BioShock 2: Level Designer S02E05. Perf. Steve Gaynor. Art of the Game. Machinima.com, 26 Feb. 2010. Web. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT9IWrYg_qM>.
This segment from Machinima.com’s Art of the Game series focuses on Steve Gaynor, a Level Designer on the multi-platform first person shooter game Bioshock 2, which was released in February 2010. Gaynor describes his role in the game’s production – specifically his involvement with level design. Gaynor works alongside a level artist to inject interactivity into the game. After the level artist and designer define the spatiality of levels in terms of scope and size, the designer implements enemies, pick-ups, scripted events, and spawn points. Gaynor describes the workings of the engine for the game and gives an inside glimpse into the wireframe stage of development. The video examines how enemies and non-player characters are choreographed to follow specific predetermined routes. According to Gaynor, level art and level design are closely related, and a final level is the product of both individuals working together. Gaynor discusses influences in the genre and drawing inspiration from both non-linear games and games that focus on scripted spectacle. The first level in the game is highlighted and its early iterations are discussed in relation to its final form. A key function of this level was its role as a prologue in light of the previous game. Gaynor briefly mentions emergent game play and his job in preempting undesirable or unintentional scenarios by designing for multiple variables.
This segment gives an inside perspective into facets of the level design process and emphasizes not only the difference between the terms “level artist” and “level designer” but synthesizes the relationship between the two. Because this source focuses on a professional designer, the illustrative material it presents is invaluable to my research.
I will be able to use the content of this segment in my research as a means to examine the design process and as a source to help analyze the designer/artist divide. Because the source is a professional working in the industry on a commercially and critically viable franchise, his insight into the design process will help me examine spatial concerns from the creator’s perspective.
Half-Life 2. Valve Corporation. Electronic Arts. 16 Nov. 2004. Windows. English.
Half-Life 2, the sequel to the seminal first-person shooter Half-Life (PC, 1998), is a highly influential video game and a signature title in the Half-Life series. The game is noteworthy for its spatial linearity – it is single player and narrative-driven. It was released in 2004 after many delays after an extended five-year, $40 million development cycle. The game was developed using the novel (upon the time of release) Source game engine and, because of Steam, is the first video game to require online product activation. The game was received with near-universal acclaim critics and was praised for its advanced physics, animation, sound, AI, graphics, and narrative. The game won 39 “Game of the Year” awards, and several publications named it “Game of the Decade”. It has sold 12 million copies as of February 9, 2011.
I will be using Half-Life 2 as a primary case study of the successful use of linear space in level design. The game has been noted for its effective limitation of player choice without sacrificing narrative – that is, the level design offers a narrow scope with a multitude of scripted events. Valve Corporation has a unique and revered design process that is somewhat shrouded in secrecy thanks to the company’s tight-lipped management ethos. I aim to analyze the dev team’s approach to level design as well as examine what specific design choices make the games static nature seem far more flexible.
Buckles, Mary Ann. “Interactive Fiction as Literature.” Byte. May 1987: 135-42. IFArchive.org. Interactive Fiction Archive. Web. <http://www.ifarchive.org/if-archive/articles/byte87_buckles.html>.
In this early analysis of the narrative power of interactive fiction, Mary Ann Buckles purports that games, as a medium, have the ability to express complex stories. Specifically, Buckles focuses on the genre of adventure games. Her first observation that these games can be likened to mystery novels is astute – as a popular genre of fiction, mysteries are considered to be “games in the form of stories” (Buckles 1987). Buckles analyses Crothers and Woods’ Adventure (1976), a classic game that began as a computer modeled map of Colossal Cave in Kentucky. The cave’s layout was duplicated in the first few levels of the game. In the same vein, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island was also inspired by the interplay of space and narrative. It relies on inspiration from cartography to effectively further plot. Buckles examines the relationship between prose novels and chivalry and how the concept relates to interactive fiction. She also delineates the connection between interactive fiction and fantasy/science fiction genres. Buckles defines the novelty of interactive fiction and separates it from past mediums largely in terms of player/reader choice. For instance, she refers to a scientist’s calculations that determine that the “battery maze” in Adventure alone (which has 12 different locations, 11 of them connected to 9 or 10 of the others) can be experienced in 187 billion trillion unique ways. Buckles concludes her thesis with a list of suggestions and observations on how to integrate this novel narrative approach with maximum effectiveness.
Buckles claim that video games could produce effective, engaging, and artistic narratives was shocking for its time, and to some, highly contentious. Her doctoral dissertation at the University of California at San Diego was ridiculed by her superiors and she subsequently left the game criticism world indefinitely. However, her claims about interactive fiction were all too prescient – she foresaw the inherent power in interactivity and non-linear narrative, and in turn, recognized the strength in well-designed interactive experiences that treat the medium with the respect of literature.
Buckles’ observations come from a point in time that did not foresee the vast advances in technology that have allowed for highly complex open-world games. However, her ideas about gaming as a narrative medium still resonate today.
Bissell, Tom. “Video Games: the Addiction.” The Guardian. 20 Mar. 2010. Web. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/theobserver/2010/mar/21/tom-bissell-video-game-cocaine-addiction>.
This piece chronicles writer Tom Bissell’s codependent struggle with his addiction to cocaine and Grand Theft Auto IV. I found the piece moving and indicative not only of the power of open-world games, but also illuminating of their less than desirable attributes – namely the tendency of players to become “lost” in the complex environments, particularly given a predisposition to addictive behavior. This is not to say that open-world games are unhealthy, but rather to offer a unique viewpoint on the allure of such a design choice.
While clearly anecdotal, Bissell’s enraptured experience with GTA IV is worthy of discussion in regards to my thesis. Because I plan to discuss the shortcomings of the open world, it would be beneficial to talk about the downside of allowing for exponential player freedom within a game world.
Byrne, Edward. Game Level Design. Hingham, MA: Charles River Media, 2005. Print.
This book offers a comprehensive look at video game level design. I haven’t read through the entire text, though I am confident it will serve as a good reference throughout my research. The author is a level designer who has worked on the stealth-based Splinter Cell series. Beginning with a history of level design, Byrne provides a thorough examination of the groundwork behind level design, and his attempt to establish a concise and unified vocabulary around the field is successful. The book also contains interviews with several other game design luminaries, such as Harvey Smith and Richard “Levelord” Gray.
Because the text is a comprehensive take on the field, there are numerous claims made by the author. The text will largely serve as a resource for myself when I am caching out terms and discussing technical aspects of the field in addition to more theoretical claims.
Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2003. Print.
This source implements a “theoretical framework” and a “critical vocabulary” (Salen, Zimmerman 2003) in an effort to examine games as a medium in the way that more traditional art forms have been discussed. The work presents a unified model for the analysis of games, whether they are analog (board games) or digital, like console or PC games. Salen and Zimmerman’s astute definititions of terms like “play,” “design,” and “interactivity,” are useful in looking at games from a more concrete, less subjective viewpoint. The authors develop eighteen “schemas,” or design concepts, that pertain to nearly all types of games.
By viewing games via a comprehensive, standardized methodology, the authors are in effect claiming that the medium is legitimate and deserving of such analysis. I believe the authors’ careful methods in examining interactive games is valuable to my thesis.
Another comprehensive look at the principles of game design. I used this in a class I took last semester, Concepts in Gaming. It provides a thorough basis for game design and will help me to pinpoint accurate terminology and concepts that are currently foreign to me. I plan to use it when I incorporate information on game mechanics.
