koobas.hobune.stream
Need help planning...
i know its a non descriptive title but the main problem for me is making a map for my fps game... i am absolutly horrible at thinking about that stuff and was wondering if you guys had any tips for this?
Hmm... I guess if you want the player to experience a specific sequence of events to heighten the atmosphere and tension you can write up a story board first, then you take a look at your story board and design a level in such a way as to lead the player towards those events. You can pace the level by exa$$anonymous$$ing things like walk speed and time gates so that the player spends the right amount of time in each section.
Here's a useful article that might give you ideas on what kinds of things to think about, as well as a way to document level flow: Gamasutra Feature on Action-Adventure Level Design.
(Poke around Gamasutra and Gamedev.net on your own, I'm sure there are other articles on this topic.)
Something else to keep in mind: the pros extensively playtest their levels to see where players tend to get stuck, or miss critical things. Wired had an article about Halo 3 playtesting, which was an extreme example of this. (Now it's unlikely you have those kinds of resources; my point is just that you should keep in mind that planning is required but not sufficient. Some of it you won't know until later, when you see it in action.)
Complete matter of opinion but I like these in general:
13 rules of game design: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3949/the_13_basic_principles_of_.php?page=2
Made fun of exhaustively by professionals designers but there are some real salient points in it: http://www.theinspiracy.com/Current%20Rules%20Master%20List.htm
Who the hell is Gary Penn? I dunno, but I like the way he thinks: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2009/jan/29/gameculture
Also, if you just want to get experience making FPS levels you can look around you for inspiration. I built a level in Unreal (back in the day) that was a pretty much photo realistic version (as much as it could back in 1999) of the office I was working in. The fun part was modifying it so it flowed well and monsters had good places to jump out of but even non gamers liked to look at it.
thank you the 3 thinks were very helpful and im already starting to think of what i can add...
