Why Nathan Drake Doesn't Need a Compass
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- čas přidán 30. 06. 2024
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How does Naughty Dog let you explore the worlds of Uncharted and The Last of Us without the clunky navigational aids found in other linear games? The answer: Through smart use of composition, eye-catching design, and in-world waypoints. Let's dig in.
Sources:
GDC Vault: "Uncharted 2 Art Direction"
www.gdcvault.com/play/1012359/...
Max Level: "From Uncharted to The Last of Us: An Hour with Emilia Schatz"
maxlevel.org/uncharted-last-us...
The Main Street Mouse: "What's a Weenie?"
www.themainstreetmouse.com/201...
Recommended reading / viewing:
The Psychology of Video Games: "Why Do Color Coded Clues in Level Design Work?"
www.psychologyofgames.com/2013...
Shape of Play: "Composition Techniques and Player Direction"
shapeofplay.wordpress.com/201...
Map Core: "Level Design in The Last of Us"
www.mapcore.org/articles/deve...
World of Level Design: "L4D2 Level Design Tips"
www.worldofleveldesign.com/cat...
Games shown in this episode (in order of appearance):
Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (Naughty Dog, 2011)
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (Ninja Theory, 2010)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Infinity Ward, 2007)
BioShock (Irrational Games, 2007)
Tomb Raider (Crystal Dynamics, 2013)
Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (The Chinese Room, 2015)
The Last of Us (Naughty Dog, 2013)
Mirror's Edge (EA DICE, 2008)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Valve Corporation, 2009)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (Naughty Dog, 2009)
BioShock 2 (2K Marin, 2010)
Gears of War (Epic Games, 2006)
Journey (thatgamecompany, 2012)
Dark Souls (From Software, 2011)
Half-Life 2 (Valve Corporation, 2004)
Crash Bandicoot (Naughty Dog, 1996)
Half-Life 2: Episode Two (Valve Corporation, 2007)
BioShock Infinite (Irrational Games, 2013)
Music used in this episode:
Small Beginnings (Uncharted 3)
Inverted Island (Monument Valley)
Amateur Cartography (Monument Valley)
The Spire (Monument Valley)
Uncharted 3 OST © Naughty Dog
Monument Valley OST © ustwo games
Other credits:
"Bioshock 60FPS 1080P Gameplay Max Settings GTX 770" - Jprime777
• Video
"A Model Day at Magic Kingdom" - The Disney World Videos
• A Model Day at Magic K...
"The Disneyland Story - Part 1" - freedogshampoo
• The Disneyland Story -...
"Walt Disney Presents: Disneyland 1961" - The Disney Nerds Podcast
• Video
www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Col...
The Boating Party, Mary Cassatt
flic.kr/p/bYopFW
End of the Tunnel, Ivan Saracino
Contribute translated subtitles - amara.org/en-gb/videos/xwcncE... - Hry
The funny thing about Dark Souls is that it uses the bread crumbs device to try and kill the player as well as help them navigate. It trained me early on to be very suspicious of item pick-ups; instead of thinking "oh cool, a reward!" I'd think "OK how's the game going to murder me this time?"
Haha. Yes, never trust anything ever in Dark Souls
+morpheus8624 not to mention they tend to hide items that are in the opposite direction of your guided sight. Such as when entering a room or just having ascended some stairs, you can bet your ass there's something behind you if you walk along the edge of those stairs.
Not to suck Dark Souls' dick too hard, but the use of flame, particularly in the first game, is fantastic. From the Undead Asylum to the depths of Nito's layer, if you ever feel lost: seek the flame.
+Game Maker's Toolkit bit different topic, but you may enjoy a video that we made of a virtual world that is now gone: ¡🌴 lookinthemirror's Loco Roco 🌴! it used the havok game engine and had a bunch of mini-games in it although it was not really just a game itself. the Loco Island space was one of the best developed in art and function.
classic doom taught me the same thing lmao
i kind of expected to see a video about drake as a little kid learning how to navigate without a compass.
Lol😂😂😂
Lol
For some reason, that was what I expected when I first clicked on this video
I haven't played the last of us before unfortunately but if I could I can assure you I would go onto that room last, like I do with any game. Why? If I ever notice that there is an area I am being silently led to I will quickly turn around and explore every other corner of where I am before continuing.
I am not a good speed runner.
Paintap I'm the same way and that's actually exactly what I did lol
I do it too, just to investigate the area before to step onto the new one, in case there are secrets or loot or whatever. It is unwitting tho, so maybe that is your case as well.
zas88 yeah, I just kinda do it automatically at this point without really processing the thought. If I feel I have to go someplace a just start kinda drifting away from it until I've explored all of the surrounding area.
Dean444ful Exactly
Haha XD Yeah, I'm the same way. For me to beat a game I usually take well longer than the 'estimated playthrough time'.
So great! I always loved the Uncharted series for this. It was the closest I've ever felt to being in an action movie before, and you explained exactly why. They never let the action lose potency by leading you to the next segment - but making you think you discovered it on your own. Genius.
What do you mean, never lead you? Uncharted games are extremely linear and often handhold you to the next big thing. The first few hours of Uncharted 4 are just following a linear path.
@@matman000000 Agreed. Got Uncharted 4 for free, played it for a few hrs; my god it's a boring game. What gameplay is there? It's a barely interactive movie. You're always walled in, there's nowhere to move, so you always know where to go. Shooting's merely servicable; but climbing's automatic and takes no skill, it's linear-as-hell, so when you're not auto-climbing, you're mostly walking and talking. So glad I bought Assassins Creed Odyssey; Ass Creed used to have the same problem-automatic climbing and simple one button combat for babies. But Origins changed that; turn the HUD off, choose enemies that scale to you, and combat's now challenging and engaging. I can forgive the toddler-proof climbing; because at least it's a vast, gorgeous open world full of oppurtunity. Literally the opposite of a cinematic "game" like Uncharted.
