GDC2011 - Level Design: The Design Conduit : Othor Games

» Fri May 13, 2011 10:32 am

http://www.slideshare.net/thrmoptc/gdc2011-level-design-the-design-conduit

Enjoy. Slide show from Exedore.

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:25 am

In one of the pics it shows the 40mm under barrel GL, M203. nice find almighty Wraith.

» Fri May 13, 2011 1:39 pm

That is one tricked-out assault rifle on slide 64. That equip time kills though.

» Fri May 13, 2011 8:31 am

Excellent find, Wraith. I commend you with a :spotted owl:

The Rhett pics are pretty sweet.

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:41 pm

http://www.splashdamage.com/node/769

» Fri May 13, 2011 11:27 am

I love slides 31 and 33.

» Fri May 13, 2011 6:28 pm

ok did anyone else see in slide 21 about we eat COD lol

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:02 am

ok did anyone else see in slide 21 about we eat COD lol

I lol'd.

» Fri May 13, 2011 11:49 am

Amazing slide, love anything about brink that i havnt seen yet, and this had some usefull info, well done again Wraith

» Fri May 13, 2011 1:47 pm

Well done and nice find, we have quite a few pictures in detail with the customization and terrain design.

» Fri May 13, 2011 10:15 am

Amazing slide, love anything about brink that i havnt seen yet, and this had some usefull info, well done again Wraith

Tis what I do. :ninja:

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:52 am

Yeah the new screenshots (new to me anyway) of terrain
had me already scoping out lines to scurry through to get across it quickly.

Hmm still wondering about the color options for customize but thats just my geek kicking in

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:36 am

For full effect, scroll down the page just past the playback controls. Click the "speaker notes on slide x" tab.
Here are some quotes from the slides: (Slide #, quote)

(17) Different per level, but not within a map, as timers must function in a balanced manner for MP and SP/Coop for each faction- Updateable via title update, so we can tweak as we see fit post-release; show netvar.def, and the power of this for iteration and title updates
(24) I was a complete bastard when it came to using mocap data and cinematics within the gameplay spaces, as it had been such a tricky thing on KZ2. If gameplay is the most important thing, then expensive story assets must be ‘quarantined’ if playable space is to remain changeable, which is very dangerous in an MP gamespace- No dialog lines for characters in midtros, only after
(27) Command Posts offer a place to refill ammo, change class and/or weapons, and also give a buff to your entire team… refilling ammo at a CP doesn’t give you as much as a teammate can, which encourages teamwork, and a benefit of general proximity to teammates- Initially 3 types; Health, Energy/Supplies, and Damage. Levels were set up to accommodate 2-3 per area, but it was very difficult to properly balance primary, secondary and Command Posts with so many. We removed Damage, as Engineers can buff damage already, and established Health as the more important of the two CPs… if only one was to be present, it’d be a Health CP. This allowed the LDs to place Health CPs in strategic locations to the primary objectives, and then the Supply CPs axially opposite to help create a flow.
(28) Command Posts create more non-linear gameplay for set objectives
(29) We had Battlefield-style capturable spawns as well because the LDs thought it offered an interesting dynamic, but this ended up expanding the levels more than intended, and went against our goal of intimate combat environments
(34) Rubber-bandingSpawn timers: 20 sec default, max 30 min 10, changeable via script
(36) I did live experiments, unbeknownst to the level designers!
(55) Heights were scaled back after LDs thought escape was too viable an option to run, and we didn’t want to increase lethality due to the importance of our ability and melee systems, plus teamplay- LDs had a tough time dealing with the fact that it changed… we’d wanted to lock the metrics early, but were forced to make a change after things just seemed to radically different from other FPS’s… as a primary design goal with Brink was to make the game more accessible overall. The automatic nature of the system helped us iterate quickly enough for the changes to not be catastrophic.
(56) Reducing heights also meant that unnaturally high bounding walls were not as necessary, avoiding the dreaded invisible collision…
(57) Invisible collision was only okay on map boundaries, as it truly works against the premise of SMART
(58) Bots tended to take the absolutely quickest path, so relied on SMART far more than a normal human, which lead to new player confusion. We eventually increased the perceived cost of using SMART paths to bots, but this sometimes required geometry adjustments in levels as well
(59) “Intel missions” were a type of side objective that were designed to help out balance out games where one team was getting dominated; if certain criteria was met an item would spawn in the level which would essentially give a boost to the dominated team if successfully delivered to a Command Post. These locations were placed by the level designers, and were great for exposing players to locations accessible by SMART that would be inaccessible in most other shooters. Unfortunately, they proved to be a major unbalancing factor in the maps, and due to how radically different the levels could be the implementation ended up being very inconsistent. They had to go!
(74) Established early that the story was secondary to the gameplay- Interesting settings came first, and the narrative was then woven around said locations- Some juggling had to be done to maintain attacking and defending balance as levels were added or cut- Previously mentioned cutscenes never get very specific in regards to level objectives, as we knew things might have to change unexpectedly

» Fri May 13, 2011 11:26 am

I smirked at the CoD joke. Kind of dissapointed because I though SD was better than that to take a hit on CoD. Oh well, it was just meaningless harm.

I love the graffiti you see though, adds to the game to make it more of a masterpiece.

» Fri May 13, 2011 5:41 am

I smirked at the CoD joke. Kind of dissapointed because I though SD was better than that to take a hit on CoD. Oh well, it was just meaningless harm.

I love the graffiti you see though, adds to the game to make it more of a masterpiece.

Maybe people on the Ark like fish. They are only surrounded by ocean.

» Fri May 13, 2011 12:40 pm

Maybe people on the Ark like fish. They are only surrounded by ocean.

Well yes there's that, but when people see that they're gonna take that as a CoD joke not so much a random fact that they eat Cod. It will be funny to see the CoD [censored] see it and get pissed about it.

» Fri May 13, 2011 11:01 am

MINGLEPLAYER! Why didn't we think of that?

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:24 am

MINGLEPLAYER! Why didn't we think of that?

Newbs wouldn't understand?

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:46 am

Newbs wouldn't understand?

yeah but it's clever :3

» Fri May 13, 2011 3:47 pm

yeah but it's clever :3

Yes, yes it is. I wouldn't use it towards newbs though, because then I would have to explain what it is.

» Fri May 13, 2011 4:05 pm

Yes, yes it is. I wouldn't use it towards newbs though, because then I would have to explain what it is.

Fair point. It's hard enough explaining it as it is.
On another note, that nade launcher attachment on slide 64 looks like it would be very awkward to fire if it was real.

» Fri May 13, 2011 9:20 am

Fair point. It's hard enough explaining it as it is.
On another note, that nade launcher attachment on slide 64 looks like it would be very awkward to fire if it was real.

Yea the barrel mag attachment would seem to get in the way.

» Fri May 13, 2011 7:29 am

Also that gun is pretty weak. At least that's what the stats show.

The pro is a bigger ammo capacity from (Clip/Max) 25/50 to 50/25

The Cons (Estimated percent)
Damage decreased 15%
Accuracy decreased 30%
Reload Speed decreased about 23%
Equip Speed Decreased about 97-98%

» Fri May 13, 2011 2:13 pm

[12] - Kinda odd to have the PC box in the very back for a previous PC only developer. :blink:

[53] - That's the first (before the Gate is blown) and second (after the gate is blown but the robot has not come very far) spawn for the Resistance in Container City, if I'm not mistaken.

[67] - The Sniper, anyone? :laugh:

[70] - That looks sick!

» Fri May 13, 2011 8:08 am

I Can Not Wait For This Game. WooT.

Cheers.