Skyrim Dungeon is finished!!

Over the Christmas break, I finished my Skyrim level

The level was inspired by an idea from Christopher Totten, from his article ‘Designing better levels through human survival instincts’. In it he argues that people will instinctively seek sheltered areas, such as caves, in-between passing through large open areas while travelling, and that this behaviour can be taken advantage of in video games.

In the encounter that forms the climax of the level, the player has the choice of fighting two dangerous enemies inside a small area, or escape it for the additional choice of fighting them on more open ground or in narrow corridors. I wanted to see if Totten’s prediction rings true. If it does, then players would avoid the main open area and fight in the enclosed areas.

I also wanted to try a few things with materials, in this case with ice and rock. In the level there are icy, snowy, blue areas and warmer, rocky, orangey areas. Players start off in a cold area and move into a warm area, and there are optional cold spots that the player can investigate.  I want to see if the player does go through with investigating the cold spots; are they drawn to the spots because it’s more visible, or are they repelled because of the rock’s association with progress?

I’ve manage to do a small amount of playtesting, but I wouldn’t consider it enough to make any firm conclusions. It however did manage to whittle out an error in the design.

In this area, the player can go off the critical path and investigate a colder area for loot. But when they came out of the cold area, they ended up going back to where they came from. This was because they hadn’t noticed the door that would allow them to progress. I tried to light up the door, but it didn’t work. So instead I moved the level geometry around so that when they exited cold area, the door was right in their line of sight. This worked perfectly.