@@rocketassistedgoat1079 how did you got it for free?
@@gettingshotsomeonesgonnapa8635 PS Plus, their subscription Sony service, maybe March or April. You get two free games a month.
@@rocketassistedgoat1079 oh thanks, Unfortunately Im on pc
All about contrast: The eye will move to the area with most contrast. Illustrators call these areas "focal points"
Contrast can be:
Color (hue, saturation). If your entire envionment is blue, something red will contrast. If everything is on low saturation, a saturated color will contrast.
Motion: Still vs moving objects.
Form: If you have an entire page of squares and one circle, guess where the eye will go?
Value: Dark vs light.
Great video : )
Great comment :) Thanks!
People may complain about it (Mark kind of did in another video) but this is partially why action games like Uncharated and Tomb Raider now paint climable ledges in identifiable whites or yellows, or other colors. While it does remove the challenge of nailing a climb, having easily identifiable ledges and climbing material helps players figure out the direction they need to go, especially in very fast high intense chases.
In the original 1985 super Mario bros, the game starts with Mario on the left side of the screen facing right, making the player go right.
Because remember, side scrolling was very mind boggling back in 1985
PCs and consoles prior to the NES didn't support side scrolling, and in arcades it was previously just used for some space shooters I believe. The NES (and Super Mario Bros particularly) really popularized side scrolling platformers.
Been watching High Score on Netflix?
This is a relevant bit from the Left 4 Dead commentary:
[Chris Chin] Lighting was one of our toughest challenges. We had to find a light level that was atmospheric without striking players as frustrating or unfair. Wherever possible, we let lighting tell the story and enhance the gameplay. Playtests proved that in a dark game, players will go wherever there's light. All we had to do was set up a few critical lights, and players are drawn to them like a moth to a bug zapper. This simplified lighting also made it easier to read silhouettes, so that players could more easily tell Survivors from Infected. And car headlights proved to be one of our most flexible props, casting long dramatic shadows that tell a story of abandonment, while being easily positioned to lead the Survivors where we want them to go.
I spent 5 months teaching 4 people what you managed to do to thousands in 8 minutes. Bravo.
I bet that took at least two weeks
Beautiful video mate! Painstakingly done, can see the hours you've sunk into this!!! Take a bow, you've earned it!
Didn't think would see you here
Зцз
Fantastic video, this is a very important slice of level design and environment art that people don't talk about, thanks!
+Helder Pinto I agree, this was a great insight and very well thought-out.
When I first played Skyrim and exited Tutorial Cave, there is this gorgeous valley ahead with really intriguing ruins on the other side. The ruins caught my attention so I ignored the quest and went there first. Turns out there is this long dungeon underneath them and I played through it, killing the boss Draugr and getting mah sweet loot, except for some random rock.
Then I went to the quest marker, and they sent me right back to that cave to get that rock. So, in this case, the weenie came too soon, as the little town with the quest is a bit further off and not nearly as visible, if at all.
Onat Akosha The Third Exactly, if you already have it by the time you speak to Farengar he’ll just say “Oh, the dragon stone of Bleak Falls Barrow! You already found it!” and you don’t have to go there again.
This has been one of my favorite videos you've made. It's so interesting, I never even noticed these subtle hints while playing these games for the first time, and then after a second playthrough, I couldn't believe I missed them. It's like the famous notion of "There's enemies here, I must be going the right way." where enemies work as sort of a reverse Hansel and Gretel trail, where instead of knowing where you've been, you know where you haven't been.
These kinds of subtleties are some of my favorite things about game design. Creating linear gameplay and still not making it feel like it holds your hand by pointing an arrow at your objective like it's telling you "There it is, dumbass" is actually something you don't see in many games. As always, great work on a great video.
Eh, It's usually the best tool at hand.
Players are idiots. Devs when playtesting know that most of their audience will often ignore very obvious clues and then complain a game is frustrating (DMs of DnD can relate). You can use all the fancy lighting, lines and layout tricks in the world and many players will still miss the mark.
Uncharted 1 is an example of this. Amy Henning talked about this where players would often go for incorrect paths or dead ends despite how clearly they marked the correct way. So their solution was to go for the gold painting in Uncharted 2 onwards. They felt the benfits to pacing and player experience were worth the less exploratory nature. Listen to any DnD Campaign after game and the DM will tell horror stories of how they planned x thing down to the smallest detail and players still found a way to derail it, often requiring at least a few concessions to get it back to some extent. Listen to any GDC talk or behind the scenes of a game and you'll see playtesters missing obvious stuff. As one example, when developing Assassin's Creed 2, the devs noticed playtesters weren't using the blending mechanics despite the fact you could blend in with any crowd of people as opposed to only a specific group and it required pressing a single button to activate. Their solution was to make blending automated which made some players use it more.
The problem is that unless a game is fully open or mostly open ended, you can't assume a player knows how to progress. Assassin's Creed doesn't have worry about guiding the player through a very specific climbing path as anything can be climbed or traversed with ease. So Uncharted has to because not everything can be climbed. The Last of Us has to indicate which doors can be taken because unlike say, Splinter Cell or Metal Gear, there is often only 1 path through a level.
Y'all may be familiar enough with games to see this as patronizing and immersion breaking. But for most players, it's a Godsend.
@@FraserSouris Depends on the game. I could see having markers in a game that's complete action oriented, but if the game is supposed to be about adventuring and exploration, then markers are completely antithetical to the experience
It's interesting that Uncharted trilogy offers the player a reason to search all the nooks and bushes along the main path(small inessential treasures) and it breaks the pace and immersion of the game, especially when you are trying to look at every corner of the burning/collapsing mansion. But in The Last of Us they reward players exploration much better, giving them additional character dialogues, environmental storytelling, etc. It feels meaningful and natural, because exploration is a vital part of the game, players need to search for resources just to survive.
