Creative Research Blog

Seeing as my research project is about creating the ideal scary level, it goes without saying that I must look into what techniques and elements come together to scare someone. Admittedly, last week I jumped the gun looking into lighting in level design.

Firstly, I feel it’s important to collate and distil various factors people consider make up a scary level. My reasoning for this is that if I can discover these individual factors, I can create a survey displaying these elements, and ask those who take the survey to rate, from highest to lowest, what scares them the most in games. With that knowledge at hand, I’d be able to use the information as a framework and integrate more of the scarier aspects into the final level.

“Create scary situations for an Avatar with whom the player feels an Empathetic Connection.” – Mike Birkhead, Lead Designer, Section Studios

In an opinion piece written on Gamasutra, a respected Game Development website, Mike Birkhead compares horror games to horror films, and explains that something horror games rarely get right compared to films is that horror games rarely manage to successfully create an emotional connection between player and character, and as such players may not fear for the protagonist/their avatar and their protective instinct may not necessarily kick in.

Birkhead then argues that the feeling of fear doesn’t come from the location or a character, but rather from the situation the player/protagonist would find themselves in and the overall context of the situation, and presents an aquarium as an example. He says that you may be staring through a window, looking at sharks in the shark tank, and all is well and normal. However, if you found yourself on the other side of the window and bleeding, knowing the sharks would be drawn towards you, the entire mood would change though the setting remains the same. It’s an interesting way to think about it, and as such I’ll have to investigate how to create a scary situation.

Thanks to the following pages for the valuable insight:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/126963/Opinion_How_To_Make_A_Scary_Game.php

As discussed in the first presentation, as my research project will be focusing entirely on the design of a level (And not asset creation), I will be making use of existing game assets, giving full credit to the owners of said assets. The way I’ll be doing this is creating my levels as mods (Or, modifications) for Bethesda Softworks’ and Obsidian Entertainment’s Fallout: New Vegas.

By creating a mod, I won’t have to spend time setting up core mechanics or creating assets as I’ll be able to build off the existing game. The only drawback to this is that the mod(s) can not function as stand-alone builds, and must be run from within the game. Additionally, due to the nature of making a mod, some game functions may be hard-coded and I’ll have no control over them, however as I will be focusing solely on level design, the impact of that will be negligible.

With that said, the software I’ll be using is:

1. Fallout: New Vegas, where my levels will be run from.
2. The Garden of Eden Creation Kit, the content creation tools for Fallout: New Vegas, a free tool available to everyone that owns a copy of Fallout: New Vegas.
3. Nvidia Shadowplay: Screencapture software to record footage of my level. As I won’t be able to submit a build (As that’d require the game too), I’ll have to record it.

After presenting, the main feedback I was given on my presentation and the project as a whole was to not just look at horror elements in games, but to also look into certain films (Such as Alien) and note how they evoke fear, and why it’s so effective. They suggested I then incorporate some of those elements into my final level as well as elements from horror games.

In preparation for my first presentation, I finalised my vision statement:

I want to look at level design in the context of horror levels. How can you approach level design to facilitate a scary game?

Planning out the presentation, I decided a good way to open it would be to explain the field I was researching – What actually is level design?

A common misconception is that level design is “just” drawing out a level, and then have it implemented by a programmer. The truth is level design is a long process centred around iteration. It begins with a concept – What sounds like it’d be fun? Once a concept’s been settled on, the level designer would then create various designs, incorporating level design theory and considerations for flow.

Once a design has been agreed on, the level designer would then talk with artists on the team and discuss the assets needed to build the level. Once the artists finalise the assets, they’d pass them on to the level designer who’d then begin constructing the level within the game engine.

Following on from that, I’d then go into the specifics of what I’ll be investigating (The usage of lighting, layout, pacing, ambient effects and sounds), how I’d investigate it (By playing and watching gameplay of select acclaimed games, and noting down the elements I mentioned prior) and the games I’d be investigating.

I’d also demonstrate some concept levels I made as an example, as I’d create various levels on paper as part of the project before building a playable prototype.

Finally, I’ll explain what I hope my final product will be – A playable level capable of evoking fear in the player, incorporating elements from my research findings.

Hi! I’m Thomas David Mitchell, student number 1303497 – Welcome to my Creative Research blog for my 3rd year Game Design and Production Management module.

For my research topic, I have decided to conduct a level design-centric project; Specifically, how do level designers create effective horror levels in games? By utilising an array of different research methods, including:

• Studying level design theory
• Watching and playing acclaimed horror games and noting where, how and why certain areas evoke fear
• Creating questionnaires asking people what they class as “scary” in games

The final aim of the project would then be to use the gathered information to prototype and create a playable horror level, incorporating feedback from testers along the way. The level will be created using assets from existing games (With credit being given) in order to be able to quickly prototype and iterate them.

My reasoning for wanting to investigate this is due to the fact that I have a huge interest in level design, and find that this would be a fantastic opportunity to further my knowledge in the field and the associated theory.