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Description

For all I've gone on about my ventures into the world of cartooning and animation, I've rarely talked about my other love for game design, or heck just games in general! Growing up, I've had a lotta' options: NES, Sega Genesis, PS1, GBA, SNES, even the Atari 2600 for Christ’s sake. I don't know how my parents expected us to NOT be caught up in loving gaming, but they sure have gotten onto us about it for so many years, haha. Nowadays, PS3, 3DS, and to a degree PC are my current consoles, thought that Wii U is calling my name...

Making games though? Man, I would love that so much. When I was a kid, I loved making ideas for games, even if they weren't very well thought out, or good basically. But it's been a consistent thing with me over the years. Sadly though, I'm not very well versed in the programming aspects, much as I actually tried to learn them. But I absolutely love learning about game design, how engines work and building concepts around them, constructing the level in such a way as to promote or invoke a response from the player, and of course building the world in the game itself, arguably the most fun part. I've stalked places ranging from Zone 0's in-depth look at Sonic levels, to tracking the inquiry of such sites like Sonic Retro and DK Vine, and in general playing and watching a lot of games myself. I'm even minoring in Game Design at my college, and joining up with fellow wannabe game designers as well, so that's another good step, I suppose.
If I had to make a blunt list of some of my favorite games, well I'd say that'd be a heck of a list, and of course I'd end up going over why on all of 'em. But I will explain my particular affinity for Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank series.
I played the original game way back when I was a young lad spending nights at (one of my) grandma's. This game was one of the main reasons I was always excited to go; all night, I would find myself invested in the games wonderful atmosphere, taking in David Bergeaud's whimisical, catchy, sometimes even quite eerie and dramatic tunes, and even today the graphical prowess of the game is rather brow-raising, and it feels so incredibly alive and real, and I tip my hat to the animators and Creaturebox for all the wonderful creatures I befriended and fought. Best of all though, was the sensation of exploring a big new world, and every trip in the starship meant all new mysterious places to explore, new people to meet, new enemies to face, and more adventure to be had!
Even playing the game now, it still feel so fresh, even if the mechanics are outdated to some aspects of the newer titles, and speaking of which, this is where I want to leave some criticism.
Ratchet & Clank 2 was, and IS, the most expansive Ratchet & Clank game ever. Not even A Crack In Time matches the amount of content stuffed into one release. Was it experimental? Yes, but it was still worth every single dollar, and you had some much to see and do! But it also introduced something that would be a thorn in my side for the rest of the series: essentially, rather than all the various planets being their own big thing, there were a number that were incredibly linear, sometimes even uninteresting, that were more focused on pushing along the story rather than giving us the wonderful worlds to explore. Okay, R&C2 is a big title, lots of things, guess I can't complain. Then, R&C3 came out. It refined all of the less-than-steller points in R&C2 while introducing other elements. Said elements were rather...eeeeeh. Completing the mission goals basically started to become your top priority on planets, you were given a number of assault-type mission on certain planets, the linear story-development levels were becoming even MORE prominent, and while it was a good game all-in-all, looking at it now, things were REALLY getting cut off. Deadlocked will be another topic for another day.

The Future series did well in cutting away the commando vibes of the sequels, but they still suffered from the constraints introduced in the series, and it started to get progressively worse over time as story matters overtook gameplay. By A Crack In Time, exploration seemed to be mainly restricted to space travel, and even then. Good games? Yes. Do I feel they've done good design wise over time? Well, not in my opinion. All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault were a deviation from the formula when they saw people were bored of their normal formula, and then switched back in Into The Nexus.
You wanna' know why I think the formula got stale? Because Insomniac's original concept, going from planet to planet exploring, was quickly overtaken by the insane gunplay they became known for, and for the stories, which while quite good, were emphasized more in gameplay. If they want to revitalize the series, I think they need to focus on their level layout and design: you guys have all the talent to make these wonderfully strange and atmospheric worlds, so focus on making them bigger and better! But then you ask “well Zach, what do you think the best way to go about it is?”. Well, since it also relates to the level design I've been wanting to pitch to a good friend of mine, I'll tell ya'.

