You're designing a level. The level is a prison cell, and the player has to escape. How does she escape? What cues do you place in the environment that tell her to how to progress forward in the game?
This Game Design Challenge was inspired by a comment at the Game Education Summit in Dallas (held June 10 and 11). As part of a panel discussion, some level designers were explaining the kinds of questions they were asked in job interviews.
One example went something like this:
Interviewer: "You're designing a level. The level is a prison cell, and the player has to escape. How does she escape? What cues do you place in the environment that tell her to how to progress forward in the game?"
Part of the answer requires you to invent the surrounding context. Are there guards? Is there a key? Are there windows? What is the prison cell made of? What objects are in the room? What objects can the player move, pick up, throw? What year is it? What country are you in?
How quickly do you want the player to solve the problem (it should be challenging, but not so hard as leave the player feeling bored or frustrated at being stuck in one room too long)? Are there any audio cues? Has the player learned a skill in a previous level that she should use here? Does the player possess any special powers or lack any basic abilities?
Rêvemeurs Oubliette is more than a prison cell, it is an entire dungeon. Varren and Cainas are the player characters. Having been captured in the imperial palace of Arenheim, they were beaten soundly and dropped into the Oubliette. When the scene begins, Cainas and Varren are weaponless. The cell they are in is a ruin. The entire south wall is just a slope of loose dirt. The ceiling has crumbled, bits of stone block litter the entire cell and the area outside it. The cell bars are rusted and disused, the cell door hangs at an odd angle. The floor is uneven, and foul water drips from a dark hole in the ceiling. After the initial dialog, the player controls Cainas, and Varren follows
Examine: Dirt slope
CAINAS: It's no use. Even if I could get a good handhold, it turns sharply upward a bit ahead.
VARREN: So our surviving the fall was intended. I'll add it to the list of reasons to hate Morant.
CAINAS: I imagine it's a long list.
VARREN: It grows daily.
Examine: Cell door
CAINAS kicks the door. It swings open 180 degrees, bangs into the cell bars, and falls off.
VARREN: So much for stealth.
CAINAS: A moment ago something slithered around the corner. Unless we want to try punching it to death, we'll need weapons.
The area outside the cell looks much the same. Collapsed walls give way to dirt slopes, cave-ins and open pits in the floor dot the room. The room itself looks to have been a large rectangle with 12 identical cells around the perimeter. Only a few are even partially intact. The entire north side of the room is blocked from view by a particularly large slide of earth, filled with more debris. The cell directly across from the one the characters have just left has a similarly off-hinge door. Two contorted skeletons lay within. A large, straight pole juts from the main slope of debris. The two southmost cells have collapsed into a large sinkhole. There is a sound like scale on stone.
Approach: Northern part of room (optional)
A snarl is heard from beyond the slope of dirt.
VARREN: What are you doing?
CAINAS: You're right. It might be better to find something we can use as a weapon.
Examine: Pole
CAINAS pulls the pole free.
CAINAS: Here.
VARREN: I wish I could say that I chose the polearm over the sword because it doubles as a walking stick.
CAINAS: You still can't see well?
VARREN says nothing, but swings the pole tentatively.
VARREN: This will do.
Varren obtains weapon: Pole
Examine: Cell door
CAINAS pulls on the door, it comes loose from its hinges.
VARREN: Can I assume that you see something in there?
CAINAS: Tearing apart five-hundred year old ruins is a hobby.
VARREN: I suppose it would be hypocritical to accuse you of flippancy.
This cell is very similar to the one the characters started in, but all three walls are intact. The skeletons look as if they've been here for a long time.
Examine: Skeletons
CAINAS: Morant must have dropped these fellows down here some time ago.
VARREN: I think you underestimate the diligence of starving rats.
CAINAS kneels next to one skeleton.
CAINAS: Hmm. Left us a present.
Cainas obtains weapon: Crude shiv
The player is free to move towards the north half of the room now. As the characters approach, the snarl is heard again, and a pair of large crocodiles scramble towards the them.
Required Fight
Darkdusk Crocodile - Blind, attempts to lash players with tail, will bite prone player
Snapjaw Crocodile - Attempts to immobilize and knock down players with its powerful jaws
When defeated, the characters realize that this is just one room in a large dungeon. It becomes clear that Rêvemeurs was never intended to have an exit...
You're designing a level. The level is a prison cell, and the player has to escape. How does she escape? What cues do you place in the environment that tell her to how to progress forward in the game?