Systemic Level Design

1. Systemic Level Design Harvey Smith witchboy@ionstorm.com Systemic Level Design

2. Lecture Overview Intro, Overview and High Concept Special Case LD Systemic LD Pros of Systemic LD Cons of Systemic LD Summation Systemic Level Design

3. What if Frank Lloyd Wright Built Doom Levels? Not a visual aesthetics or architecture talk. Not a level design ‘chokepoint’ or ‘flow’ talk. Systemic Level Design

4. What Today’s Talk ‘Is’ Related to LD content creation tasks and tools. Advocates gameplay implementation: According to (systemic) global patterns Instead of (special case) localized patterns Systemic Level Design

5. Intro: Ion Storm (Austin) An EIDOS Studio Studio Head – The GREAT Warren Spector ™ Titles to date – Deus Ex (PC and PS2) In development – Deus Ex 2, Thief 3 Focus on Immersive Simulations Systemic Level Design

6. Intro: Harvey Smith Deus Ex 2 (Project Director) Deus Ex (Lead Designer) FireTeam (Lead Designer) Technosaur (Project Director/Designer) CyberMage (Associate Producer) Ultima VIII CD (Tester/Design Assist) System Shock (Lead Tester) Super Wing Commander 3DO (Tester) Systemic Level Design

7. Deus Ex: Goals Spy fiction Realistic environments Immersive environments Genre mix Player-driven experience Systemic Level Design

8. Deus Ex: Where We Ended Up Conspiracy Theory Globe-hopping, Real World Locations Immersive Sim – Shooter Hybrid Multiple Solutions to Problems Systemic Level Design

9. Deus Ex: Systemic/Special Case Hybrid Multiple Solutions (Player Expression) Player-expression via game systems, emergence and simulation (Systemic). Player-expression via LD-driven puzzles and situations (Special Case). Systemic Level Design

10. High Concept Level designers can establish gameplay systemically or on a special case basis. Systemic implementation enables More intentional, less scripted play Decreases the learning curve Makes bug fixing easier Systemic Level Design

11. Special Case Level Design Definition Special case level design is the creation of gameplay out of the notions of a particular designer, as needed for a specific, localized occurrence in the game. Special case level design has limited awareness of global game patterns. Systemic Level Design

12. Special Case Level Design All about the ideas of a given level designer: What is consistent What is fun (and rewarding) Consistency is possible, but improbable: Requires vigilant manual effort Single cardboard box in DX contained something useful Systemic Level Design

13. Special Case: Planning Example—Team discusses: Fictional setting of a given level “Look and feel” Placement of units (monsters or characters), weapons, tools or resources Specific puzzles or scripted sequences Discussed, but implementation is not detailed Not practical Different designers, different styles/techniques Systemic Level Design

14. Special Case: Tools & Content Creation Properties and parameters for many game elements reside on a per instance basis: Objects with tweaked parameters Unique moving geometry (movers) Special triggers All cobbled together by each LD individually Systemic Level Design

15. Special Case: Tools & Content Creation Examples: Generic (highly configurable) triggers Moving geometry (generic “movers”) Different LD’s create visually identical “crushing block” puzzles that function differently, with subtle variations. Many editors have hybrid tools DX1 trip lasers had default properties, but could be tweaked, causing problems. Systemic Level Design

16. Special Case: Bug Fixing Testing finds problems and often each instance of a gameplay element must be visited and reconfigured manually: Each scripted scene All triggers controlling specific state changes All unique movers Et cetera Systemic Level Design

17. Special Case: Bug Fixing Example—Playtest determines that crushing blast doors add fun. Because each door was set up manually, each door must be visited individually: Takes time Likely to introduce bugs Systemic Level Design

18. Systemic Level Design Definition Systemic level design is the creation of gameplay out of combinations of existing game elements with globally defined, consistent characteristics and behaviors. Systemic level design has an awareness of global game patterns. Systemic Level Design

19. Systemic: Planning Team discusses: Same stuff as in Special Case planning (fiction, look and feel, game element placement, specific sequences) Rules governing behaviors of game elements Specific methods for implementing types of situations (according to agreed upon patterns) Systemic Level Design

20. Systemic: Planning Example—Team plans 3 door classes: Light doors easily destroyed and do not inflict damage Medium doors only destroyed by explosives and inflict light damage Heavy doors cannot be destroyed and inflict heavy damage Systemic Level Design

21. Systemic: Tools & Content Creation Game element properties and parameters reside at a higher level, rather than on a per instance basis. Tools for adding game elements are streamlined, calling upon archetypes, rather than specific instances of any given game element. Systemic Level Design

22. Systemic: Tools & Content Creation Example—Door behavior (3 classes) stored in object property tree Not entered for each of 500 doors by hand Information entered and managed centrally LD’s select proper door and drop into place New door types are added when needed All doors inherit properties from archetypes Systemic Level Design

23. Systemic: Bug fixing Playtest determines that a given gameplay element behaves inappropriately. A change is made to the object property tree storing the behaviors of the game element archetype. Systemic Level Design