I trust you guys may or may not know I'm a big Sonic fan, but obviously not for the more maligned reasons. The level design in the classic games, and by extension Generations, was heavily intriguing to me in how it so endeared you to go back in and play a single level so many times, yet in a number of ways. As I've learned from the guys at Retro, levels are basically layered: you have the middle path, which is basically the average path a player will take in-game, the higher path, which requires more skill to attain but yields better rewards, and the lower path, which is more often then not lesser players will end up, but often have secrets of their own as well. These paths all intersect at various points, and can be explored a number of ways, whether by choice or skill. Not ALL Sonic levels are laid out like this, but the best of 'em usually are! Generations managed to wield this not only in its 2D sections, but it even extended to the 3D portions to a degree! Sonic Team had a moment of brilliance working on the game, which I suppose is what happens when you hand them a lot of premade assets and then let them muse more on gameplay for a while.

Before I get into R&C's level design, I'll talk about it's predecessor, Insomniac's Spyro titles! Loved those too. As I crudely demonstrated, a good amount of levels in the games are quite linear, with virtually none of the secondary areas demonstrated in Insomniac's later title, opting for smaller “offshoot” areas, where you could find minigames or collectables or other such things. Start at Point A, get to Point B, all the while collecting all the junk in the level, that sorta thing. However, levels like Zephyr in Spyro 2 reminded me that a form of layering was used there as well! More often then not this was because levels were very small and they wanted to make them a bit bigger, but boy did that work well in their favor, especially in Zephyr's case where it was a basically another big layer of level! Mmmmm, I love me some level cake.

I won't dwell a lot on R&C's design because it is already illustrated up there quite a bit: You have the primary path that pushes the story, and generally has the most difficulty of the paths normally, and then secondary areas where you can find other key goals or even bonus stuff you might have otherwise skipped! Planet Novalis has a lot of these for a first level: you have a main path laid out in front of you, a secondary path right at the start to your right to get a key item, an optional secondary path a ways behind you to get a snazzy reward, and then ANOTHER optional secondary path you can access after you have a certain ability from later in the game that also wields another reward. And don't get me started on Planet Orxon, cuz' MAN do I love that level. Practically every level in the game was laid out in a fashion like this, and even Gemlik Base, which was mainly linear, still had a particularly juicy offshoot area. Hilariously enough, the recent Ratchet & Clank games give me more Spyro vibes in their level design then they do Ratchet, and even then! Though they still do show a number of aspects of the old level dsign some levels - Kerchu City in Tools of Destruction for instance, though that game had a decent amount for a new game.

Obviously, this changes throughout the series and games, as not all levels shared a similar philosophy at times. But I believe these exemplify what I think are the best aspects. So what do I suggest? Mix up a number of different paths with the concept of layering of course! See, while you could opt for a big open-world set-up, and I wouldn't argue against that, you may have trouble making that heavily replayable if you don't have the proper appeal. Basically, I'd like to see an open hub for a level, and I don't mean the hub world in this, and stretching beyond the main hub is the obvious primary path and a number of secondary paths, which in turn split off into different layers, each stemming from choice and/or skill on what they player chooses. Different rates of time, different rewards, different difficulties, stuff like that. You can do stuff like this WITHOUT hurting the effect of the story, methinks, and still give people more of a reason to come back again and again.

Some people probably won't agree with my criticisms and design choices, but such is opinion and life...though I could be factually wrong on something, but still. Remember, this is the VERY BASIC, as in CRUDE, summation of the level design present in the games, nothing very specific, as these are simply ON-THE-FLY notes and studies I've been doing. This is also a sort of level layout/design I've been planning on working with as well, so...um, yeah.
As well as that, this is ONE of my preferences for this PARTICULAR GENRE. I have a number of other opinions on other genres and gamestyle as well, not just this.

If you were brave enough to follow all of this, I hope you enjoyed the read as well as you could, and I thank you for doing so! Reading that is. As for if you did or didn't enjoy it...welp. I DO plan on looking at other aspects of game design and such in the future, so if you're interested, keep your eyes peeled!

