FANTa Friday - Design Phase, Part 1: Overview
It’s FANTa Friday. Today we kick off our design phase, where we’ll go over the level overview for the dungeon. If you remember from the [Concept Phase Review], we are looking to incorporate the following ideas into it:
Verticality
Openness/visibility
Showing places of interest
Encouraging the player to think in terms of up and down
This is a dungeon where power is literally based on height. The higher you go, the more powerful things get. The further down, the lower your status.
Also, this is a winged dungeon. This means that our basic layout will be five total areas:
A staging area (the Mezzanine) to function as a hub to reach the other areas. The key elements here are that multiple floors should be clearly visible from anywhere in this area. Expect spiraling staircases, railings, upper and lower floors, and decorations to indicate where the exits lead. We want to keep the exits to the Mezzanine within the normal field of vision, but not directly at eye level - they must be above or below to really hammer home the verticality.
The area where we obtain our first mechanic, aka the Cellar. This area should convey a feeling of underground, but a little bit different. This is a castle in the sky, which means that there isn’t much underground. Instead, we’re going to have a lot of holes and areas where the player can look down and see the clouds below (and possibly fall to her death). Think lower-class stuff here - servant’s quarters, storage, stonework, etc. This is also an excellent area for platforming.
The area where we obtain our second mechanic, aka the Atrium. Think of it like a botanical garden - it’s curated, but it’s full of greenery. We can expect birds, some wild animals (perhaps escaped from a menagerie) and plants here, but the environment should have a very planned layout.
The area where we obtain our third mechanic, aka the Observatory. Think telescope, lab equipment, and books. Science stuff, paintings, tapestries, bookshelves, and the like.
The area where we fight the boss, aka the Tower. This area will likely be shrouded in mystery, but it will likely have a big hole in the ceiling so the dragon can land and we can fight it.
Right from the start, you should notice that I’m naming each of the separate areas a very distinct name that inspires a specific kind of visual for that area. One of the goals of level design is to make each area visually distinctive in order to instill a sense of place in the player when they see it. One of the most frustrating things a player can go through is getting lost. Similar to how we want characters to have distinct silhouettes, we want level environments to have a distinct visual style. Naming them also helps dispel any confusion in the future when referring to them. I can say “the passage from Atrium to Cellar” and it makes sense to anyone familiar with the layout. If you’re designing a level, you should divide it up into major sections and try naming each one in order to help keep them straight in your mind as well as establishing a common vocabulary with other people and in documents.
You may also have noticed that I’m building the concept of verticality into the design simply by the sort of areas we’re making for each wing. The Cellar implies an underground area. An Atrium is more of a ground floor thing. The Observatory brings expectations of higher elevation, to be closer to the stars. The term Mezzanine refers to a large room with multiple observable levels separated by stairs. This is important - it helps reinforce the theme to the observer as well as the team members. Whatever your level’s theme is, it should be visible throughout your entire level.
I would like to note that this design is looking very ambitious. We may have to cut one (or more) of the areas/mechanics for scope. Five fully designed areas might be too much for one person to handle in a timely fashion. The good news is that any of the three mechanic areas are modular and can be cut. We don’t necessarily need all three. We’ll continue looking at them for now, but it’s just fair warning for those following along - this might be too much to finish. We must keep the mezzanine and the tower, but we could probably cut one (or even two) of the other areas if scope proves to be a problem.
Let’s recap today’s design takeaways:
Keep your theme central to the different environments you’re planning out. Ask yourself how the theme is being shown in each area.
Make sure that each planned environment is visually distinct from the rest. Players hate getting lost.
Name each major section of the environment something short and descriptive to reinforce their distinctiveness.
Keep an eye on the level scope. Identify early what must be kept and what isn’t necessary but still nice to have.
This week we step into the Design Phase of the FANTa Project!
[What is the FANTa project?]
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