One of my favorite instances of this is when going through a city, you stop by this door with noises coming from behind it. It's not on the main story path, it's entirely optional...but the dialogue surrounding it really allowed for an amazing tense moment of uncertainty where you HAVE to see what's inside and get jumpscared by an infected.
A good recent example of the whole objects in the distance design was in the Mad Max Game. Almost anywhere you go you can see Gastown or the main strongholds. The flames on the top of Gastown are always burning and it's set near dead north so you can orientate yourself to it easily.
One design element you covered here that always bugs me is the climbable platforms always being yellow. It's a good idea but it really does look out of place sometimes. It's one of those things that's not quite subtle enough to maintain the illusion of a real world but almost essential to make navigation readable.
Hey. Yeah, once you start noticing it, the yellow can become a little silly. The Mad Max example is cool, because the weenie stuff is especially useful in open world games. I should try that one.
Mad Max is decent but it's literally Open-world Action Game: The Game. Does some other neat tricks like convoy routes having oil on the roads showing cars have passed over them a lot and snipers giving away their position in the distance with a flicker of light reflecting off their scope lens. It also does the yellow paint everywhere thing.
+Mellow Gaming I haven't played Mad Max, only watched a few videos, but first minutes of the game, you get an objective saying "get water" and it's conveniently marked for you so that you don't actually have to search... Which kind of defeats the purpose. (It wasn't only the waypoint, it was the entire UI that left nothing in the player's hand. That enemy is glowing red, dodge. That car part is glowing white, you can remove it. Just immersion breaking unecessary hand-holding, in my opinion, but whatever.)
This makes it seem like Mad Max is as much a bad example as a good one.
+Mellow Gaming I noticed this when I was playing through Tomb Raider, I kept asking myself who went around painting all that stuff white. It made no sense to me from an immersion stand point. I haven't played most of the other games mentioned in this video but in past games where I have noticed that sort of thing it isn't until the second or third play through that it becomes obvious. I think would be especially true for the yellow that is used by Naughty Dogs.
michael massengale i guess everyone climbing the ledges put chalk on their hands like gymnasts would, lol
The difference between ground and walls is something a lot of developers seem to have a huge problem with. I especially remember Skyrim to have pretty damn bad boundaries to what is a slope and what is a wall, probably because a lot of the environments simply weren't made with gameplay in mind but it is an annoyance.
***** It's not a matter of path, it's a matter of what can I walk on and what can I. I feel like so much would be fixed by being able to glide of objects.
***** Not if it would always silde to a ground you can stand on.
***** ...
"there is no need to guide the player along a certain path as that would go directly against the core design elements."
No but that's absolutely NOT what I'm saying, I'm just saying it might've been better to scrap the ability akwardly jump up an almost straight wall.
***** Akwardly jumping up a mountain is occasionally more effective than finding out what's the right route.
***** "I actually don't have anything proper to say so I just start offending."
Don't call people stupid when you want them to agree with you.
My favourite example I noticed was in Half-Life 2. In the first chapter or so after you pick up the crowbar, you turn a corner in an alley and framed by the alley is a direct view of the Citadel with hundreds of seekers pouring out of it. Perfect use of environmental storytelling and composition all in one.
Environmental storytelling is a topic I can't wait to dig into - great example
+Mark Brown Hope you at least touch on Dark Souls in that one! It tells basically all of its story through the environments.
This is another of my favourite aspects of game design. It's great to see how designers can guide you through a game so effectively and effortlessly. It's why Portal is so brilliant, at not just navigation, but teaching you mechanics as well. I think Zelda goes this job pretty well too. Maybe not in Skyward Sword though.
This is also why I couldn't get on with Ico. I know that's kind of an unpopular opinion, but when playing it I found it a huge issue. One of the worst examples was a moment when I was stuck in a room for about 15 minutes having no idea where I needed to go next. Ran around forever trying everything, and nothing worked. Turned out all I had to do was literally walk through an open door. The thing was the door was hidden away right in the furthest corner of the room, and was shrouded in complete darkness. When I discovered it I even turned up the brightness of the game to maximum, and it was still completely obscured. Couldn't see it at all. Stuff like that happened over and over through the game as I was playing it.
I played the original Halo today, and was reminded of this video. Bungie really sucked at this in the 1st Halo at 3 points you need to jump up to the second level on some boxes I walked around for nearly 20 minutes like an idiot because the ground level was lit up really well and the second level was completely dark. I'm not looking up there. there's no light, I'll just look around these 2 well lit rooms for 20 minutes for a door that doesn't exist instead.
I get really confused when people say they liked the open ended level design of halo 1, because all I remember was being lost for 20 minutes because the terminal I have to press looks like all the other ones that don’t do anything.
enemy outposts in Far Cry 3 have thick black smoke coming from the center, until you free them. That was "upgraded" to red/green laser color in Blood Dragon, when an outpost is enemy or friendly and was seen from half a map away.
my favouirte is probably the Thief: The Dark Project level, down in the bonehoard. The level is a mess, you barely have a 2D map, you're going in blind and in the last quarter of the level you can hear the Horn of Quintus, the maguffin you want, play and its sound guides you to it. Nothing special now, but that was back in 1997 and sound design/tech was revolutinary for the time.
Rakyat
Remember white ropes while climbing Radio Towers. It's my favorite game, I enjoyed the story more than of FC 4 and 5
As a landscape photographer who's grown up with gaming, my mind is officially blown! Loved this video!
