Perception
First-Person Maze Exercise
Project Objective
This project was created during my level design internship at Funcom ZPX. The goal was to create a first-person maze, 10-15 minutes long, where I could show my level design process and skills.
For this project, I decided to focus on player guidance, meaning how can the environment and level spatiallity guide the player, in an environment where players are supposed to feel lost.
With the creation of this maze, I tried to create a level, where players would get "lost" in a controlled environment, and as they learn the layout, and fixate on the landmarks and associated paths, they can find their way out.
Project Details
Platform: PC;
Engine: Unreal Engine 5 / Blueprints;
Team Size: Solo Project;
Duration: 3 Weeks;
This project was created as an exercise for my internship last year. The progress of the level was accompanied by the design team, as the level was continually iterated on, to incorporate new feedback.
Design Concept
The concept of perception was born of the idea of having a single corridor that would connect the beginning and the end of the level.
Four blocks would divide this corridor, each leading to a maze and bringing the player back after they completed it, advancing the player towards their goal. The corridor would function as an elevator, with windows showing the player's progress.
Two different mazes would be created for the player to explore, unlocking the next part of the corridor as they progressed. These two mazes would have different themes and difficulties, and the player would need to complete them to find their way out.
The initial paper design for the corridor is shown in the paper concept to the right.
Level Design Process
First: Define the base mechanics necessary to create for this exercise, and understand how important they are for the designed experience.
Second: Define base player progression, level scope, rough size of each maze and respective difficulty.
Third: Research on maze design and references, to better understand how to use the space to guide the player, while at the same time, creating opportunities to "confuse" the players in a controlled environment.
Fourth: Basic paper design of the mazes, and implementation of the levels in the engine for the first round of testing.
Fifth: Playtest, receive feedback, and iterate the level, to better understand where players get lost, how to improve player guidance, and to see if any core changes need to be done to the level, to ameliorate the player experience.
Sixth: Last iterations, level design, game mechanics and environment polish. (Environment polish was not necessary for this exercise, however, I decided to dedicate some time to it, to try to improve the player experience).
Creating the game mechanics
This exercise aimed to highlight the significance of the layout and spacing in leading the player. Therefore, I decided to only add two more mechanics other than first-person movement. These mechanics would be object interaction, which would allow to manipulate the space in interesting ways, and a torch which would add a new dimension to the maze navigation, as players would have to discover the path more actively.
The following section provides a simple explanation of how these mechanics work and their overall importance to the level.
Movement [W,A,S,D]
- Standard movement for first-person video games.
- No sprint or jump mechanics were added as they were not relevant to this exercise.
- As a maze by itself is complicated to navigate and players mostly want to take their time understanding the environment, having other movement mechanics such as sprint and jumping would work against the desired player experience.
Interact / Object Manipulation [Left-Click]
- The player can interact with doors to open them, or levers to alter the state of an object (position/rotation).
- If the player changes the state of an object that is not in view, a separate camera will show the object being transformed.
- This mechanic aims to block and create new paths while progressing through the level, making the environment adapt and change as the player explores it.
Torch [F - Toggle]
- After the player acquires the torch, they can turn it on and off at will.
- Having the player hold the light source in a dark level, changes the way the player perceives the environment, and allows for a different way of interacting with a maze.
- One maze is lit, and the other is dark and requires a torch. Having two mazes with different approaches keeps the player engaged, while also allowing to design the two mazes differently.
Defining the level's scope and progression
With the game mechanics defined, I could start to think about what the differences between these two mazes would be, and how could I make the most out of the mechanics by using them differently. Each maze would need short/long-term goals so the player would always act intentionally, instead of wandering through the maze.
- The player would start in a corridor, and could see the final goal. this corridor, as sketched previously, would connect both mazes, and as the player progresses through the level, they would unlock new parts of the corridor.
- The idea was to start with an indoor, lit maze, that would be easy to navigate and would allow the player to understand the game mechanics, by starting with an easier level and increasing the difficulty on the next one. The theme of this first maze would be a museum, with paintings and sculptures acting as landmarks.
- The second maze would be larger, and outdoors. This outdoor's maze would be unlit (night time during the game), and the player would require the use of a torch to navigate the maze. This maze would also be more complex, and use the object manipulation mechanic to close/open parts of the maze as the player would progress. The theme for this one, would be a garden maze.
- Concluding with an overview of the entire level, the player would start in the corridor, and descend into the first indoor maze. After finishing it they would go back to the next part of the corridor, and descend into the second maze. After completing the second outdoor maze, the player would unlock the final part of the corridor, and by doing so reach the end of the level.
Maze design investigation and references
As the general level and progression were defined, I started searching for references for the mazes. This would help me better understand maze design, and how they are created, as the defining trait of labyrinths is the duality of trying to guide the user through the space, while at the same time confusing them and making them feel somewhat "lost".
