Master's Thesis: Visual Composition in Level Design
Graduate thesis designed to showcase the use of visual composition techniques in level design.
Tech
Crysis 2 SDK, Flowgraph visual scripting
Role
Level Designer
Platform
PC
Released
May 2022
Level Design Highlights
This thesis sets out to research and implement best practices in using visual composition techniques in level design to naturally guide players through their surroundings without requiring HUD objects, quest markers, or other non-diegetic means. The two levels designed for this thesis provide no guiding HUD elements or objective markers, and solely uses the environment to help players identify the critical path.
Paintings in a Gallery
One key idea I adopted as a technique is treating levels like 'paintings in a gallery,' as described by Mateusz Piaskiewicz in his article on composition in level design.
Piaskiewicz describes composition in level design from the perspective of the player as someone moving from painting to painting in a gallery, greeted by engaging images and vistas that are both emotionally driving and informative, giving the player a snapshot of what's important and where to go next. I adopted this as a core design pillar in guiding the player, funneling the player to vantage points where I could frame the level for them to both be aesthetically impressive, and to convey critical information about the level and what's important.
In developing this project I identified and used these key techniques:
Use chokepoints/funnels to establish a ‘painting’ viewpoint
Within a painting, use environmental pieces to create a frame for important objects/areas
Within a frame, use lighting and motion to highlight the most important information (i.e. a doorway in the critical path)
Use leading lines/directional cues as part of the environmental frame construction to guide players’ visual attention toward the frame that you want them to see in the painting.
Use paintings to ‘point’ to the next – ensure the critical path is identifiable (the concept of “frame within a frame” is particularly effective at this)
Dynamic and moving elements in a scene can be used to strongly attract the player’s focus somewhere, which can help with more complex navigation through a space.
Framing, Lighting, Leading Lines
Environmental pieces can be used to assist in framing and informing the player's critical path. Within each 'painting' I used smaller details to help the player infer movement in a particular direction and guide their attention to what I want them to see. Leading lines, directional cues (i.e. a sign with an arrow or a statue facing in a particular direction) and lighting are all important components here.
Dynamic Environment
Getting the player to follow a straight line is one thing, but more complex navigation is more difficult to effectively guide without any HUD or objective markers to help. This is when the designer can use changes in the environment to create strong attractive forces to pull the player in a direction. In the example below, the player approaches a barrier between them and the clearly lit burning train car on the elevated railway. As the player passes through the chokepoint, a waterfall from a broken pipe comes into view and effectively grabs the attention of the player, showing them the way around the barrier.
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The player's attention is then once again redirected back to the left by the bright red flare and the burning train car, contrasting against the overall dark scene. Strong contrasting lighting and motion are two of the strongest methods of directing the attention of the player.