I tend to get lost in parts of Mirrors Edge even with Runner Vision on :/
The Assassins Creed series uses white (usually cloths and fabrics) to help show you where a free running section is or an easy route to climb. It was well done in the first game but became a bit too obvious in the later titles as they relied on it more and more.
i have never seen them paint the path white
its just easy to know where you can climb because you can trust that the character will be able to climb up literally anything that juts out of a wall
Great video as always, thanks for the upload! If you haven't played Portal with the director's commentary, I highly recommend it. It was my first glimpse into not only game design but the massive psychology needed to understand how the human mind works: what our eyes are drawn to and the associations we start to make with the subconscious design aspects. There is an interesting aspect to 3D environments where the eye almost always wants to look down. Visual cues are needed to draw our attention up. And when we do look up, it's brief; we look up to see what is there, then look down to get to where we are going. If you put a switch on the floor most players will see it. If you put it on the ceiling with no cue, almost no one will see it. I think you'll find a successful design puts almost everything of importance on the bottom half of the environment and uses the top half for mostly decoration and light cues.
+ThunderRazor TF2's commentary is also super informative. Every time I play a multiplayer game and the silhouette of the characters is bland and blends together, I roll my eyes and think of that commentary. Then I realize how many freaking hats and costumes that game has and shake my head that they basically went against their own design principles to get money. :(
I'll check it out - I haven't heard the TF2 commentary yet.
+DaveKap have you watched the video: "CS:GO insanity and forgotten TF2 design" by Crowbcat? It basicly sends a message about the whole cosmetic microtransactions thing going on in those games
This was such a massive hurdle for me to get over when I first started playing first-person games (for years I refused) because you need to look up to see the world/enemies etc., but for the life of me I always felt the need to look down and see where I was going, Maybe it was all my experience with 3rd person platformers but to this day I still tend to look towards the ground.
@@MoofEMP I usually play on 110 fov when there is an option. It was just something I had to adjust to. In third person it is easier to see where you are, basically regardless of fov. I didn't ever play first person games until I left home, partly because of parents trying to shelter me and partly because I just wasn't interested in shooting, aiming and twitch reflexes as mechanics at the time. Nowadays I'm annoyed at games that let you shoot in 3rd person because it's a stupid advantage in shooters but whatever I guess.
This ends up somewhere between here and the little dotted line, but one thing I've appreciated about certain games is the use of weenies and looking back to get an understanding of your presence in the world. Where you are relative to everything else, and how far you've come on your adventure. It's one of the things I genuinely miss about the world maps in final fantasy. As unintuitive as it is grow to the size of a town and walk around on a map of the world whenever you leave an important area, there's no significant break in space and time that might happen via a cutscene or - well, cut in a movie.
Or in dark souls when I got to the darkroot garden and saw the town from another angle, but was able to recognize the area, and follow where I'd walked to come to where I was. You never really see how far you've come until you look back at where you've been, which is why I like getting these places to get a real overview. Then ubisoft bastardized it and made it a chore you have to earn through trial of patience.
Sorry to ask after 3 years but you seem the only one here using the word .. "weenies" - well, I just googled that, as I am no native english speaker and I don't think that what I found is the answer .. could you tell me whats the meaning of "weenies" / "weeny" ?
Mad Max of all games did this very well as well in my opinion. But they slapped the mini map, objective markers and things like that on top of this design for some reason. You can always see some landmark, camps with water supply are also clearly marked by the rain catchers, the way the dog turns towards mines or the dust cloud from a convoy that you can see from a far.
Shadow of The Colossus' navigation is pretty unique.
although it does technically have a waypoint system, albeit a bit of a unique one
One game that comes to mind for navigation aids is Shovel Knight of all things. In the very first level, there's a point where you climb a ladder and can travel left or right. To the left, there is a hidden collectable, and I instinctively went that way first, because it just felt like the wrong way so there had to be something there. To the right, you can see a couple of enemies, and the Enchantress's tower framed by tree leaves-- the tower having been established as your end goal at the very start of the game.
fantastic observation
I prefer these videos to extracredits. These are much more informative and inspirational whereas extracredits seems more like they're just stating the obvious.
+0vrStart Thanks for watching! Extra Credits is definitely going for a more broad and general approach, whereas I focus on analysing existing stuff. I think they work quite nicely together :)
+0vrStart It's also a difference in audiences. Extra Credits feels like it's more aimed towards a general audience whereas Mark feels like he's aiming his videos more at developers.
+0vrStart I also find Mark's voice a lot more soothing. Also, I can see examples of games here. EC talks about a lot of mechanics of popular games and just expects that you already have played these, without going further to demonstrate what they're talking about.
+0vrStart I would probably say that Game Maker's Toolkit is about what the games ARE, and Extra Credits is more concerned with what the games CAN BE.
Extra Credits doesn't really say anything though. They just romanticize games without bringing anything meaningful to the conversation. I'll take that back if you can surmise one single piece of advice you gleamed from them.
Probably my favourite of your videos so far, fantastic job! Mirror's Edge is a personal favourite of mine, I think it has some of the smartest use of colour I've ever seen in a game and not just in regards to directing the player but also how it reflects the themes of the oppression and conformity.
You touched on something really interesting though that has been worrying me for a long time in regards to the upcoming Mirror's Edge Catalyst. The original game used a variety of methods, such as the ones you discussed here, to help navigate the player through a tightly composed linear space, but how is this going to be done as effectively in the new open world setting? The use of a weenie is clever and something I'd never picked up on before so I guess that could be used, as could the use of colour still, but most of the clever design techniques you discussed in regards to that Uncharted 3 chase sequence could probably be applied to any Mirror's Edge level and both rely on the principle of going from A to B with little to no deviation. How can those same principles be applied in an open world setting where the player has freedom to roam in any direction? And without sacrificing the tight focused level design we all love about those games? Do you think it can be done? I'm interested to see what they come up with...
