2. What defines
good level
design?
• Exploration.
• Player expression.
• Rewarding the player for
thinking outside the box.
• Giving the player items in
places the developers expects
they may need them.
• Encourages a certain playstyle
to make the player more
familiar.
• Introduces new mechanics
without being too punishing.
3. How Level Design
affects the
player experience
• Can make the game feel boring if
not designed properly.
• Make the game feel more exciting –
unique interactions.
• Keeping the player engaged.
• Gives a sense of exploration –
finding collectibles.
• Lets the player creatively use
abilities to explore/interact.
• Makes the player want to replay the
game.
• Fits the atmosphere of the game.
• Makes the player feel tense or
excited.
4. Narrative in
Level Design
• Small notes left around the level for the
player to read and learn more about what
happened in the area
• World feels empty or very lively to match
the narrative
• Showcases of past interactions before the
player was there.
• Makes the player feel what the characters
are feeling – taking colours or vision
away.
• Exploration leads to flashback sequences
showing old experiences of the character
before the player took control.
5. Illusion of
Choice
• Giving the player multiple
pathways that lead to
different places.
• Use of items/abilities.
• Splitting pathways with
unique identifiers.
• Exploration, good levels
are designed with the
intent to lead players the
right way like The Legend
of Zelda: Breath of the
Wild.
6. Examples of good
and bad level
design
Good
• TF2 Badwater – Map is open at the start and gets
very narrow towards the end, enforcing a mix of
teamplay and solo work.
• TLoZ Wind Waker – The world feels very open and
alive, slowly evolving as the story goes on.
Exploring also rewards the player with new items
allowing them to find new places in old areas.
• Portal 2 - Very smart puzzles using the main
mechanic of the game with multiple ways to solve
each level, rewarding the players creativity and
problem solving.
Bad
• Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth CH12 – Gives the player
exclusively melee characters and starts
introducing flying enemies.
• Doom (1993) - Finding the collectibles, making the
player guess.
• Resident Evil 6 – Snowy level that blinds the
player and slows their movement, making them have
7. Level Design
in Mario
Games
• They follow a key structure.
• Stage 1 – Introduce a new
mechanic with a safety net.
• Stage 2 – Mechanic has more
depth added to it and the
safety net is removed.
• Stage 3 – Combining the
mechanic with previous
mechanics the player dealt
with in earlier levels.
• Stage 4 – Throwing away the
mechanic until the future.
8. How Mario
handles
difficulty
• World 1 – introduces power ups
and very few new mechanics
• World 2 – Starts introducing more
new mechanics
• World 3 – Testing the players
skill
• World 4 – Introducing more new
mechanics while still reusing old
mechanics – escalates until the
final boss fight.
• After the final boss – adds a
"Super Star" mode, made to test
the players skill even further.