Description

For all I've gone on about my ventures into the world of cartooning and animation, I've rarely talked about my other love for game design, or heck just games in general! Growing up, I've had a lotta' options: NES, Sega Genesis, PS1, GBA, SNES, even the Atari 2600 for Christ’s sake. I don't know how my parents expected us to NOT be caught up in loving gaming, but they sure have gotten onto us about it for so many years, haha. Nowadays, PS3, 3DS, and to a degree PC are my current consoles, thought that Wii U is calling my name...

Making games though? Man, I would love that so much. When I was a kid, I loved making ideas for games, even if they weren't very well thought out, or good basically. But it's been a consistent thing with me over the years. Sadly though, I'm not very well versed in the programming aspects, much as I actually tried to learn them. But I absolutely love learning about game design, how engines work and building concepts around them, constructing the level in such a way as to promote or invoke a response from the player, and of course building the world in the game itself, arguably the most fun part. I've stalked places ranging from Zone 0's in-depth look at Sonic levels, to tracking the inquiry of such sites like Sonic Retro and DK Vine, and in general playing and watching a lot of games myself. I'm even minoring in Game Design at my college, and joining up with fellow wannabe game designers as well, so that's another good step, I suppose.
If I had to make a blunt list of some of my favorite games, well I'd say that'd be a heck of a list, and of course I'd end up going over why on all of 'em. But I will explain my particular affinity for Insomniac's Ratchet & Clank series.
I played the original game way back when I was a young lad spending nights at (one of my) grandma's. This game was one of the main reasons I was always excited to go; all night, I would find myself invested in the games wonderful atmosphere, taking in David Bergeaud's whimisical, catchy, sometimes even quite eerie and dramatic tunes, and even today the graphical prowess of the game is rather brow-raising, and it feels so incredibly alive and real, and I tip my hat to the animators and Creaturebox for all the wonderful creatures I befriended and fought. Best of all though, was the sensation of exploring a big new world, and every trip in the starship meant all new mysterious places to explore, new people to meet, new enemies to face, and more adventure to be had!
Even playing the game now, it still feel so fresh, even if the mechanics are outdated to some aspects of the newer titles, and speaking of which, this is where I want to leave some criticism.
Ratchet & Clank 2 was, and IS, the most expansive Ratchet & Clank game ever. Not even A Crack In Time matches the amount of content stuffed into one release. Was it experimental? Yes, but it was still worth every single dollar, and you had some much to see and do! But it also introduced something that would be a thorn in my side for the rest of the series: essentially, rather than all the various planets being their own big thing, there were a number that were incredibly linear, sometimes even uninteresting, that were more focused on pushing along the story rather than giving us the wonderful worlds to explore. Okay, R&C2 is a big title, lots of things, guess I can't complain. Then, R&C3 came out. It refined all of the less-than-steller points in R&C2 while introducing other elements. Said elements were rather...eeeeeh. Completing the mission goals basically started to become your top priority on planets, you were given a number of assault-type mission on certain planets, the linear story-development levels were becoming even MORE prominent, and while it was a good game all-in-all, looking at it now, things were REALLY getting cut off. Deadlocked will be another topic for another day.

The Future series did well in cutting away the commando vibes of the sequels, but they still suffered from the constraints introduced in the series, and it started to get progressively worse over time as story matters overtook gameplay. By A Crack In Time, exploration seemed to be mainly restricted to space travel, and even then. Good games? Yes. Do I feel they've done good design wise over time? Well, not in my opinion. All 4 One and Full Frontal Assault were a deviation from the formula when they saw people were bored of their normal formula, and then switched back in Into The Nexus.
You wanna' know why I think the formula got stale? Because Insomniac's original concept, going from planet to planet exploring, was quickly overtaken by the insane gunplay they became known for, and for the stories, which while quite good, were emphasized more in gameplay. If they want to revitalize the series, I think they need to focus on their level layout and design: you guys have all the talent to make these wonderfully strange and atmospheric worlds, so focus on making them bigger and better! But then you ask “well Zach, what do you think the best way to go about it is?”. Well, since it also relates to the level design I've been wanting to pitch to a good friend of mine, I'll tell ya'.