Open world is a lot harder as the same world will be recontexualised thousands of times for every mission. Maybe something like how Burnout Paradise would put arrows on the track to turn its open world into impromptu race courses - but a bit more subtle. I.e. Introduce these visual cues during missions, and turn them back off in free roam mode. Whatever they do, I'll look forward to seeing. Mirror's Edge is a favourite of mine too
Posting from the future: Mirror's Edge: Catalyst gives you a traditional glowing line to follow to your waypoint, but you can turn that off and use runner vision instead, which highlights the next parkour object on the route you need to go. That was a good middle ground for me.
Also, the route that runner vision gives you is usually not the fastest route, and you can shave some seconds by trying other routes or more advanced maneuvers. This is pretty much a requirement to beat the time trials in Catalyst. And as a side benefit, since you tend to go back and forth along the same routes as you explore an area, getting good at time trials makes you faster at getting around the world in general.
Ever since someone taught me what signposting was, I can't stop seeing it in games. It pulls me slightly out of immersion, but it also makes me appreciate the work that went into crafting the world.
Another great episode, it's so interesting to see the depth behind games. Where did you learn all this Mark?
Thanks! The answer to your question: a lot of research! Went through many GDC talks, design books, and thesis papers for ideas. And of course, played a bunch of games
+Mark Brown Can you suggest some GDC talks?
+Sebastian Kuhnow Scott Rogers from THQ did this brilliant talk that I (as a huge fan of both game design AND Disneyland!) found amazing a few years ago: www.gdcvault.com/play/1305/Everything-I-Learned-About-Level
I just started playing Batman Arkham Asylum recently for the first time. Something that I have noticed is how the game uses Joker teeth as a way to say go this way. I think that they work well because they are small red moving objects that are on the path of they way you need to go. You mentioned that both color and movement are ways to direct a characters vision and the Joker teeth are a way of combining those two things. They also have the added bonus of having achievements related to their destruction to motivate the player to move closer to throw a batarang.
Love your voice and your videos even more. Thanks for putting so much work into them :)
It's worth it to get lovely comments like this!
these really are some of the very best made videos on youtube. seeing someone being able to objectively spot the tricks that kept these games interesting is really satisfying. keep it up!
I love this in the uncharted games, you can usually see your short term goal of "get to this church" but if you climb high enough or are in the right place you can even see where you are headed next or have been on the island. just love it.
The Tomb Raider reboot needs an option to disable the main quest marker while using Survival Instincts, the game not only already does a amazing job at guiding the player through the level design but since it's a game all about exploration the player will eventually stumble into the main quest if they got lost
We specifically looked at The last of us when we worked on Magnetic: Cage Closed's more open areas. It works surprisingly well, but can be time consuming to implement.
Wolfenstein the new colossus has some of the worst level design I’ve ever experienced. I was always unsure of where to go and after killing all the enemies in a level I spent most of the time trying to find the way into the next section.
I feel similarly especially as I consider The New Order to be among the best shooters out there. There's a lot I like about The New Colossus, but I felt like the occasionally unclear directions affected the pacing and thus the whole experience (although, compared to Return to Castle Wolfenstein it's simple).
I just found your channel and it's awesome! I've always been somewhat aware of the level designers' subtle visual cues but actually seeing examples of all the different elements they use is super interesting.
your videos get better each time. Very well researched and the way you illustrated all the different techniques was simply awesome. Also excellent video editing skills.
If you post a new video , i'll post this comment too since I think it's too late for you to read it.
Good job and you've earned a new subscriber. I love games and often get down the nitty and gritty of games, but I'm a student of architecture and design and to someone that absolutely adores virtual architecture and real architecture. It's amazing to see the parallels between environmental game design and environmental design. Even in real buildings the best use of design has always been this "implicit design", something that doesn't tell the player, client, visitor where to go but is made clear where to go.
Checkit out yourself, if you're in England the Derby Round House College uses these yellow columns to guide people to the cafe. Other places do it too. More often that not the Serpentine Pavillions in Hyde Park London also do this.
It's unfortunate that I can't mention what I've learnt from games in my design proposals though... Horrible that it negatively affects the perception of the design to all parties; designers, tutors and clients.
+redlightning0001 I read all comments, no matter the video - thanks for sharing :)
klmj
Resident Evil 4 has brilliant framing that really kick up the feel of a cinematic horror movie.
The most notable examples come from the very beginning of the game, where you inspect a small square shack, the camera framing Leon in the right. As you make your way inside, you notice a crate. Turning left, an item on the desk. You continue turning left to see what else you may have missed, and head out the door to be greeted by an impaled villager for a great jump scare that you, the player, directed. There's no orchestral sting or anything. It's like lifting a rock to see a big bug.
A little later, in the main area where you have to fight off a swarm of ganado, after you've succeeded and are free to inspect the area for herbs and goodies, you walk into a house. You check the cupboards and crates, and as you turn to head out, a small window toward the top of the wall perfectly frames the burning policeman - again, driving home that feeling that even though you think the area is clear, you're not safe from imagery that can surprise you.
I really liked how Alan Wake did this with light poles being save points and progression indicators at once. I also really like the Angler Fish encounter in SOMA. After being trained to always follow the lights in the abyss, you are suddenly met with a sightly different one that you quickly learn to avoid.
There was a part in left 4 dead that really hit it home with me. There was an abandoned sign board advertising something with an arrow pointing in the direction where the game wanted you to go. But later in a different mission, your team back-tracked through the same neighborhood. The same sign was dislodged and fell. Where it landed, the arrow pointed in the opposite direction again helping to direct the player
absolutely brilliant video, this series is such a revelation for creatives looking to start their journey in the videogames industry. Many of these important design aspects covered in this series were also covered in my videogames design degree, but not everyone is lucky enough to be able to do this, so this series is such an invaluable resource of knowledge. Keep up the great work. : )
First time viewer, excellent episode! A great navigational aid in God of War is that sometimes I get turned around, I noticed whenever you're backtracking through a level, Kratos is usually facing towards the screen. Saved me a lot of time when I realized this function of the camera.
bastion with its plattforms forming a way.
this video reminded me of "every frame a painting", a youtube channel about filmmaking. And both filmmaking and video game making have a ton in common. Guiding the player or viewer where to focus on, framing the important path and so on.
