Level Building for Stealth Gameplay

2. Level Building for Stealth Gameplay Randy Smith Randy@RoninGameDeveloper.com (see slide notes)

3. Who Am I? • Thief series of games • Freelance Designer • Might & Magic: Dark Messiah, Arkane Studios • <edited out>

4. Roles • Level Builder • Designer • Project Director

5. Level Building for Stealth Gameplay • Talking about: • Moment to moment gameplay • Sneaking around undetected • NOT: • Story / Objectives • Level Editors • Game Systems • Process • Combat

6. What Stealth Games? • Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Thief • Zelda Wind Waker, Deus Ex, Beyond Good and Evil

7. What Stealth Games? • Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Thief • Zelda Wind Waker, Deus Ex, Beyond Good and Evil • Sniper Games

8. What Stealth Games? • Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Thief • Zelda Wind Waker, Deus Ex, Beyond Good and Evil • Sniper Games • Submarine Games

9. What Stealth Games? • Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid, Thief • Zelda Wind Waker, Deus Ex, Beyond Good and Evil • Sniper Games • Submarine Games • (levels tend to be a little boring)

10. What Stealth Games? • Any game that emphasizes a model of player hiding / discovery

11. Content Must Match Game Systems • Game Systems = toys • Levels = the playground • How do you design a playground without knowing which toys?

12. Are the lights extinguishable?

13. Content Must Support Aesthetic Vision • What play experience are you trying to create? • More than genre or fiction • How does it feel to play the game? • The aesthetic of the interaction

14. Slow, Thoughtful pacing

15. Faster pace, Think on your feet

16. The MDA Framework Staggered Alcoves,Patrol Paths Carefully Timed Moving and Waiting Slow, thoughtful pacing

17. Common Stealth Game Mechanics • Guards • Patrol Routes • Light / Darkness • Sound and hearing • Sneaking up on guys

18. Common Stealth Aesthetic • Create the illusion of a securely guarded area that the player can sneak through by virtue of leveraging their unique abilities and tools to create and exploit security flaws

19. Common Stealth Aesthetic • Success • Stealth makes player powerful • Someone less stealthy would get caught • Creating/exploiting security flaws • Failure • Stealth is unnecessary • Area isn’t well guarded • A non-stealthy solution is easier and/or more fun • Stealth doesn’t work • Get caught too often

20. The Low Threshold for Failure

21. Challenge of the Aesthetic Goal • “Create the illusion of a securely guarded area that the player can sneak through” • Make the player feel like they are special enough to do the impossible

22. Combat = High Threshold For Failure • You get shot repeatedly but don’t fail

23. Stealth = Low Threshold for Failure • If guards see you, you get caught quickly

24. Implications for Level Building • In a combat game, it’s valid to create a challenging room and assume all players will experience some degree of failure. • To support stealth gameplay, you can’t assume players will fail.

25. The Balancing Act • For every stealth encounter, you must… • Provide a means for the player to experience little or no failure

26. The Balancing Act • For every stealth encounter, you must… • Provide a means for the player to experience little or no failure  “zero failure”

27. The Balancing Act • For every stealth encounter, you must… • Provide a means for the player to experience zero failure • Communicate those means

28. The Balancing Act • For every stealth encounter, you must… • Provide a means for the player to experience zero failure • Communicate those means • Don’t be too obvious about it

29. The Balancing Act Not enough help, Player feels incapable Too much help, Player doesn’t feel stealthy

30. What’s on the scales?

31. Challenges vs. Advantages Scouting Locations Connectivity Shadows Guards Loud Flooring Dead Ends

32. Design Tools

33. These are all Design Tools Scouting Locations Connectivity Shadows Guards Loud Flooring Dead Ends

34. Not… • …player tools • Hiding in shadows • Radar jammer • Lock picks • ….level editor / software

35. Design Tools • Mechanics you add to the level to manage the player’s experience • EG - Shadowy Alcove • Dynamics you understand to predict the player’s experience • EG - Players are drawn to shadowy alcoves

36. Useful for Managing Challenge Level Scouting Locations Connectivity Shadows Guards Loud Flooring Dead Ends

37. Manage the Experience Towards Other Goals, Too • “Players are drawn to shadowy alcoves”  tool for controlling pacing

38. Environmental Tools

39. Build A Combat Encounter

40. Add Enemies…

41. Then Add Power-Ups!

42. But it’s also the level layout • Advantages • Hard cover • Sniping Locations • Low wall for cover • Challenges • Blind corners • Tight passages • Low wall that restricts movement

43. Environmental Tools! • Advantages • Hard cover • Sniping Locations • Low wall for cover • Challenges • Blind corners • Tight passages • Low wall that restricts movement

44. Stealth Environmental Tools • Advantages • Darkness • …more to come… • Disadvantages • Light • …more to come…

45. Use Tools To Balance Encounter

46. Use Tools To Balance Encounter

47. But obviously there’s more going on here • Balancing Advantages vs. Challenges is over-simplified • Let’s analyze that example

48. Closer Look at Balancing Act • Imagine you’re the player • What can you see from the scouting spot? • How do you feel? • What is your plan? • So what might the player do? • What is the effect of the guard’s patrol?

49. Some observations • What is meant by Advantage? • Anything that makes it easier to succeed at stealth • What is meant by Disadvantage? • Anything that makes it easier to fail at stealth

50. Some observations • Some things are both Advantages and Challenges, depending • Patrol path • Hard cover