Professional Interview & Notes - Steve Lee

Professional Interview & Notes

Steve Lee Level Game Designer Q&A (In-Studio Talk & video Conference)

Link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpOoTAVeEcU

Worked on titles: Wheelman, Bulletstorm, Bioshock Infinite, Dishonoured 2

Professional Level Designer (10 years’ experience) – Game & Level Designer @ Double Function

-          His presence and principals are based around his affinity towards Half-Life 2, Bioshock & Dishonoured.

-          Holistic Design, seeing every part of a design in terms of how it affects its whole, and how the whole can be much greater than the sum of its parts.

-          “Beauty is due more to harmonious relationships, among the elements of a composition than to the elements themselves – Matthew Frederick”

-          3 main elements in games: Presentation (audio & visual output), Gameplay & Story.

-          The main link between Presentation and Gameplay, comes down to affordances and intentionality

-          Between Presentation and Story, is world building.

-          Between Gameplay and Story, is interactive narrative.

-          Affordances are about communicating how things work, intuitively. (Form conveying function).

-          In First Person games, the main affordances to consider are visual (layouts, lighting), such as presenting navigation options, in relation to goals and obstacles.

-          Interactive objects with consistent gameplay affordances. That conveys appropriate gameplay for the player.

-          Low- level affordances should be clear and consistent. Such as a door that can and cannot be opened.

-          At Arkane it was forbidden to use the same meshes for an interactive door and a non-interactive door, to convey a clear design, opposed to leaving the player lost and needing to approach it to figure it out.

-          Establish a clear visual language so that the player can learn consistent gameplay.

-          We want players to understand the situations there in, without spoiling surprises and spoil the experience, exploration and discovery.

-          Players do look up. Due to showcasing the safety at higher ground and giving the ability to survey the area without threat. This can also be used in any appropriate direction, by applying the appropriate entity to convey a direction to head to.

-          Affordances are important because they facilitate player intentionality.

-          Acting with intentionality is: Making conscious choices with specific goals and expectations in mind.

-          >>Observe > Plan > Execute > React>>

-          Relying on frequent surprises for the player to react to has a side effect of not allowing the player to react with intentionality.

-          Intentionality affects how players perceive linearity. When linearity feels bad, it’s often because intentionality isn’t there.

-          You want to design situations in a way where the player wants to do what we want them to do, but they feel it was there idea all along. Where if done wrong, the player will jolt out of the experience as they are made aware of the artificiality of the product, and won’t be engaged as a result.

-          When world building, create a world that feels unique, cohesive and meaningful.

-          Ways to invoke ideas for the player, as an example: Half-Life 2 “Pick up the can”, where you choose to obey or rebel, but it essentially showing the player the ability to pick up and interactive with physics objects. This is also used within its design for the story, where the NPCs are designed to obey or rebel, so the player will relate to the game, in response to their personal plights within their experience.

To consider affordances:

An example of this is to consider a door, on either side is the respective sign to push or pull, yet both sides have handles. He considers this poor design as it could be considered misleading, and even more so if you removed the signs.

Examples of Weak intentionality:

1.        Being lost, trying to find something to do.

2.        Doing something without knowing why, only because:

a)      The games UI told you to.

b)      It seems like the only thing to do.

c)       It’s a lever in a videogame, and you’re always supposed to pull levers in videogames.

To act with intentionality, a player needs:

1.        Choice

2.        Motivation(goals in mind)

3.        Information(from clear, consistent affordances)

4.        Time to process the information