24. Systemic: Bug fixing Example—Playtest complains that medium doors are not always destroyed by grenades: Medium door strength is lowered globally Systemic Level Design

25. Systemic: Advantages Consistency Emergent Gameplay Efficiency Systemic Level Design

26. Consistency Breakdown Consistency Plan Formulation Intuitive Behavior Learning Curve Emergent Gameplay Efficiency Systemic Level Design

27. Consistency: Plan Formulation Consistency rewards strategic plan formulation. Once the behaviors of game elements can be predicted, the player is empowered to make assumptions. Success or failure are understood. Player feels a sense of agency. Systemic Level Design

28. Consistency: Plan Formulation Example—LD’s set up blast doors w/ different properties: Crush, Move Speed, Sound Volume After encountering first blast door, player makes assumptions about second blast door. Plans fail. Player feels like he is uncovering an arbitrary path set out for him by the designer. Systemic Level Design

29. Consistency: Intuitive Behavior If game elements are implemented with systemic consistency: The player is more likely to develop an intuitive understanding of game elements. Variations of game elements are likely to be understood even if the player is encountering them for the first time. Systemic Level Design

30. Consistency: Intuitive Behavior Systemically implemented fire damage model: If campfire burns player-character once, it is likely to burn him twice. If player encounters a second form of fire (like a fire barrel), it is likely to behave intuitively: Burns player-character Burns cat Burns dog Systemic Level Design

31. Consistency: Learning Curve If the behaviors of game elements stay consistent: Player spends less time learning the game Player spends more time playing the game Systemic Level Design

32. Emergent Gameplay Consistency Emergent Gameplay Special Case = Per instance basis Systemic = Class-to-class basis Efficiency Systemic Level Design

33. Emergence Emergent gameplay can arise from the interaction of simple rules, making the whole of the game experience greater than its parts, allowing for second order consequences. Systemic Level Design

34. Emergence DX1 Monsters were more systemic than characters: Monsters were dropped in place Characters’ properties were tweaked Urban context: Run when shots fired Warzone context: Crouch when shots fired DX1 Monsters provided more comprehensible, useful emergence Systemic Level Design

35. Emergence Example 01 Players discovered deeper layer of interaction than we had planned: Locked Containers: Opened w/ resources. MiB Unit: Explodes upon death. Emergent Strategy: Players used MiB’s to open locked containers. Good surprise: “Oh, wow, of course.” Bad surprise: “What the hell?!?” Systemic Level Design

36. Emergence Example 02 Transform: Convert organic into mech. Command Bolt: Steal enemy mech. Player can upgrade then steal enemy organic units. Systemic Level Design

37. Efficiency Consistency Emergent Gameplay Efficiency Systemic Level Design

38. Efficiency Systemic Level Design: Plan-and-drop efficiency Global bug fixes Designers spend less time on tedious map-monkey tasks and more on gameplay Systemic Level Design

39. Efficiency Example—A change made to TripLaser_red in the global object hierarchy changes all red trip lasers. Worth noting: Part of the DX1 problem was the lack of a LD tools support programmer. Systemic Level Design

40. Systemic: Disadvantages Need for Shoehorning Introduction of Uncertainty Designer Perception Loss of power Consistency is boring Systemic Level Design

41. Shoehorning Twisting an idea to make it work with core gameplay systems. A restriction on creative impulse in exchange for the benefits of systemic level design. Sometimes needed to meet creative vision Sometimes needed for player expectation Systemic Level Design

42. Special Case Squad Mate Example Designers (and testers) wanted a “squad mate” for cell break Idea made total sense, in context DX1 lacked “Squad Mate AI” We hacked it in anyway with a bunch of manually placed triggers Systemic Level Design

43. Ladies and Gentlemen…Miguel It met expectation and provided color It broke often and was lame Special case tools are powerful (maybe in a bad way) Systemic Level Design

44. Systemic Arrow/Pyre Example Designer takes abstract idea and warps it to work with some of the core game systems Planting spots become pyres Seeds become water arrows Stealth is employed Core context/fiction is employed Systemic Level Design

45. Uncertainty Systemic LD is more likely to allow for emergent events within the game. Emergent behaviors are often too subtle (or too numerous in permutation) for the team to effectively predict, introducing uncertainty. Systemic Level Design

46. Prox Mine Uncertainty Prox mines behaved according to globally consistent rules about relationships between classes Player could attach/un-attach prox mines Prox mines were physical objects Player could collide w/ physical objects Player didn’t detonate his own Player could climb walls w/ prox mines Systemic Level Design

47. Prox Mine Climbing Systemic Level Design

48. Special Case Prox Mine Prox Mine (red dot) is linked manually to other game elements (green dots). Prox Mine has no relationship w/ some game elements (black dots). Systemic Level Design

49. Systemic Prox Mine Prox Mine (red dot) is linked to object class (hollow green dot). Prox Mine has relationship w/ all game elements (green dots). Systemic Level Design

50. Prox Mine Model Comparison Systemic Level Design