathloop you can get a sniper rifle and shoot enemies from far far far away.

Secondly, with all this newfound knowledge I went to do level design work. Stuff is looking okay so far, but there is a lot of iterating work ahead. Already made 2 versions of an Arcade level, and have another thought for a new iteration.

Thirdly, non-positive stuff. I'm out of ideas in both level layout and quest design, so if you guys have any ideas, interesting concepts or references please leave them in the comments :3