.: WEREMSOFT :.

Esta semana no hubo nada interesante, solo algunos plataformeros que no son tan buenos como el que estoy haciendo yo, lo cual es un alivio.

Haciendo un esfuerzo contra el sueño, en un día donde tengo que viajar 3 horas para participar de unas elecciones fraudulentas en mi país…ACA ESTA LA CARNE!

World of Level Design es un excelente sitio con articulos sobre level design(suena lógico no?). El tipo que escribe ahora esta enseñando como hacer niveles del left 4 dead LINK. Hay mas recursos en la pagina de wikipedia sobre level design, todavía no los reviso a todos LINK.

Level design based on concept art es un artículo del sitio GameDesignBlog.com y explica la técnica utilizada para level design en el juego Damnation. LINK

No hay mucho mas que valga la pena. Hay mas cosas pero no quiero publicarlas sin haberlas jugado(eso sería copiar y pegar links de otros sitios a lo tonto y no es lo que pretendo) Hasta la proxima!

For a time ago, I’m working on my videogame. I’m very concerned more in the game/level design, than in the development side of the game.

What I’m doing is taking a basic platform engine made in Actiosncript 2, port it to actionscript 3 and use it straight. The only programming tasks that I’m doing are scripted events and IA programming. The rest is art job and level design.

BUT! from time to time inspiration comes to me, and from my brain pop’s up a nice algorithm that I can use. So I spend some time implementing it and then I try to figure out where in the game can go.
The last algorithm that comes to me was the “princess in distress” algorithm. This describes how an hostage follows his savior in order to escape from where he/she is captive. This follows these rules:

1. The princess will stay still, scared
2. When the savior touches the princess, the princess will feel strong enough to escape, and start follows the savior.
3. The princess will stop follow the savior if he starts a fight, goes out of sight or if he perform a physic act that is not possible for the princess(like jump a very long distance)
4. When the princess stop follow the savior, will close her eyes and wait for the savior touch her, in order to restore her confidence.

This triggers a lot of gameplay and lots of puzzles if the level is designed for a stealth mission. The hero must hide not only himself, but also the princess.

Hope show the project I’m working on very soon.

TO THE ENGLISH READERS: The section “El diario del domingo” will be the unique series of posts that I’ll maintain in spanish. For English articles consult the lasts articles.

Feliz día a todos los papas!. Bienvenidos al diario del domingo, sección que voy a retomar después de varios domingos de no hacerla(el trabajo me tiene loco y no estoy pudiendo leer tantas cosas de internet como antes).

Esta edición esta especialmente dedicada a Red Fox, que hoy esta pasando su primer día del padre.

Tanto como para Red Fox como para todos los papas, feliz día y…

…ACA ESTA LA CARNE!.

Little Wheel Es una aventura gráfica sobre robots que me pareció una de las mejores que he jugado en los últimos tiempos. LINK

Takishawa is Dead es un juego bastante frustrante pero con una mecanica que tienepotencial…si no fuera porque caerse al vacío es mas fácil que caminar!. LINK

Dormir es importante!, y si no me creen, leanse este articulo que habla de todas las funciones cerebrales que se ven afectadas negativamente si uno no duerme al menos 8hs diarias: LINK

VideoGame Maps es un sitio que tiene un monton de niveles de juegos. LINK

Un monton de recursos sobre level design se publicó en agamesdesignblog.com y vale la pena hecharle un vistazo. LINK

Esto es todo por ahora, ADIOS! Y SIGAN MIRANDO AL CIELO!!!

Level design is a difficult art that requires a lot of work. If you are lazy, you surely can’t do the job.

Is a common mistake leaving the responsibility of teaching the player how to play to an awful help screen that nobody reads.

Another common mistake is put screens in the game that stops the game for until the player hits a key.

And another one (the worst in my opinion) is do nothing of the above, arguing that “discover how to play is part of the game”. This is the laziest if the options. You don’t deserve the respect of anyone in the team if you do that(also, you don’t deserve the respect of the player).

This are all symptoms of laziness (yeah, I use that word very often).

In my opinion, the instructions should be in the screen all the time, but in a form of a clue, and use the thing that you want to teach to the player MUST be used to overcome a stake in the level.

The reason of this is that, if the player doesn’t understand the tip, wouldn’t be able to advance in the game. And the obsceneness of the clue will be easier to detect during the play testing sessions.

To be a successful level designer, you must be able to teach things to people in stealth mode, this means that you must be able to teach things to the people without them realize they are learning.

To achieve this, talk with people that have great skills teaching and learn from them. But don’t look only in schools or colleges. Look everywhere. In workshops, kindergartens, kitchens, the people that is great teaching has a lot of patience and makes feel the people comfortable while learning.

Now, go out and become the best level designer ever.

I was making a tour for local videogame companies and I must say that was a very enriching experience.

One of this videogame studios tell me something very interesting about how they protect the team and what that has to do with the company they want to build(local videogame studios are mostly startups).

What they say was something like:

That’s the word on one of the CEO’s of this company (I don’t want to put their name here, because I don’t ask them).

This is a very healthy statement indeed. A new person entering in the team must help, not be a charge.

Right now is coming to my mind a tips that I want to share with everyone who want to take it:

First, make a pre-selection of the candidates that apply to the team. Then allow the people of the team take part of the selection. Tell them that a new person is going to be in the team and that you want their opinion.

Ask the candidate come to the office and know where he or she is going to work. Share his curriculum vitae and portfolio with the team. Go out for some beers and allow the team and the (possibly) newcomer chat freely. Look for passion, look for good feelings, and look for camaraderie and mutual respect. You’ll know when the right person is there.

The selection process will take a little longer, but, as Joel Spolsky says in his article The Guerrilla Guide to Interviewing:

So, remember, care about the people. It is worth it.