✦ primoh.coGame design course

Level and world design

Use space to guide attention, create choices, and pace discoveries.

Lesson 9 of 1410 min + exercise

A level arranges opportunities and constraints in space. Routes, sightlines, encounters, and landmarks influence what players notice and choose. Open exploration and a carefully directed sequence can both work when they support the intended experience.

Concepts

Sightlines and landmarks
A visible destination can invite a question: how do I reach that? Vary shape and framing, and check whether a player actually perceives it from the camera and screen size they use.
Routes and encounters
Distance, cover, visibility, and escape options change decisions. A dangerous reward is only a choice if the player can recognize the danger and decide whether to approach.
Pacing and interconnection
Quiet stretches can establish mood, recovery, or anticipation. Shortcuts can reward understanding. Ask what each stretch contributes before filling it with more encounters.
Greyboxing
Test layout and scale with simple shapes before committing to detailed art. If visibility or atmosphere is central to the hypothesis, include enough representative presentation to test it.

In games

Dark Souls ↗

Returning to a familiar place by a new connection can make navigation itself feel like progress. Trace what risk or travel cost the connection removes.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ↗

An optional ruin offers a reason to leave an authored route. Compare the promise suggested by its silhouette with what the player finds.

Common mistakes

  • Building a large map before checking whether one space is interesting.
  • Treating every detour as meaningful even when it changes nothing.
  • Using visual guidance that disappears on a small or low-contrast display.

Sketch one playable space

  1. Draw an entrance, destination, two routes, and a landmark.
  2. Mark what the player can see at each decision point.
  3. Have someone trace a route and explain what attracted their attention.

Done when: The layout creates an understandable choice and a discoverable destination.

Notes save in this browser.

Check your understanding

Is a corridor necessarily worse design than an open field?

Show answer

No. Compare what each arrangement offers: pacing, attention, encounters, freedom, and the cost of producing interesting content.

Sources

About the research →