Great video ~ lots of salient information. It was like an Every Frames a Painting but for vg design, proprs.
In Fallout 1, you discover Shady Sands by chance on the way to another destination (it shows up on the world map because you get close to it). Maybe not very subtle, but a super effective trick that retains immersion and supports the feeling of exploration because nobody told you to go there.
Also, whenever I saw a trap door in that game, I absolutely HAD to go down there and check it out, even if it meant breaking into a house and/or getting past a tough-looking guy in armor. They didn't really stand out visually, they were just there - curiosity and greed dragged me in.
Oddly enough, I remember The Getaway.
It has a huge city and has no map or navigation to guide you through.
How it gets you from point A to B is by practicing safe driving by using the car's blinker to tell you to turn ahead. If you miss your turn it'll flash rapidly telling you to turn back. And once you're there the hazards flash.
I always loved how in Halo 3: ODST, the city lights point you the right direction, and there’s a reason for it in the story. I wish we could disable waypoints in the game to be more immersed, and fully rely on signs carefully placed by Vergil to find our way.
I'm going to incorporate the 'squint test' into my cinematography now. Thank you for sharing!
Good video; I think you and I probably heard the same Scott Rogers talk from GDC a while back. The Disneyland weenies/squint test parts really stuck with me and I often find myself spotting them in games.
Yeah, I think I watched that one during my research. Someone talking about weenies, at least. Someone could invent a drinking game out of all the weenies in the uncharted trilogy.
Recently became very interested in movie/game analysis and came upon your channel. I'm really loving all your content so far!
One of my favourite levels in this sense is the first level in Duke Nukem 3D, the "Hollywood Holocaust" from the first episode "L.A. Meltdown". As old game it is, it has an incredible amount of good eye directing, via lighting, colours, enemy placement, etc. I personally hold that particular level on a pedestal, when it comes to clear and good 3d level design. It has so many other things also going on, which are just pure awesomeness, but the eye direction, where to go, where you can go is marvelously executed. I actually wrote an analysis about it few months ago. :)
Some walking simulators tend to do interesting things with navigation since that's what those games are about. In Gone Home the entire game is about finding your way into the house and as you open up the house the story opens up alongside it, the design of the house is logical and non-linear but it uses a series of gates and keys to maintain a linear path.
The Path purposefully disorients players. If you run away from the central path eventually you will be unable to return to it, the main road just dissolves completely and you are trapped into an open map that loops on itself, creating the impression of running in circles in an endless forest.
In my second play through of Half-Life 2 I definitely noticed how well Valve did this, especially during the rooftop chase scenes before you get the suit.
Another interesting thing I noticed: They had enemies shooting at you to give a sense of urgency, but it was before you even got a health bar, and the bullets did nothing except make the screen flash red, giving urgency without real danger.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, led me straight to my Control Panel
Remember Atlas
when You were talking about weenies, I remembered great structures from Prince of Persia 2008 and Space Marine
The Bioshock GPS arrow. it felt so good to wander in random directions but always know EXACTLY how to get back to the main path.
Just found your channel. "wooow" effect kicked me hard. What a brilliant content you have here!. I'll need to catch up watching all your videos in a marathon ASAP. Thanks in advance!
Just to add something here. I'm currently playing Uncharted 4 (never played before an Uncharted) with my wife. It's really impressive how me (guy who needs to check the map every second cause i'm very bad at orientation) and my wife (she plays mostly Zelda-like games, platformers in 2D and classic point and click adventures) didn't need at all stop the action to check where to go at any moment. The game holds your hand and leads you where you should be going to make the whole thing looking cool and smooth.
In Breath of the Wild, Hyrule Castle is nearly always visible from the overworld, a constant reminder of your final goal. This effect is emphasized even more by the massive lasers that are trained on Hyrule Castle as you tame each Divine Beast. It gets to the point where if you look up at all, you'll see a laser, and following that laser will point you right back to Hyrule Castle.
The camera in that chase scene in uncharted says "this is where you should be running" 90% of the time but there is one point where it says ''these are the guys you should be running from'' and it doesn't give you any warning that what it is telling you has changed. it makes the scene way less dramatic when you die and you're thinking 'what the fuck? where the hell are you telling me to run?'
I wish you had done this after Uncharted 4 came out, as navigating the player through level design is even more impressing than the previous entries of the series.
Gün Rodoplu Agreed
Dear Mark, you won yourself a follower. I think you are very good at doing comments: clear explanations, concise definitions, staying on focus on your topic (I guess you have put a script to read during your research). Even for a viewer whose primary language is not english (and I'm not even pretending I'm perfectly good in English), your videos are of the most clarity type I have seen on the website. I look forward for your boss keys videos (I love Zelda!) and every other topic you feel interesting.
I think these are fantastic tricks and I thank you for explaining them. But I don't think they come to life in the naughty dog games for the simple reason they take the control out of your hand so often.
Halo 3: ODST uses these techniques a lot to guide you to audio logs scattered around the Mombasa Streets. You might here car alarms or a pedestrian street crossing repeating "Please...Walk..." or digital street signs indicating the direction of the audio log, and all this activity stands out in the otherwise quiet and dark environment and makes you want to investigate. When you listen to enough of these audio logs, you also realize that there is an actual intelligence that controls the city and is guiding you to where you need to go, which links the game's level design, atmosphere and narrative all together.
