Hello all! In this post I am sharing my design process in creating intuitive exploration with level design and cinematic sequences for my game: The Dreaming. Images and videos from The Dreaming is shown within the Intuitive Exploration slide.

What Makes A Game Have Intuitive Exploration?

• The game is easy to understand with little to no external guidance needed. This means that the player does not have to look up any tutorials or seek for outside guidance to clear the game.
• It is accessible to all types of players no matter their skill level. Whether they are new to gaming or have played a variety of games through many years, any levels of experience player can beat the game.
• The goal or objective of the game is clear. At no point should the player be confused on what they should be doing or be aimlessly playing the game.

Achieving Intuitive Exploration through Level Design

When designing the levels for my game, I noticed I was repeating certain steps to create the final build for the levels. As for the process, I created a three-step process that I followed for the rest of my world building: Pathway, Environment, Obstacles (P.E.O). This three-step process is catered to platformer games but could be used for any other games with slight modifications!

Pathway

Pathway is the easiest and shortest step out of the three steps.  It is the step where the designer puts a starting and end point. It answers the question of where the player should start in the level and where they should end up at.

Environment

The environment is where I recommend to start adding your assets but placeholder blocks are just fine as well. The Environment step encapsulates all the borders of the play area which includes the ceiling, ground, and walls. Depending on your level, these borders can either be visible or invisible.  The size of the play area is all up to the designer as the only importance is to have actual borders to prevent the player from walking infinitely, ignoring the objective of the game.

Obstacles

Considered to be the longest step, the Obstacles step is where the designer places all their obstacles to delay the player from reaching the end point. Examples could be gaps in between platforms, traps, or specialized platforms. 

Playtesting & Iteration

After following these three-steps, it is mandatory to playtest and iterate (if necessary) the components of all three steps. First, you want to make sure that it is possible reach from the starting point to the end point. Next, you want to make sure that the player cannot go out of bounds or get stuck anywhere, locking the player from progression. Last, you want to playtest and iterate the obstacles to have a sense of the difficulty of the level. Depending on where the specific level is, you do not want to make the level too easy or too difficult for the player.

Non-platform Areas

For areas without any platforms, I followed the same P.E.O design process; however, the only obstacle would be "requirements." For example, a game would have three hidden keys you need to find within the area to unlock the next area. The same could be applicable to my game where in the first area the player enters, excluding the beginning, the player must complete three rooms to unlock the next area. Therefore, the three rooms would be the requirements, going under the obstacle category.

Achieving Intuitive Exploration through Cinematic Sequences

For cinematic sequences, there are three types of sequences that all contribute to intuitive exploration: Guidance, Objective, and Pure Narrative.

Guidance

A Guidance cinematic sequence is a simple cut-scene where the player cannot move and the camera cuts to the place the player must go to. For the camera angles, I would place the cameras in a way that does not show what is within the next level or area, a spoiler free cut-scene. 

Objective

For an Objective cinematic sequence the most important component is to show visual progression during the scene. Meaning when a player activates or collects something, there is visual progress towards unlocking the pathway to the next area. In an objective cinematic sequence, the player is allowed to move.

Pure Narrative

A Pure Narrative cinematic sequence tells visually where the player is and how they got there. It is usually the starting and ending cinematic sequence, disabling the player movement. It could also be incorporated in between the starting and ending of the game. It allows the player to have a sense of goal or objective as without pure narrative, they could be potentially confused as to why they are doing the things they are doing.