Game Design Levels Quiz

Game Design - Levels

• Level Definition (1st): A level is an environment or location where gameplay occurs. An example: being on the Death Star level in a game means you're near the end.
• Level Definition (2nd): A level is a unit of progress for the player, especially when gameplay is repetitive. An example: reaching level 20 in Tetris.
• Level Definition (3rd): Levels indicate a player's rank based on earned score, experience, or skills. This marks character progression and improvement. An example: leveling up a Warcraft character to 70.
• Level Definition (4th): Levels are a division of physical space in a game, broken down based on experience. An example: dying many times on a mine cart level in a game.
• Related Term: Rounds: These are used in games and sports where the same or similar actions/activities are repeated. An example might be rounds in golf or a sport like Peggle or Diner Dash.
• Related Term: Waves: These involve repeated combat against enemies in a game. An example: waves of enemies in a game like Plants vs. Zombies, or Gears of War 2.
• Related Term: Stage: This is similar to the idea of a level, but usually separates parts of an experience. It’s often used when areas in a game have clear separation. Examples include interactions with boss enemies or sequences that are distinct like a stage in a video game.
• Related Term: Acts/Chapters: A more sophisticated method of dividing a game into parts, often to emphasize a narrative or story element. These don't necessarily have a distinct physical mapping like an environmental level. Game levels may be structured using acts/chapters but they can also be structured in other ways. This is a development choice.

Stages of Level Design

• Stage 1: Knowing Limitations: Game designers must consider certain factors that constrain a level, like the length of a level, the technology used in creating the environment (audio, art, presentation), the time available for development, customer needs, platform capabilities or specifications, and the intended target audience.
• Stage 2: Produce Ideas and Create Structure: Level design teams come up with initial ideas and a central story thread for the level. Sometimes, to streamline work, level designers might break the level design into discrete "zones," designing each zone separately.
• Stage 3: Bubble Diagrams: A bubble diagram is a simple map of a whole level. This map uses circles to show different areas and arrows show the flow or connections between those areas. Bubble diagrams help visualize the relationships between locations.
• Stage 4: Rough Maps: Once the level connections are clear via the bubble diagrams, a rough map is created for each area or bubble in the level. This is a blueprint for the layout of the level.
• Stage 5: Finishing the Level Design: This involves connecting the previous elements (stages) within the level into a cohesive physical space. All the elements are fine-tuned, from details to the heights and distances of different locations. Details like heights, locations of environmental objects, and paths are marked and finalized.

Test your knowledge on the definitions and concepts of levels in game design. This quiz covers different meanings of levels, including player progress, rank, and physical space within a game. Explore related terms like rounds and waves to deepen your understanding.