Id Software classic games did this all the time. Doom, Wolfenstein 3D, and Quake all had interactive elements that stood out from the world. Doors were in contrasting colors and framed by bold architectural elements (for instance, that first door in Doom E1M1. The game does not have to tell you that it is a door or give you a popup prompt. It's just obvious that it is a door and you should try to interact with it). Switches were placed on prominent podiums or lit up so they would immediately draw the player's eye. Keys were often placed on carpets or contrasting floor textures that were a few inches above or beneath the level of the surrounding floor. Directional motifs like strips of ceiling lights or "bread crumbs" made from ammo pickups (and in Quake, literal arrows) pointed the way towards objectives. Environments and colors were carefully considered to set a mood (for instance, the cold blue tones of the end of Episode 1 of Quake making the last two maps feel distinctly more hostile than the medieval maps before). They built these enormous, interconnected, sprawling maps that even children could find their way around. It was genius.
They could also use this to hide things too. Like there's a secret chainsaw in the first room of Doom II map01, directly behind the start position. Not only can you not see it from the player's initial vantage point, but the chevron shaped steps ahead, the light coming from the corridor beyond, and the two zombiemen with their backs turned waiting to get shot all beckon the player forwards and discourage him from looking around and finding the tunnel directly behind him that leads to the chainsaw. Then one day you get bored and decide to look at that level a bit more closely, and there it is, it was sitting out in the open the whole time and Sandy Petersen made sure you never thought to look there.
And then Doom 3 happened, and it was endless, linear gray corridors where there is precisely one path forward but you can never seem to find it. Architecture matters.
Sort of an adjacent point, smart level design also includes hiding secrets. I remember my college roommate playing a game where he entered a doorway and after loading the next room he was a fair distance into the room. I told him to go back to the doorway. He did and found some upgraded armor. I had never played the game, but I knew from the visual cues that there was likely something hiding in the "gap".
There are of course an endless number of examples that can be found in almost every game, but that was the one moment that made me start thinking about level design from a designers stand point.
Xenoblade Chronicles pulls this off masterfully despite the fact that it still has a guiding arrow and a map. In such a massive world, so many secrets are directed with visual clues.
My first experience with this sort of thing was in the first assassin's creed. There are lots of premade paths, that often start with white cloth on the staic scenery, that give you a chance to experience some of the coolest parts of the parkour system. There is very often at least one of these paths in the chase sequences through out the game. They also often lead to interesting parts of the game world and the collectibles.
It really is useful in an open world where there are so many paths that you can't just follow one road and go where you need to go.
I think Portal 2 should have been mentioned here as well. There were multiple tricks used specifically with lighting to draw the players eye.
I recently started again playing Ucharted 2 Among Thieves and with my new improved skills i have learned with this awesome channel i was analyzing everything i saw and did.I also noticed that navigating is a lot more fun when you explore every nuke and cranny.And i wondered why there are no markers or symbols to guide you through the levels since it was so exilarating to do so.And now i know.Naughty Dog are masters of their craft.
Well hi there. I just wanted to thank you for your amazing work.
I'm just a random developper but I'm really interested in game design, I've read a few books and watched hundreds of game design videos. And I must say yours are very polished, clear and deliver a very interesting point of view. Your examples are self explaining and I feel like I'm travelling with you.
To be honest I found you because you were mentionned in someone else's video, so I gave it a try. And man, I was not disappointed. Keep it up and thanks again.
Halo 3 ODST made this an entire character's main interaction. The cities AI "The Superintendant" follows your every move, and wants to guide you, but only has access to normal everyday signage, not military communications. So if you come to a crossroads and the left fork leads to your objective, big signs will light up saying something like "DETOUR - STAY LEFT" with arrows pointing that way, or if the player is heading towards enemies, the sign might say "OBSTRUCTION AHEAD". After a while, the player realises that they're being guided, and it's a really fun way not just to lead players, but to give characterisation to a character that has no actual lines, or even a physical body.
in Prince of Persia Sands of Time trilogy, parts of walls where the developer wants you to wall-run will be much more worn off and dirty than other parts of that wall
What a great idea for an episode. Thank you as always, Mark!
I think it can be looked at in two ways - one, that the game is leading you on to the next segment, and two, the game is cluing you in to where to go when you're done exploring. I've seen comments about people noting and then ignoring the door that's conveniently glowing and producing noise, to explore what they would miss if they continued on. Perhaps it's also to tell us explorers, "Hey, don't go here until you're ready to go on."
Like seriously the chase scene he's highlighting here form Uncharted 3 consists of doing almost nothing more than holding forward while the camera points in the direction you need to go and occasionally pressing the jump button. 10/10 game design, how does no one else manage to be so clever.
I remember playing that chase scene in the opening of Uncharted 4 and thinking "If Naughty Dog is brave enough not to give me an obvious waypoint, the right path is probably the one way I'm thinking of going."
I don't think I ever put my trust in level design and subconsciously guide me to the right place, but I'm sure glad I did in that moment.
I recently found your videos and can't.get.enough. Simply, spectacular. I specially cherish the one about morality in video games. Your passion for games is obvious and makes it easy to connect with your work. Brilliant!
The closest example to this I can think of is that in The Wind Waker, Link will often turn his head and stare at things of interest, giving you a somewhat subtle hint that there’s something important nearby, while also feeling natural for the character to do so. He’s a little boy, of course he’s gonna be curious about his surroundings like that.
Wow this video is amazing. I love the idea of being subtlety pushed down a path but it’s made to feel like your own choice. Truly great game programming and an understanding of players reactions and temperaments that more game companies really need to try for. This video was fantastic, definitely subscribing.
Thinking back to my childhood, I think of Banjo Tooie's second world, Glitter Gulch Mine.
Right from the entrance, there is a switch that opens a gate on the other end of the map allowing you to exit. Your first instinct is to get through the gate before it closes (after grabbing nearby Turbo Trainers and running on the river that is shown leading there via cutscene). Past the gate is a waterfall which you can't get back up from, but if you continue down the path and through a room further, you exit at a waterfall which creates the river that you just ran across, to the left of where the switch was.
