Week 6 - Level Design

Unreal Tournament 3

Lighting
The lighting found in Unreal 3 is setup to give a cinematic experience. While most games are colourful, Unreal 3 actually desaturates some of the colour from the game to give a more dark and film like look. The lighting usually gives off some sort of tint to indicate team bases (red or blue). In regular maps however the lighting is mostly image based from the beautiful and panoramic sky textures. There are some maps where the sky is present in a day time setting. Other times the sky is red on a desert planet. Also some levels are set in space where light comes from the planet below and glowing items found on the space station. Although it is a dark game, there is no real dramatic or overly moody lighting found in games such as F.E.A.R where you are literally lurking in the shadows. Since custom maps are aplenty for this game, it entirely depends on how people want their levels to look. Many maps are created to resemble worlds from other games such as Halo or Quake III. In addition to main lighting, light is also emitted from weapons. A shot with an energy weapon can easily light up a room, or at least a good surrounding perimeter around the character. Items that glow, such as health, or boosts can add illumination to parts of the level. The guide arrows in the game are also semi-transparent and glow so that its easily noticeable. Through the use of lighting, the overall look for this game is designed to be a cinematic experience.

Colour and Contrast
Although a part of lighting, the colour and contrast were a big part of the look in Unreal 3. As i mentioned previously, the colours were sucked out to get a desaturated dark film look. This is best demonstrated in outdoor settings where the sky is bright. After the colour has been bumped down a bit, the contrast is cranked up high to make blacks blacker and whites whiter. Rather than resorting to the next-gen console techniques of yesterday, "bloom" was not abused but contrast was instead to get a hi-definition feel as well. The main colours in this game are black, red, white. All other colours are quite depressed or contain those main three colours in various shades. All of these things working together create a highly stylized look.

Scale
Creatures and characters in this game are all roughly the same size. They’re all humanoid lifeforms and so although there are big guys, and slender women, there are no overly large or small characters. While the designers could have gone crazy with characters that were enormous to fight, it wouldn’t be a balanced game since this is mainly a multiplayer or team based game. The main characters are easier to relate to and provide a more lifelike experience, while the alien characters add an element to fantasy so that we know that we are not on earth, but on some earth like planet or space instead. Environments in this game are alike. The paths, archways and stairs are all relative to the size of the characters. They even have stylistic elements that can be compared with ancient Chinese architecture.

Structure and Architecture
Getting around in Unreal 3 can be a daunting task depending on the level. Some levels are designed to have close quarters combat for fast paced action. These structures are usually constructed as a balanced and often symmetrical map with few big open areas and lots of connecting hallways, jumping platforms and stand multiple levels tall. The textures range from futuristic, to abandoned ancient structures blended with organic life often times. Larger maps are more life like in a way that its more explorable, vehicles are around to help you to get to where you want to go and natural phenomenon occur such as wind and dust storms. The architecture of the game is similar to previous Unreal or Quake games. It’s a fantasy world with lifelike structures. These worlds are full of items and strange, and sometimes familiar designs to interact with the player. There are also futuristic technologies such as teleporation, boots or pads that let you jump very high and far and alien items that enhance human ability.

Narrative
You as a player are led through different environments and worlds to advance the plot. Now, while the order of levels isn’t entirely linear, this doesn’t really effect the outcome. Much like Starfox, a player is able to play some maps out of order. In any case, players will find them selves in a few training missions at the beginning to acclimate them to the game. The protagonist, his family/team are the last line of humans and are seeking revenge on the one who wiped out their kind. Level to level, you gain valuable techniques that will help you to defeat the enemy at the end. There are no real twists and turns, it’s just a straight shoot ‘em up game with tonnes of action.

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Guitar Hero II

Lighting
The lighting in Guitar Hero II is used quite heavily. The lighting experience provided coincides with a typical arcade game with super bright lights and colours. In fact, it's so bright that playing for extended periods of time causes eye fatigue. In any case, the very bright colours represent the notes coming towards you that you must hit. When the notes are successfully hit and held, they will glow and get even brighter. Not only do the notes glow, but so does the background stage lighting as well as the various meters found in the HUD. That about covers it for the in game experience. In game menus, the lighting is quite different. It looks like the low level lighting found in dingy backstage bathroom found in concert venues.
The lighting found in Unreal 3 is setup to give a cinematic experience.

Colour and Contrast
Colour and contrast are huge in this game. I cannot stress the importance of colour enough. Without it, the game would be quite confusing to play if you were hit with a flurry of notes and were unable to differentiate between the buttons. It makes use of red, green, blue, yellow and orange appears also in harder difficulties or songs. For contrast, the flying fretboard is a dark brown colour so that there is no mistaking a note for part of the board. Similarly, the floating menus and meters are situated above the background in terms of Z depth, although the background colours usually don't interfere with the level of contrast it takes to keep the meters legible.

Scale
Scale is quite fantastic in the guitar hero series. First of all you have human characters, a stage scaled accordingly to people, the crows is also people and so the bar or venue is sized to people as well. Guitars and clothes also are sized for people. This is where the lifelike scale stops. In a song, the first thing you will notice is a giant fretboard flying towards you. This is out of scale. The notes on the board are also quite a bit smaller as to not cram the fretboard. Considering Z depth, there can be a lot of notes placed between frets, and is unrealistic in terms of real guitar.

Structure and Architecture
Structure and Architecture are a bit unusual since this game is not your typical game world. You go from venue to venue playing gigs with your band. The venues are never shown except for the stage you are playing on. Since every stage looks pretty much the same, even if it was different you would have a hard time noticing since most of your time is spent staring at the notes. The structure of this game is mainly built around the notes, how they appear and how the react when a player does something. While the rules remain the same, new songs bring on new notes and patterns to get used to.

Narrative
There's not much to say about narrative in Guitar Hero II. You choose a character, name your band and suddenly you have a band. You play the guitarist in your band, and must travel the country playing songs. You are rewarded with money and praise if you do well, you are booed and fined by the venue owner if you do poorly and cause a riot. People add to this story by setting personal goals for themselves. People often want to beat each other's high score, or try to get a perfect score. The fun in this game continues to exist because of these personal goals.