Level Design Lesson 10: Spawn Perspectives

[This was originally posted on my personal blog www.reachingperfection.com]

[Forge Lessons is a level design series that I have written for the halo forge (the simplistic in-game level editor) communities. While it is tailored towards Halo multiplayer map design I feel that it covers general level design very well. I would love everyone's opinions on how these lessons can translate into other games and genres like the Call of Duty series, the Unreal Series, RTS games, platformer games, etc.]

Over the various past lessons you have been introduced to how powerful observing Perspectives can really be. However there are billions of possible perspectives that exist on a map. Learning to observe key perspectives is important to saving yourself sometime. One type of perspective that is common across all maps and extremely useful to observe is the Perspective that exists for each spawn point on the map.

The first of many

The spawn perspective is typically the first full controllable perspective of the map that the player receives. Note that I say controllable perspective meaning that the player is able to fully move his perspective at his will from this point forward. Other perspectives may be seen first, but I will cover those in later lessons. Being the first controllable perspective all eye catching techniques are extremely important to study. From this first perspective player begin to decide exactly how they move around the map. It is important to take the time to study each and every one carefully. Spawn perspectives are the only truly guaranteed perspectives that you can observe exactly as the player will see it since there has been no previous Eye Catching, Incentive, Deterrent, or other influence upon the perspective.

Observe them heavily

As a designer you should be aware of everything that the player can see from each spawn point of your map. Know what incentives exist, what paths are available, what deterrents may exist, etc. Take the time to analyze the eye catching that exists in the perspective to get a good idea of where the player may be heading. Keep in mind that there are many factors that will influence all future perspectives. The spawn perspective is the start of a long chain of perspectives that only ends when a player dies and then restarts from there until the game ends. Every perspective in the chain is influenced by the spawn perspective so setting up the spawn perspective properly will lead to huge control over the player when dealing with Path Manipulation.

You control your players

Whenever you place any spawn point the first thing you need to do is stand on it, find some way to force spawn on it, or just find some way to view the spawn’s perspective. Take the time to observe what is in the scene. Spawn perspectives are very powerful tools for applying the Knowledge is Power concept and teaching players important parts of the map. Take note of what weapons the player can see. Take note of what paths the player can choose from. Take notes of any possible threats that may exist in the perspective. A good general rule to go by is to give the player at least one path as the focus of the spawn perspective. Give the player direction and guide him from where he spawns. If a player spawns and the only thing he sees is a wall, what is he going to do? He has an equal chance to turn right or left where he will proceed to choose his path. You want to remove as much unpredictability as possible in order to have stronger control over the player. Remember that you have control over the player’s experience. If you want him to go right towards rockets then turn his perspective so that the path to rockets is in plain sight. If you want him to go left for the sniper then turn that perspective left. You have full control.