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Keval Shanker Shreyas
Level Design
Best Practices for Exposition Using a Three Act structure
My thesis discussed best practices and methodologies to make the acts of a quest setup in a three-act structure , give a structure to the amount of expository information given to the player , and find best practices for expositional level design techniques that improve the overall experience of a quest that is set up in a three-act structure .
I was heavily influenced by Tollywood movies as a kid and almost every movie in that industry follows the same 3 act structure and similar expositional techniques . I chose this thesis because I believe I can use the same methodologies that I was influenced by as a child and apply it to level design to consistently make good levels .
The outcome for this project was demonstrated through an artifact made in Fallout 4 , utilizing researched methodologies and the resulting data collected from the volunteer testers . The artifact was a Fallout 4 quest setup in a three-act structure consisting of three single-player maps / levels within Fallout 4 . The key experience within the level was the changing environment through various image space modifications to keep the player hooked in the quest .
The project was completed over a twosemester period that took it through a full research and development cycle into playtesting .
This thesis is helpful to other level designers who wish to create a more engaging quest for a structure that they can utilize to improve its quality .
62 LEVEL DESIGN