Level Design Patterns
Posted: May 1st, 2006 | Author: Simon | Filed under: Noteworthy | Tags: analysis, fps, game design, Games, itu, level-design, multiplayer, patterns, Writings | 2 Comments »
Today I handed in a paper on design patterns for level design. It’s a paper I’ve been working on on the side in the last 12 weeks. As this is a side project the scope is rather small, but it might very well be a topic that I’ll explorer further in future projects or in my master thesis.
I have made an analysis of these multiplayer levels from popular first-person shooters (FPS):
From Day of Defeat: Source:
- Kalt
- Donner
- Anzio
- Flash
- Avalanche
From Unreal Tournament 2004:
- Maul
- Two Tombs
- Grassy Knoll
- Double Damage
- Absolute Zero
- Bridge of Faith
- Electric Field
From Battlefield 1942
- Tobruk
- El Alamein
- Iwo Jima
And have from that analysis compiled what I believe to be common practices of development and have formalized these in Level Design Patterns:
- Multiple paths
- Local fights
- Collision points
- Reference points
- Defense areas
- Risk Incentive
Read much more about these patterns in the paper itself.
Download the entire paper here (PDF ~ 2.01 MB)