There is a great deal to be said on the subject of immersion and believable barriers in map design, far more than I could pretend to have mastered. Where some games may establish a clear path through the use of tunnels and corridors, we must introduce recognizeable boundaries and obstacles for the players to navigate without ever breaking the sense that everything is all connected to a much bigger world. At no point should the player feel that they are confined to a path as an element of a 'level;' rather, they must be presented a situation where the path in front of them is LOGICAL and intuitive, a path that they themselves would follow. This has been my struggle in The Office Park.
For anyone who's had a chance to play the released beta, you will have quickly noticed that the design of the office park itself is inherently very open ended. This was dealt with largely through the use of destruction as a barrier; structural collapse forces the survivors on a fairly direct route, and while room is left for exploration, players can never stray TOO far from the main path.
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The problems arose with the courtyard: a massive, flat, open area with only a few planters to break up the scenery. While some would agree that it made for a rather attractive vista, the fact remained that it was empty. What was more, there was nothing to be done to restrict the player from exploring the space which, while detailed and interesting, proved to be very disorienting, as the various nooks and crannies gave no hint leading towards the next point of progression. Something was needed to give the player a GOAL.
There are a number of common techniques for giving an unwitting player direction, the most commonly cited of which (at least in the Left 4 Dead community) being lighting cues. Players, thrust into an unfamiliar environment, are naturally drawn to familiarity, activity, and detail. A good way to suggest all of this is by the use of lighting to lead players from point to point, and an attempt at this was made by placing a security spotlight in front of the entrance to the administration building. This was met with failure, as the size of the Courtyard prevented players from noticing this light until they had travelled a fairly large distance unaided. It was clear that an alternative was needed, and an alternate courtyard was drawn up.
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This time, instead of the true-to-life planter configuration, I settled on a much more obstructive design. By raising the height of the planter walls to block more vision and joining each 'set' of three planters into three very large planters, I was able to create hedge walls to divide the courtyard into several sections. This, combined with a number of obstructions (chiefly made up of police barricades), allowed me to force the player on a specific route to cross the courtyard without sacrificing the feeling of open space or the view from the balconies. While the changes brought a new set of issues (populating all of that space interestingly without overextending the bounds of the engine), it made for a much more controlled feel and had the added bonus of showcasing parts of the map that might have been walked past initially.
There's much more to be said, but I'll leave that for another update. I will soon be testing the playability of the two paths shown below, and will be making a decision on which one to develop further.
Pictured below: Two potential routes through the courtyard, travelled from right to left upon exiting the warehouse. Note, the dark yellow boxes are the new planters, while the light yellow boxes are other obstacles (primarily police barricades).
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| From Mapping |
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