Legend of Zelda Level Design

Legend of Zelda Level Design

Sup, mortals.

Ok, I'm a tad behind on the weekly reading posts, so let's just hammer a few of these things out and call it even.

First of all, Mike Stout's Gamasutra article on the Level Design in Legend of Zelda.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6582/learning_from_the_masters_level_.php

I have no idea if that link will work...

Right, Stout splits the level design of a basic dungeon into several different parts: Level Flow, Intensity Ramping, Variety, and Training.

Level Flow includes the critical path that a player has to take within the dungeon to get through the level without using any secrets or shortcuts. Essentially the shortest possible path from the start to finish. A to B. Stout points out that the first dungeon in Legend of Zelda, which he is analysing, has a very linear critical path, making it simple and easy to traverse. Once the player starts going off and exploring non-critical rooms, it gets a little more complex.

The linearity is hidden by a couple of things, so the player doesn't realise that what they're doing is as simple as it is; firstly, re traversal of rooms the player has already cleared, and secondly, hidden shortcuts to later rooms.

Intensity Ramping essentially means the increase in the level of difficulty the player has to face; the learning curve of the dungeon if you will. This is dictated by two main factors in the first dungeon (and many dungeons after that): monster patterns along the critical path, and room layout.

The monsters you face are an obvious factor in Intensity Ramping; increasing the number of monsters and how powerful the monsters are is one of the most basic forms of difficulty increase. Level design and layout is also very important; in two different rooms are the same kinds of monsters, but in one the player has cover to hide behind, and in the next there is no cover. Thus, increase in difficulty.

Variety very much speaks for itself. The types of monster the player fights, the layout of the levels, what the player has to do to progress to the next room, all of these have to change over time to keep the player interested in the dungeon, and to make them want to progress.

Training, finally, was only minimal in Legend of Zelda, and was generally rare in the days of the Gameboy and NES consoles, outside of the game manuals. The ones in Zelda tried to help explain to the player how certain aspects of the game worked, or tried to offer hints as to the locations of secrets. In the English version of the game, however, this wasn't explained very well due to the translation from Japanese. It has been attempted in Zelda games since, and the process has been improved somewhat; we can think of the original Legend of Zelda training being a stepping stone for the developer, somewhere to start and improve upon.

Well, that's about all the notes I have for the article, mortals. This reading was done in something of a rush, and my notes are a tad minimalistic. I didn't even have anything written under "Variety", I had to remember from scratch.

I'm not complaining, or anything, I'm just telling you in case you were wondering why this post seems a bit different from the rest of the blog.

The article could have been based around any game there is; the fact that the author chose Legend of Zelda shows that he knows what he's talking about. It was during the days of the NES and SNES that we saw some of the best level design and layout. This was back when you couldn't attract an audience with stunning visuals and cinematics; you had to give them something good in the gameplay, including a well thought-out design.

This article has chosen out the best parts of some of the best level design we might ever see, and has analysed it in a way that emphasises how the design was both genius and well-hidden as well, guiding the player without them knowing it. Overall, a very good piece of reading.

That ends my little cliche moment.

Praise to the Emperor, mortals.