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Dakota Loupe
Level Design
Loading Dock Mayhem : Best Practices for Melee and Ranged Combat
My thesis examines how principles around melee and ranged combat could be effectively combined . Games tend to heavily focus on either melee or ranged combat encounters , but in role-playing games ( RPG ), players typically are allowed to choose between one or the other . This can make combat encounters less exciting . I created “ Loading Dock Mayhem ” to explore how both styles of play could feel useful , so that ultimately developers could have guiding principles when creating combat encounters to add complexity to their games .
I created a level within Dying Light , a RPG that has a plethora of ranged and melee weapons to choose from . The player was given a simple quest of securing the loading dock and killing the zombies who have taken it over . Within the level , I created four distinct combat areas , each with a specific focus : just ranged , just melee , and two that combined both styles . This allowed me to analyze
what players found the most effective in each individual space , as well as which combat principles made players feel most effective overall in their quest .
I wanted the space to feel like an environment you would find in an open world game , so I made sure that every space felt connected to each other . To do this , I needed to utilize several design techniques to subtly guide the player from each individual combat zone to another . Overall , the project was great to work on , and it helped provide a starting point for further examination of why players feel like their specific playstyle is most effective in certain situations . If explored further , this can help developers design spaces in role-playing games to encourage a fluid playstyle in which both feel useful .
38 LEVEL DESIGN