Best Practices: Encouraging Player Use of Verticality in Level Design
Hangtao LIN
Level Design
Best Practices: Encouraging Player Use of Verticality in Level Design
In this project, I explored how specific level design strategies could influence player engagement with vertical spaces in combat-focused level design. I chose this topic out of personal interest in understanding how designers can guide players to interact with height differences during gameplay.
To investigate this, I built a custom singleplayer combat level in Dying Light using the developer tools. The level featured four distinct areas, each applying a different design strategy: enemy density, cover placement, supply placement, and ranged enemy pressure. Each area included multiple vertical routes that allowed players to move upward without being forced to do so.
from recorded gameplay sessions and survey responses through Qualtrics. I then analyzed time spent on upper levels, upward movement counts, kill distribution by elevation, and player self-reported motivation. The results showed that all four strategies successfully encouraged vertical engagement, with cover placement and enemy density producing the most consistent outcomes.
Through this project, I developed skills in level design, user research methods, and data analysis. This project could be useful to the video game industry by helping level designers better understand which methods effectively encourage players to engage with vertical space.
I recruited ten participants to playtest the level and collected behavioral data
46 LEVEL DESIGN