Theming a Level

[taylorc38]

So I have this assignment in my Level Design class where I have to design a level that reflects an emotion on the list.

Some emotions from the list are easy to accomplish, like disgust or fear or greed. But there are others that are harder to peg. For example, love.

How would you go about designing your level to reflect the emotion of love? Keep in mind, you don't have any previously story to rely on.

I want this thread to be a sort of collaboration... Just throw in any and all of your ideas!

[Barbarian]

If you're having girl problems I feel bad for you son, I've got 99 problems and a bitch ain't one.

[MadnessImport]

I know nothing of level design but visually I would throw the color red and pink all over furniture/Walls/Floors, A fire place, Use warm Red-orange colors for the atmosphere and some how incorporate a starry night sky.

Am_I_doin_It_Right?

[ZacD]

Love means a lot of different things to different people, read some books, watch some movies, look at art. See how different people use different ques to create emotions.

If pixar can tell a love story in 5 minutes, you can do it with an environment.

Favorite Pixar's Up scene ever - Ellie and Carl's relationship through time, Sad scene - YouTube

Some people believe love is never forgetting, others believe is it selfless and caring more about someone more than yourself.

[Muzz]

Cover the walls in boobies.

[ZacD]

Just a heads up a lot of polycounts have a lot of trouble figuring out the difference between lust, sex, and love.

[gsokol]

you don't have any previously story to rely on.

Make one.

If you have to design a level that conveys a feeling, make a story to set it all up.

As Madness said, color can dictate a lot, so consider that when your lighting the area...lots of warm colors.

[DeadlyFreeze]

People fall in love. People in love get married and where do people get married?

[ZacD]

People fall in love. People in love get married and where do people get married?

In modular sci-fi hallways?

[fearian]

In modular sci-fi hallways?

Fucking LOL.

[ambershee]

Post-of-the-year.

[Alberto Rdrgz]

well, love itself is a VAGUE concept. Greed, disgust, fear are easier because you can immediately correlate it to something. But, when it comes to love there's so much...

maybe just go thru a list of things that come to mind and find a level or a scene that would fit it, for example.

flowers > garden > park > gazebo
Etc..

[Tigerfeet]

tbh I think going with a wedding chapel or painting everything red and pink with hearts all over is way too obvious and cheesy. I think love flows from appreciation. you might be able to evoke love by showing a small spark of beauty in an environment otherwise destroyed and decayed.

If it's an environment you can make a guided experience where shadows of something once beautiful are littered about, destroyed. Build up a sense of loss then at the end come upon something wholesome and beautiful. Make the player love what they find.

If you've got it, listening to the commentary on Portal 1 about the companion cube could help.

[BlvdNights]

Just decorate a hall wall with pictures of a girl you had a crush on. Go the extra mile like all the stalkers.

[taylorc38]

well, love itself is a VAGUE concept. Greed, disgust, fear are easier because you can immediately correlate it to something. But, when it comes to love there's so much...

maybe just go thru a list of things that come to mind and find a level or a scene that would fit it, for example.

flowers > garden > park > gazebo
Etc..

i love this idea! making everything drab, destroyed, and gray and then placing a bright red rose or something in the middle of it all would definitely accomplish a powerful feeling

[r_fletch_r]

Just a heads up a lot of polycounts have a lot of trouble figuring out the difference between lust, sex, and love.

the size of the boobies?


but seriously, go rent out some famous love movies and see how they're setting the scene. what sort of compositions, colour, settings they use.

[Vallar]

Well... about a few months ago I read a couple of articles about emotions and how you can convey them in games (I guess one of them was a talk from David Cage).

Disclaimer: By no means I say I am the best regarding this subject, I am just stating what I have managed to collect while I tried to search for this subject before.

Now that is out of the way...

