Lewis Wray MA Games Design

Having recently finished playing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, I am of the opinion that it has some of the best puzzle design in any video game.  The Legend of Zelda games have always been well known for their puzzles, even if there is often more of a focus on adventure or combat. The puzzles in the game series are often presented in the form of a dungeon, which usually follow the same general pattern.  Find a new piece of equipment Sections of learning how the equipment works and its different uses Sections of testing your ability with the equipment to see how well you have learned to use it A boss fight - a final test of your proficiency with the equipment to complete the dungeon After completing a dungeon, Link can then exit into the world discover new areas through the use of the new equipment, or complete puzzles that were previously impossible before getting the new equipment. This gradual exploration of the game world creates an exciting feeling of progress...

 https://youtu.be/iNEe3KhMvXM?si=af1jkk7Cryh8BE84 Dan Taylor Games Developers Conference 2013 1. Fun to navigate The player should always know where they should be going, use visual language. Mirrors Edge does this using red-coloured objects to show you your path.  Sometimes add confusion to navigation. Favela in MW2 is a confusing level with no clear path through that makes it tense 2. Do not rely on words Types of narrative: Explicit - narrative directly told to the player through written content, for example Implicit - player discovers narrative from the environment Emergent - player creates narrative in their mind Mise-en-scene is the art of telling narrative through the environment Player choice creates emergent narrative as they fill in the blanks themselves 3. Tell the player what to do, but never how to do it Give information to the player only if necessary Create nebulous objectives, that still encourages and rewards player experimentation 4. Constantly teach the play...

 1. Squash and Stretch Making an object morph its shape to exaggerate its motion, such as a ball bouncing. Object should always keep a consistent volume. Can be used to emphasise facial expressions 2. Anticipation Giving a character or object an overexaggerated motion before an action, to imply to the audience what is about to happen. It also makes it less likely that the audience will miss the action and end up confused about what happened. Can reverse the anticipation technique by making the audience think one thing will happen then doing another 3. Staging The presentation of an idea so that it is completely and unmistakably clear. Guiding the audience's eyes so there is no ambiguity about what is the focus of the scene at a particular point 4. Straight ahead and pose to pose The order of drawing each frame. Straight ahead is drawing the first frame, then second, and so on. Pose to pose is drawing the start and the outcome of an action, then filling in the blanks. Pose to pose g...