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Austyn Wiles
Level Design
Best Practices : Encouraging the Modality Between Melee and Ranged Combat Styles
The goal of this thesis project was to identify best practices to encourage players to switch between different combat styles , specifically melee and ranged combat . The reason I chose this was because a lot of current video games provide players with a variety of combat styles to choose from and I wanted to figure out how to design levels that encourage players to learn and use multiple combat styles while actively engaged with enemies .
By researching past documentation and combat-focused video games , I identified key factors that influence players ’ playstyles . The first was pacing player progression to teach players multiple playstyles , using different types of cover , placing obstacles in areas that force players to adapt , and then creating distinct parts of the level that players are able to identify as safe and harmful areas .
This thesis took approximately eight months of development . I learned how to properly balance combat encounters for players of varying skill levels and create encounters that can played using multiple playstyles .
Because the study was designed to test which design practices have the biggest impact on players ’ combat style while engaging with enemies , it will help designers to create combat scenarios that allow players to use multiple playstyles while engaging with enemies .
42 LEVEL DESIGN