Best Practices: Reusing Space to Enhance Narrative Immersion
Yuning“ Anona”
Yuning“ Anona” YANG
Level Design
Best Practices: Reusing Space to Enhance Narrative Immersion
This thesis project explores how best practices in reusing space can enhance narrative immersion, focusing on two key aspects: helping players to understand the level layout, and creating smooth gameplay flow that encourages revisits to key areas. By strategically intertwining the need to reuse space into a game’ s narrative, a designer can enhance the player’ s overall immersion in the level.
The project was driven by my curiosity about how players mentally map game spaces during gameplay, how designers can help them to avoid getting lost, and my passion for telling complex, engaging stories that unfold naturally through the player’ s exploration and actions.
The level artifact,“ The Critical Cure,” is a custom standalone level built for the single-player, first-person survival horror game, Dying Light. Players take on the role
of Crane, who is sent to assist Jonathan Blackwood— a wealthy bioscience company owner trapped in a hospital overrun by the infected. The player must locate and help Jonathan’ s family and coworkers before their evacuation, while uncovering the mystery behind a crucial document that delayed Jonathan’ s plan.
This project took nearly a year, from concept development to building and testing the level. It was a challenging yet rewarding process to incorporate best practices into both level and narrative design. Through playtest results, I learned how differently each best practice performs and how to combine them effectively to convey clear quest objectives and narrative information. I hope this research offers insight into the relationship between reusing space and storytelling, helping designers to craft more immersive, engaging game experiences.
52 LEVEL DESIGN