You now have been led through a loop using the river as a guide to where you are.
+Mitch Gosser (PolterZeitgeist) Another good example that wasn't actually touched upon in the vid (because it's dealing with linear levels and not the explorative ones like in Banjo Tooie) is the verticality of the first level. Each important aspect of the level is on a different plane. To start with you enter on the lowest plane. You work your way up the slopes, each time seeing a different place of interest that you will revisit later. If the level was on a flat plane it would be much harder for the player to navigate and remember.
As an introductory level it breaks itself down into smaller, more easy to consume chunks simply through having tiers.
Witchyworld takes the Weenies concept to the letter, by having a big top at the center of the level, and each section aesthetically themed.
Mitch Gosser That's not really a weenie. The Big Top is a central point with linear paths striking outwards from it, similar to Malon's ranch in Ocarina of Time, the central point of the entire game world.
None of the Banjo Kazooie/Tooie maps are large enough to require the construction of a weenie, a location viewable from a long distance away to provide context to which direction you should be headed in, and/or where you are in the map in relation to it.
I found that In MGS5 guard patrols can sometimes lead you through a facility you're trying to infiltrate. Picking out where the patrols are weakest tends to build a kind of mental pathway as to how to get through some of the larger bases and outposts in the game. Ground Zeroes had some precisely placed guards as well, which gave clues as to how to use the environment to get around them. Maybe it's not quite the pathway guiding in Uncharted; but I found it to be a design choice too good to be coincidental.
It's impossible to get lost in Uncharted because there is literally just one path at all times! It's like saying signs and arrows in a tunnel helped you get to the end of it.
The point is that you are guided down that path fluidly, instead of bumping your head against every unopenable door or unclimbable object to determine what that path is. Yes it's a tunnel, but without signposting it's a pitch black tunnel where you have to reach out with your hands to physically feel if there is a wall in your way. Not very fun design
I loved the rear view mirror in third person view in Mafia III. It was a sort of rectangle that would float in the sky. It didn't block your vision & gave you a clear view behind without turning around just like when you're really driving. I would love to see third person rear view mirrors, along with different style side mirrors, for different cars in GTA 6. They could get destroyed as the car took damage.
I know you mentioned Half-Life 2, but I was always blown away by the level design and visual tricks in that game. Playing that game however many years ago was my first foray into analysis of game design. I remember stopping mid-game one moment and thinking "I feel like I'm lost..." but as I continued, the game kept going along. I was unfamiliar with that feeling, used to being strung along. The only times I felt "lost" in other games were when I deliberately and consciously left the obvious critical path to explore nooks and crannies. In HL2, it felt like the critical path *was* those nooks and crannies. Thrilled by this, I played through the game again with developer's commentary and... man. The sheer effort and attention to detail that goes into every environment and scene... It's inspiring, to be honest. It's what really made me want to be a game designer. I always loved video games and thought making them would be "cool". But seeing the depth and careful thought that can be put into this fascinating and uniquely interactive medium is what made me fall in love with games as an art form. Any time I doubted my thoughts on wanting to be a game developer, I'd just play through HL2 or one of its episodes with developer commentary, and that feeling came right back.
This is actually useful as a gamer. It explains many a game where I get lost and frustrated due to a lack of visual cues. That's probably mostly on me, but now I know exactly what sorts of things to look for in order to progress.
This is one of my favourite videos of yours and you have inspired me to make my own video essays. I just want to say thank you for all the work that you do on your videos and thank you for helping me find what I want to do. I make this comment after uploading my first video essay looking at the level design of Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order and this video was somewhat of a blueprint for me on that.
Fantastic video- it's good to see all these techniques together in one place.
I know it wasn't your focus here, but another thing you might want to consider with landmarks is their importance and use in open-world games. All the areas in Sly Cooper 2 and 3 have giant buildings that can be seen from just about any point in the map, so that players always know where they are relative to there and never feel lost.
#1 reason uncharted is so immersive. There’s a hud, but there’s no markers and waypoints telling you where to go. Even though you’re guided, you feel as though you found the destination, which adds to the sense of discovery.
When you mentioned the ever-present design features that loomed in the distance and presented a goal for the player, I immediately thought of the aerial in Dear Esther.
You could say Minecraft uses Light as a guidance in some way. Lava pools that emit light and are easily visible in a dark cave or ravine show the path to deeper cave parts, since lava is only generated in deeper levels.
APB: Reloaded, while not really using these tricks to that extent, instead has its level design so that while there are multiple "floors", ladders, doors, fences, alleyways, rooftops, etc. that can seem kinda like a labyrinth, as long as you move predominantly in a certain direction, like towards an objective, you'll eventually get there. It's basically like moving in a straight line without moving in a straight line. It's kinda interesting.
EDIT: It kinda fits the open-world mission format of the game.
Only thing missing is the metroid way ... the "hey, I already saw that before ! now I can go there ! =D" after grabbing a power up and using it to get out of the room in a tutorial of how to use that power up
I was very aware of this while playing Portal and Portal 2.
By the time I was playing Portal 2, I understood the concept of designing an environment to guide the player forward.
Knowing this, I never had to stop and think about where to go next. It was simply a matter of going in the direction that "felt right" and I knew I would make progress.
That made the experience all the better.
there is one game i played (forgot the name of it) where in some levels there are multiple routes, but when you get closer to the end of the levels, all routes lead to one room with multiple doors, and only two are unlocked, the way you came, and the way to the exit, so no matter which way you took you were going the right way, and you can go a different way next time and enter through another door
The wind in ghost of Tsushima is the most amazing replacement i have ever seen. That mechanic deserves its own GMTK video