Project Predator - Design Changes due to survey data.

Decision Making Time

Justification

One evening, I sat down at my desk and started thinking in regards to the level design of the environment and the requirements for the level for the end goal of the prototype.  After vasts amounts of research into horror games and their game play; I did research into the aesthetic design and after researching into the games.  I felt that this would be a good time for me to do research into the level design side that I will need to go into soon.

With this, the main points of the survey is into the preference of game play, choices on level design and main aesthetics and to get an idea of what games the gamers are playing.  Although the last one in relations to the games isn't particularly necessary but it'll help with possibly looking at map design in games.

Player preference

As stated, this was not a necessary question to ask.  The idea to ask this however, is in relation to one or two other questions I can use it for research when designing the aesthetic design.  The results seen that their is a few that are played more than others.  I can use this and do some research into games that have certain aesthetic designs to work alongside for my own game; especially, The likes of us, Alien Isolation and Outlast.

Core survival horror 

Looking at the statistics, of the main part of what makes a survival horror game enjoyable, a lot of people were presenting the the lack of knowledge of where the enemy is and instead hearing them is a bigger driver than having a player character that is relate-able or that the end goal is attainable.

Looking at this, this presents the core idea of no cheap jump scares but instead that not knowing where the AI is and instead making noises does make it more difficult to work with.  It'll be interesting in how I will be able to add this information into my prototype.

Preference Of Level Design

Looking at the level design, the core preference was not what i initially expected but instead was what I originally wanted in my initial concept years ago within my degree.  My initial design was to have it in a big pen with you surviving for a duration such as in Jurassic world with the T-Rex. 

Seeing this, it is much more preferred for a more confined environment with more sharp designs and confined pathways.  With this, I am going to go back and use more of the styled levels that were used from games that correlate with that theme.

One strong thing that is seen however is that a lot of people do not really enjoy the idea of random generated level designs.  This means my level design ideas for random maps is although not necessary but can be helpful with possible filling of the environments.

What is the presences for level design in aesthetic creation

The final question I ask was based on the idea of what the main parts of a games level is the most important thing to a game for a horror game. 

From this information, I can see that lighting, and playable area are important but the biggest parts of the games aesthetic is sound and design layout.  With this and the previous information about a more confined game play relates strongly to these 4 that players find are key parts to a good level design.

I can attach this to my level design and ensure that it's specific to the game at the end.  With that, I will start jotting down ideas with mood boards to start making an aesthetic layout.

Final Thought

This information, although it isn't the most important for my whole games design.  It has helped my idea processing for the map design.  With this, I am definitely changing my level design to make it more thrilling but at a whole different point, the idea of level aesthetics will be more set when i get into level design for my game.

Overall, it has helped my journey become slightly more refined than it already was.