Level design is something I have always been interested in. From an early age I was always making up own levels using a pen and paper, I could come up with my different ideas and variations following made up tasks you would have to complete in the levels. One thing about this though is that I was playing games that like Mario, Crash Bandicoot and sonic and the objective in all of them is pretty much the same and what I found interesting is there basically is an unlimited amount of ideas and designs you can come up with to challenge the user, yes they are simple but I find them effective, but in the more modern game with a story you have to sort of make the level while sticking to a script. I think the way level designers now-a-days make up their levels is by looking at the script first because that tells them what is going on and gives them an idea for what they need to build in relation to the characters and how they will navigate around the level eventually reaching the goal they must accomplish. They would sketch out the plans to the level first, this would help them get idea and a sense of where everything is going to which then helps what they are going to build and texture within each separate part to the design. They can start off with the white box modelling technique, eventually slapping on the texture, but the textures they used can be influenced by what the story needs, if for example we were to play Legend of Zelda then there’s pretty much a castle in every game and tons of caves meaning they need to get these textures in relation to the different puzzles or scenes of the game, like the animation of what happens. Most castles would be dark so the texture would most probably look gloomy; if not then the lighting would be placed to make it look gloomy. The atmosphere is dependent on the scenery and all games they have a certain Art direction so I think it’s important to keep the game looking the same way through out, which all good professionally made games do, else it would be one wacky game if not, but perhaps maybe that a good idea that no one has thought of before? We’d just be pinching off other people’s ideas and throwing them altogether in one, that idea actually reminds me of Super Smash Brothers, they bring together all the Nintendo characters and their environments, which is interesting and it’s always been a successful franchise even though there’s only ever been 3 versions of the game.
No game is real, all games are unrealistic no matter how hard they try, they look like they are realistic but it’s still all virtual at the end of the game. I guess we are thinking about how we are going to turn gaming graphics a step higher and get them looking even more realistic, but it’s going to be many years before then, I think that one thing that makes most gamers addicted to a certain type of game is not how it plays but they way it looks also, they can be attracted to a certain style type and it makes them care for the game more becoming more and more interested to point where they must have the next game in the series on the actual day it’s released and they do nothing but play it whenever they can. I think within any game however you make it how you want and at the same time you make whatever it is in the game that is required like not just the environment but also the characters as well, and you keep them all the same style, so what I’m trying to say is that every game is designed whatever it may be and then stylized in a specific way throughout, it’s basically just variation after variation of Art styles that we see on the shelf’s of our favourite game stores, and they are all a variation of realism manipulated into a different way.
One gaming series environment I find interesting and may sound silly to some is actually Pokemon. Pokemon, from what people see think it’s all about made up creatures that don’t exist and battle them, what most people don’t know is that that Pokemon is actually based on the different regions of Japan. For example the first Pokemon game was based on the Kanto area of Japan, in which makes it quite unique because it’s based on what already exist in that area of Japan, but the thing is it’s not just one area of Japan they have taken. The latest games in the series are very interesting because it is based on the metropolitan area or New York City in America. This sort of says the team of Artists would have gone to New York and get references of how to make that and put it into the game itself. How many times do you see New York City on TV or films and TV series based in New York, there’s millions of them so it was only a matter of time before they thought we need to get out of Japan and go explore the world? This gives them a million and one places to visit and base their environments on. There’s a whole world out there and they have so many possibilities for ideas, until the whole world is full, but people would like it so much that, if it gets to the point where they need to make a whole new world then people will still buy it because of all its success in the past and let’s face it all games are made because of money, and that’s what Pokemon is all about, it’s about catching creatures and fighting them, simple but so effective coming back to my crappy but influenced level designs. Everything actually in the game makes perfect sense in relation to real life, not to get in detail about all that but in reality the bridges in the metropolitan area of New York are placed and based of the actual existing ones. Right down to the last details, the main things you would mention are the tall buildings of New York and the streets of they have replicated, it give the impression of ‘the big city’ or ‘the concrete jungle’ that is New York has been turned into the style of the’ Pokemon world’. These games are based on a grid format which the player runs around on to navigate and they have done that well evolving it along the way from basic 2D graphics to now 3D with many more possibilities using the environment within the games (and giving thanks to the technology that now allows them to do so). The environments are all set out in a format that allows them to play the game which they first made back in the late 1990's and now have adapted the landscapes around them into that of the game should be played. There are so many parts of the game and features you could reference it to and these are all ideas from existing films and things in New York. I have no idea about the names of the designers and Artists for these games; I’d have to look them up but again what they have done is simple and effective, or could say that it’s simple and effective way of making millions off of children who feed off this Japanese phenomenon’s worldwide. The big bright bold colours of the game make them attracted to it and no matter what people may think of the word ‘Pokemon’ when they hear it, the people who actually make it are having the last laugh because of all the money and that basically the whole idea of games and it’s genius to be honest.
Pokemon Red 1996 Pokemon Platinum 2008
Pokemon Red 1996 Pokemon Platinum 2008
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