| CODE | IDG5160 | ||||||||||||
| TITLE | Designing Gameworlds | ||||||||||||
| UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | ||||||||||||
| MQF LEVEL | 7 | ||||||||||||
| ECTS CREDITS | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DEPARTMENT | Institute of Digital Games | ||||||||||||
| DESCRIPTION | Most games are built upon the spatial navigation of gameworlds (or levels) which determine how the player can progress from one point in the game to another. A game’s tone is often set by its gameworld(s) and the challenges it poses. Like real-world architecture, level design must take into account both visual impact and functional affordances of the artifacts it creates. Designers of gameworlds must anticipate players' diverse personas and the emotions elicited through level design. The unit will cover the following topics: - architecture and city planning theory, and how they are applied to level design; - persona theory, and how it can be used to create personalized level designs; - the emotions elicited within game levels based on environmental psychology, color psychology and cognitive psychology in general; - connections between game mechanics and game levels; - connections between narrative and game levels; - gameworlds in non-digital media: tabletop games and augmented reality games; - case studies of different game level designs; - hands-on tutorials on designing levels using paper, 2D or 3D editing software; - hands-on tutorials on designing levels using game engines. Study-unit Aims: The aims of this study-unit are: - to develop the ability to critically analyze the design patterns of game levels; - to develop the skillset to create game levels, in 2D or 3D; - to draw clearer connections between game mechanics, narrative, and level design. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Identify the design patterns of game levels, and how they affect the gameplay; - Identify personas and formalize their playstyles and gameplay priorities; - Analyse the impact of both visual design (e.g. color choices) and architecture in players' perception, navigation and gameplay. 2. Skills By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Design levels which are appropriate for one or more personas; - Design maps and visualizations of levels with 2D or 3D editing software; - Craft a prototype gameworld using a state-of-the-art game engine. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Mandatory Texts: Totten, C. W. (2014). An Architectural Approach to Level Design. CRC Press. Lynch, K. (1964). The Image of the City. MIT Press. Supplementary Texts: Arnheim, R. (2004). Art and Visual Perception. University of California Press. Gage, J. (2000). Colour and Meaning: Art, Science and Symbolism. University of California Press. Ramachandran, V. S., & Hirstein, W. (1999). The science of art: A neurological theory of aesthetic experience. Journal of Consciousness Studies 6 (6-7),15-41. Tychsen, A., & Canossa, A. (2008). Defining Personas in Games Using Metrics. In Proceedings of the 2008 Conference on Future Play: Research, Play, Share. Bartle, R. (1996). Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds, Spades: players who suit MUDs. Journal of MUD research 1 (1). Hullet K. (2010). Design Patterns in FPS levels. In Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Foundations of Digital Games. Järvinen, A. (2002). Gran Stylissimo: The Audiovisual Elements and Styles in Computer and Video Games. In Proceedings of Computer Games and Digital Cultures Conference. Niedenthal, S. (2009). Patterns of obscurity: Gothic setting and light in Resident Evil 4 and Silent Hill 2. In B. Perron (Ed.), Horror Video Games: Essays on the Fusion of Fear and Play, (pp. 168-180). McFarland. El-Nasr, M. S., Niedenthal, S., Knez, I., Almeida, P., Zupko, J. (2007). Dynamic Lighting for Tension in Games. Game Studies 7 (1). |
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| STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Seminar | ||||||||||||
| METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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| LECTURER/S | Antonios Liapis |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2024/5. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |
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