Welcome one, welcome all to RPGLand where if you are brave enough to venture onward and conquer your fears and desires, you too could posses the power of the Gods.
Journey through lands with your companions alongside you, collect gear, level up and trade with other players. You will see through your venture that with power comes hardship as you must choose to turn against or stand together with your party, split off into separate zones or fight between yourselves. There are four main attractions that make you eager to progress. Leveling from 1-30 building up towards your first boss fight in the colored kingdom where your skills will be put to three tests before you venture into the harsh abyss of the winter highlands. Onward through your first dungeon in the castle and topped off with a grinding path to the final boss where at the end of each day everyone comes together to fight together. Word Design theory - Blog post #2 - redesigning new zealand's only amusement park - conrad turzynski16/3/2017 For blog post #2, I have fixed New Zealand's world famous 'Raindbow's End' amusement park! By completely re-branding the theme park with my favourite game, I have made everything bad about Rainbow's End great! Guests enter through the main gate, walk into the center towards the giant castle at the rear of the park. Once reaching the center, they may head to any of the four civilisation themed areas of the park. It is possible to access each area from the middle, but if guests want to see all of them, it's possible to walk the whole way around the park. In each area there is a market for guests to purchase memorabilia styled as their favourite civilisation! Ample parking out the front makes arriving and leaving a breeze!
Bioshock makes use of landmarking, signposting, bread crumbs, lighting and colour to help guide the player through the environment, highlight important items, and create a sense of place and context within the aesthetic of the game. Landmarking Bioshock makes use of environmental landmarking to help orient the player in game, while also helping them navigate through the environment. From the start of the game, light in conjunction with strong landmarks, create easily identifiable objectives or mark dangerous areas. Light in the form of flames give the player an indication of direction and danger right from the start of the game, and is used again and again from there throughout the game to keep the player on track without the game feeling overly linear. The use of landmarks also help the player orient themselves especially during sections of levels where backtracking is involved or something changes in the level that wouldn't be obvious unless its change through a clearly identified landmark. For example, some locked doors are obviously landmarked and standout from an architectural/aesthetic viewpoint. Thus when you backtrack past them, and they have changed or opened, the player immediately recognises this change in the environment. Signposting The above screenshot demonstrates a simple implementation of signposting. At this stage in the game, players are not familiar with Plasmids, nor do they know where exactly to go. This part of the level requires that the player finds the first Plasmid (shock ability) in order to proceed. Therefore this simple neon sign, not only directs the player to where they need to go, but foreshadows the ability they are about to receive which without they couldn't continue the game. Breadcrumbs Lighting Colour
Bioshock is renowned for its use of strong shapes in the art Deco aesthetic and even in the first scene/level you are able to tell. The use of negative space with the flames as well as the primary colour of the scene, reveals the gleaming silhouette of the plane parts that lead you to the lighthouse. This sets you up for the rest of the game as the use flashing neon lights in the gloomy dark setting of rapture. Grey is one of the main colours to represent the environmental pieces that are non interactable, but gives a great contrast for important landmarks. Different kinds of lights indicate specific types of items you will encounter, such as the blue lights will indicate that you are close to plasmid resources. First door puzzle uses your newly gained lighting power to activate the broken door panel that is clearly sparking. From this point on you are associating the blue light the the lightning plasmid ability. The props that the game uses for dispensing buyable items, comes in the form of a vending machines, which is very recognisable by the sound that they play and the lights that contrasts on the wall behind them. Flickering lights are also a great eye catcher for encounters, or an important cutscene. This technique was implemented very early in the game as the lights leading to the stairs on the lighthouse lead you to progression. Not only does this effect give a sense of dread within that area or scene but encourages you to break from original routes. The use of light in this game is not only main use of navigation, the game utilises sharp shapes such as isosceles triangles and even statues of people pointing in certain directions. The natural shapes of the art Deco architecture give leading lines to the objective or passageway you may have to go to. With this sort of high detail art work, means that they have to be carefully place their props so they don’t make the area feel cluttered and unappealing to look at. Fire is used as a redirecting tool to block off certain areas that the player may be lead down. This gives the illusion of endless hallways to discover but contextually, fire moves you away from these areas and leads you through a very linear route. Enemies are an interesting part of the game as there are encounters, where they give you a wall where you are able to see the shadows of a menacing character to make them seem bigger and scarier than they actually are. Also some breadcrumbs around the environment where there could be an ambush, is that there is water/puddles where you are able to use your lightning plasmid ability to shock multiple enemies.
The navigation tools used in Bioshock are particular with directing the player to their destination using various landmarks and signposting. Bioshock draws highly on lighting techniques such as rim lighting around certain objects that you need to interact with and highlighting places that you need to go. Since Bioshock is a first person rpg which draws attention to the player through the use of light and monument placements. For example, at the start of the game there is fire is surrounding the player which acts as an invisible wall leading the player. In the distance a pale white plane wing which has a point or spot light cast above it. This draws the player's attention with a recognizable difference within the setting. Upon reaching the plane's wing your attention is lead towards a lighthouse. Cascading in front of the moon and clouds which convey the mystery of the situation. The light house has steps that are clearly seen. Atop is a huge door that allows the player to enter the monument, this is easily navigable from the player's perspective as the game leaves breadcrumbs for the player to nibble upon (lights that light up when near). Once inside you are greeted by flickering lights and a huge statue with a tie like figure in the shape of an arrow that points towards two doors making it apparent the player must head down. The game further uses lights as the main guiding system with the use of shadow silhouettes, colors and reflections. After the initial story telling from the mysterious character on the radio you’re able to move around a dark and gloomy area which is clearly leading the player with the use of carpets and broken doors. With only one possible way to go I navigate myself through to another small cinematic. At which a monstrous human diver kills a splicer in front of you. Going further through you are confronted by another splicer but he gets chased off by some kind of robot thing. The game drops for you a Wrench at which you gain the ability to attack, again through the use of a spotlight pointing out the weapon. A short cut-scene happens and you are told to break through into the next area of the level. This implementation got me thinking that there might be multiple paths within any area thus forward. I found myself hitting random objects to see if there is anything I can go though. After a kerfuffle with some splicers (enemy within the game) another signposting happens and draws your attention to a crazed woman speaking into what appears to be a cot with a baby inside. After defeating the lady you notice that within the cot is a gun at which point empowering the player to feel less afraid to proceed to explore. I found myself surrounded by robots and other splicers and died at this point as I rushed in feeling “Strong”, since the demo set me back a fair bit this is where I ended my experience. What I discovered however is that Bioshock plays heavily on lighting and very little to no writing to tell the player where to go, it all seems apparent which is a great use of world design.
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World design theory (WDT)DevelopersThe goal of this blog is to relate current and past attempts at world design to further improve our understanding. Archives
October 2017
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