«
Garrett Pfingston
Level Design
Unifying Theories to Predict and Control Pacing
My goal with this project was to find a reliable way to predict a player ’ s experience through a level . By researching existing methods and theories to affect pacing , I sought to unify them in a way which would allow it to be applicable to any type of game or genre . To reduce the amount of random variables which could alter each player ’ s experience , I gave each play tester a premade character to control .
I selected this project because pacing is an important part of creating an engaging , immersive game or level . To be able to predict a players experience within your level will drastically cut down on production time by reducing the amount of time play testing for pacing .
This project took approximately 50 hours for preliminary research , 225 hours to create unified theory and then conceptualize and develop the artifact level , and an additional 150 hours to run play tests , analyze data , and iterate the artifact and survey . The total amount of time spent was around 425 hours .
From this project , I learned the importance of meticulous preparation and how much it can affect the outcome of the player experience . Things like level layout , enemy positioning , light placement , and resource availability are all things that need to be considered when crafting an experience . Pacing is a crucial part to every video game and the skills developed from this Thesis can transfer anywhere .
60 LEVEL DESIGN