Maze 1 - Museum references
Observations:
- Museums present more open spaces, while mazes are more of a set of narrow corridors;
- Museums have high visibility between rooms, while mazes only show the path after moving forward;
- Museums have different rooms and meaningful landmarks, while traditional mazes are repetitive and all corridors look similar;
Maze 2 - Garden maze references
Observations:
- Castle gardens present a lot of symmetry, while it is not necessarily the case with mazes;
- Castle gardens are very open spaces with few paths, while mazes have zero to few open spaces, with a lot of different paths;
Maze design overview
- In real life, mazes are sets of narrow corridors, with little to no landmarks. However, to design a level consisting of mazes in a 3D environment, the mazes must be adapted to make navigation clearer. Prototyping is required to understand this thin line, between guiding the player, and "confusing" the player;
- It is important to have the player's perspective in account. As the spaces are similar and sometimes confusing, the goal is to create spaces where the player will get lost, but as they explore the level they will start to understand the space. Using landmarks so the player can identify where they have been before, is a great idea.
- Using the player's perception of the space to design the level is very important. Understanding how the player will navigate the maze, and where they will look first when presented with a new space, can be used to the designers' advantage, as I can subconsciously guide the player. This can also help to create fun and interesting moments, where players have passed the solution, and didn't realize it until they went down the same path the other way around, for example.
- After analysing the design of a few mazes, these are some of the atomic parameters that I collected that can directly impact difficulty:
- Corridor Width;
- Path Visibility;
- Number of Landmarks;
- Number of Loops/Similar Paths;
- Number of Dead Ends vs Right Paths;
Maze paper level design and first implementation
First Concept
- After analysing the previous mazes and references, I sketched the first layout of the museum maze.
- As this was the first maze, the idea was for it to be relatively simple, so I decided for wider corridors, few dead-ends, a main loop, thin walls, and landmarks across the maze itself to help the player find their way out;
- The maze had more than one "golden path", which would help the player find their way out rather quickly. There are few open spaces, as the corridors are already very wide.
First Implementation
- After implementing the first maze, as I tested the layout there was a clear problem. The corridors were too wide, and the walls too thin, which made the maze not feel like a maze at all;
- I iterated on the first design, by blocking some of the player's line of sight, but that didn't prove good enough to make the layout feel like a maze;
- The loop, however, was effective during playtest sessions. As there were two similar corridors next to each other, players needed a few "laps" around the loop to understand what was happening and where to go.
Learnings for next iteration
With playtesting and feedback from the design team, some changes were required:
- Corridors can't allow visibility through the maze and walls need to be thicker;
- Use landmarks and light to better guide the player;
- Use paintings as landmarks, so that not all corridors are obstructed by physical objects;
The image to the right shows an example of too much visibility in the level, due to wide corridors and thin walls in the first iteration.
An example of too much visibility due to wide corridors and thin walls in the first iteration.
Final level layout and final thoughts
Museum Final Layout
After taking into account all of the problems identified earlier, a new museum maze was created. A lot of playtesting sessions were done, which allowed for constant iteration and improvement. With the information gathered from playtesting sessions and feedback from the rest of the design team, this is the final layout of the museum maze:
Garden Final Layout
After creating the museum maze, I created and iterated the garden maze until I reached this final version. There are two distinct areas, the first part of the maze is more complex and claustrophobic, while the second part is a bit more open and less complex. This ensures the players are not overwhelmed or frustrated with the maze, creating a better flow overall.
Also in the garden maze, the torch mechanic was introduced, which gives a new dimension to exploring the maze as explained previously, which to me was something really interesting to explore.
Several playtesting sessions were done, and the maze was slowly fine-tuned. Throughout the different iterations, some corridors had their width increased, more landmarks were added, and a few loops were removed to decrease the amount of time players would feel lost before understanding the layout.
Final Thoughts
Overall this exercise was a very fruitful learning experience, especially regarding player guidance. I was able to learn how to use the space to guide the player even in situations where the goal is for the player to feel lost. Using landmarks, paying attention to shape language, and using different metrics such as corridor length, number of loops, number of deadends and so on, allowed me to understand how I can make the most out of the space I have, and how I can communicate my design intentions through it. This exercise also helped me develop my blueprinting skills, which allowed me to add more mechanics and functionality to my level, which improved the player experience and created a more interesting layout.
On the other hand, I also learned that I should not focus so much on visual content, especially in the early stages of creating a new level or blockout. Doing so, caused performance issues in the level, and because I tried to use somewhat realistic visual content, sometimes the style of the level didn't feel cohesive, which ended up breaking the immersion, instead of enhancing it.