SMU Guildhall Graduate Catalog Spring 2019 — Cohort 27 | Page 40

Aspen Clark Level Design « “Spaces of the Dark” “Spaces of the Dark” is an experimental “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” follows a language and poetic intent can be realized along the streets of an unnamed city level that seeks to prove that figurative in 3D space using a combination of keen literary analysis and tried and true level design techniques. The ultimate goal of the project was to create a playable level with both visual and sound design inspired by poet T. S. Eliot’s “Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” The final product is a “playable poem” that allows players the chance to fully immerse themselves in the language and environments in “Rhapsody on a Windy Night.” This playable poem was built with the intention of testing the hypothesis that seeing and hearing the language of a poem brought to life in 3D space would be an effective means to help people develop a deeper, more meaningful understanding of a piece of written literature. 40 LEVEL DESIGN troubled speaker as they make their way between the hours of midnight and 4:00 a.m. Along the way, the speaker loses touch with reality as a collection of odd, sentient street lamps begin to whisper to them and make cruel observations about the world. The visuals of “Spaces of the Dark” echo this journey from reality through surreal dreaming by translating the player across a variety of settings and scenes.