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[RiotEsper]

Hey all duders and dudettes!
So, short introduction since I'm new here; I'm Marcus, a game design student from southern Sweden. I'm all about video games and game design, and caffeine, of course.

For the fall term of our third year at uni, we were given pretty much free hands to study whatever we felt would be useful (so long as we could motivate why it's relevant to the programme we're attending.) The term's split into 'blocks' of five weeks each.

For my second block, I studied and documented different methods for guiding the player in a level. I decided to compile the results of my studies into a handy guide, so that I could share it online, should anyone have use for such a guide. So, without further ado, here it is (click the cover to get to the download page!)


Since my time with these studies was limited, I couldn't find and document every method in existence. I plan to update the guide every now and then when I have time. I've started to outline an update that I'll probably try to do sometime soon. It all depends on how heavy my future studies will be.

Feedback, questions and discussions are very welcome. Enjoy the read!

[wccrawford]

Thanks for this.  It's nice to have all that collected together.

I have to say, I was expecting more things that weren't quite to obvious.  The lighting thing is in there, but there's a lot of art stuff that I think isn't.  Using lines and curves to draw the eye to certain points, for example.  It's a lot harder than your examples here, but I think it can create a much nicer effect for the player.  They're guided without *feeling* like they're being guided.  Portal 2 used a lot of this, I believe.

[RiotEsper]

Thanks for this.  It's nice to have all that collected together.

I have to say, I was expecting more things that weren't quite to obvious.  The lighting thing is in there, but there's a lot of art stuff that I think isn't.  Using lines and curves to draw the eye to certain points, for example.  It's a lot harder than your examples here, but I think it can create a much nicer effect for the player.  They're guided without *feeling* like they're being guided.  Portal 2 used a lot of this, I believe.

You're welcome, and thanks for the feedback!

You're right about that, I never got to researching and documenting any methods of that nature. It's something that I'd like to add in future revisions though, seeing as how they're, as you say, very effective yet still subtle enough that you don't feel like you're being guided.