To actually convoy an emotion in a certain level you need to ask yourself a few questions to identify the "path" you want to tread into designing this:

1- Which kind of love do you want to convoy?
There is a few types of love around; for instance is that the kind where two people fall in love? Is it parent love (father loves his daughter)? Is it a love for a job? Is it a love for an object (love for a bracelet that one has)? Or is it a love for a certain activity (love to play games for instance)? Love for a pet?

Once you figure that out you have a "theme" a main idea for what the goals in the level is. For example if it is a love for a pet you can get the main goal of the level that a pet is lost and the young girl/boy are trying to find it (bland but you can add flavor to it as per what you envision).

2- Depending on what kind of love you choose, now you need to set the tone of that love. Is it an over obsessive love (did the pet run away in fear from the bad treatment that the evil girl/boy gave it)? Is it a warm love (the daughter is running around collecting random object to help her father finish his job so that he won't be fired)?

3- What elements in the level you can use to convoy the two above? The color of the lights, density, hue? The textures/objects/models (are they cartoony to convoy happiness and playfulness or are they strict and crispy to convoy the gloomy mood)?

4- As I recall correctly I read in one of Paul Ekman's books that there is rarely one emotion felt at a given moment. Emotions in humans are like the ocean, they are ups and downs of waves that are all linked together. For example, let's say you are watching a horror movie; you reach the scene where the protagonist is going through a dark alley... SUDDENLY the monster appears. You rarely feel scared alone, you feel both surprise and fear (the former lasting a few milliseconds for the later to kick in transitionally). As such, which "secondary" emotion would you choose (or as a resultant of the previous 3 questions) be incorporated in the level?

5- Based on the above 4 questions, how would you layout the level itself? For instance, if you are trying to convoy a cozy, warm kind of love. Someone that feels loved or feeling love towards something always have the feeling that they need to be there with them all the time or embracing them. In such light, you might want to use corridors that are filleted or round instead of perpendicular 90 degrees one for instance. By its own self it might not add much, but added to other elements it should bring the overall feeling you are after.


I hope I helped you in anyway and good luck with your assignment I hope you ace it! :)



Note: This is my first post in Polycount so just not to be rude and not to hijack the thread a quick "hi" to everyone! o/

[yodude87]

In modular sci-fi hallways?

laughed really loud here hahahaha

[Eric Chadwick]

http://www.roboloco.net/roboblog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/wcc.jpg

you're welcome

[cptSwing]

haha awesome thread.

[sprunghunt]

All you have to do is study relevant memes in culture and recontextualise the semiotic language to suit your level
Easy ;)

[Marshal Banana]

You might take a look at some paintings with the same theme. A lot of artists are quite good at representing metaphysical concepts.

[WDewel]

You could show love from a perspective other than romantic love, to avoid the cheese and add some depth. A mother or father dying (you show their empty sick-gross bed, IV, etc) and the remaining family members selling their belongings to pay for medical bills, heart breaker! (Dirty walls with large cleaner areas where furniture used to be, broken family photo picture frame on the ground to indicate someone was going through the anger stage of grief..) Or you could create a funny environment and show more of an infatuation love by building a creepy stalker shrine, complete with sneaky pictures all over the walls, hair locks, and chewed bubble gum samples, all in a modular sci-fi hallway.

[leaf3d]

In modular sci-fi hallways?

I haven't laughed that hard in ages.


I would suggest looking at the game Dante's Inferno. It's levels are based on the 7 deadly sins (or the 7 rings of hell... I forget). Pretty interesting concepts. Might inspire you.

[skylebones]

I think love is the most boring one. I think greed would be cool. Make the level a large corridor, like a bank vault with a winding path and piles of treasure on the sides. The treasure near you is very dull and old. But as the treasure gets further away it gets shinier and brighter. As your player moves through this corridor the treasure that was far away becomes dull and old when you get near it, while the treasure ahead of you is always bright and shiny but unattainable. Just like greed, your never happy with what you have, always wanting more. But you can never attain happiness with what you have, there will always be something better.