I trust you guys may or may not know I'm a big Sonic fan, but obviously not for the more maligned reasons. The level design in the classic games, and by extension Generations, was heavily intriguing to me in how it so endeared you to go back in and play a single level so many times, yet in a number of ways. As I've learned from the guys at Retro, levels are basically layered: you have the middle path, which is basically the average path a player will take in-game, the higher path, which requires more skill to attain but yields better rewards, and the lower path, which is more often then not lesser players will end up, but often have secrets of their own as well. These paths all intersect at various points, and can be explored a number of ways, whether by choice or skill. Not ALL Sonic levels are laid out like this, but the best of 'em usually are! Generations managed to wield this not only in its 2D sections, but it even extended to the 3D portions to a degree! Sonic Team had a moment of brilliance working on the game, which I suppose is what happens when you hand them a lot of premade assets and then let them muse more on gameplay for a while.

Before I get into R&C's level design, I'll talk about it's predecessor, Insomniac's Spyro titles! Loved those too. As I crudely demonstrated, a good amount of levels in the games are quite linear, with virtually none of the secondary areas demonstrated in Insomniac's later title, opting for smaller “offshoot” areas, where you could find minigames or collectables or other such things. Start at Point A, get to Point B, all the while collecting all the junk in the level, that sorta thing. However, levels like Zephyr in Spyro 2 reminded me that a form of layering was used there as well! More often then not this was because levels were very small and they wanted to make them a bit bigger, but boy did that work well in their favor, especially in Zephyr's case where it was a basically another big layer of level! Mmmmm, I love me some level cake.

I won't dwell a lot on R&C's design because it is already illustrated up there quite a bit: You have the primary path that pushes the story, and generally has the most difficulty of the paths normally, and then secondary areas where you can find other key goals or even bonus stuff you might have otherwise skipped! Planet Novalis has a lot of these for a first level: you have a main path laid out in front of you, a secondary path right at the start to your right to get a key item, an optional secondary path a ways behind you to get a snazzy reward, and then ANOTHER optional secondary path you can access after you have a certain ability from later in the game that also wields another reward. And don't get me started on Planet Orxon, cuz' MAN do I love that level. Practically every level in the game was laid out in a fashion like this, and even Gemlik Base, which was mainly linear, still had a particularly juicy offshoot area. Hilariously enough, the recent Ratchet & Clank games give me more Spyro vibes in their level design then they do Ratchet, and even then! Though they still do show a number of aspects of the old level dsign some levels - Kerchu City in Tools of Destruction for instance, though that game had a decent amount for a new game.

Obviously, this changes throughout the series and games, as not all levels shared a similar philosophy at times. But I believe these exemplify what I think are the best aspects. So what do I suggest? Mix up a number of different paths with the concept of layering of course! See, while you could opt for a big open-world set-up, and I wouldn't argue against that, you may have trouble making that heavily replayable if you don't have the proper appeal. Basically, I'd like to see an open hub for a level, and I don't mean the hub world in this, and stretching beyond the main hub is the obvious primary path and a number of secondary paths, which in turn split off into different layers, each stemming from choice and/or skill on what they player chooses. Different rates of time, different rewards, different difficulties, stuff like that. You can do stuff like this WITHOUT hurting the effect of the story, methinks, and still give people more of a reason to come back again and again.

Some people probably won't agree with my criticisms and design choices, but such is opinion and life...though I could be factually wrong on something, but still. Remember, this is the VERY BASIC, as in CRUDE, summation of the level design present in the games, nothing very specific, as these are simply ON-THE-FLY notes and studies I've been doing. This is also a sort of level layout/design I've been planning on working with as well, so...um, yeah.
As well as that, this is ONE of my preferences for this PARTICULAR GENRE. I have a number of other opinions on other genres and gamestyle as well, not just this.

If you were brave enough to follow all of this, I hope you enjoyed the read as well as you could, and I thank you for doing so! Reading that is. As for if you did or didn't enjoy it...welp. I DO plan on looking at other aspects of game design and such in the future, so if you're interested, keep your eyes peeled!