Posted by Blue Ghost on March 20, 1998 at 18:14:53:
Ok, just wondering if I can get some opinions here. I was wondering if I was the only one who thought that JK, and to some degree MOTS, levels were a bit too linear. That is to say, they aren't really levels in the sense that you can run around the entire level trying to accomplish your mission, but they're more or less just paths for us to follow. I'm talking about the single player levels now, not the multiplayer levels which by design allow access to all parts of the map. The reason I ask this is because I see this as a fundamental flaw in level design. I think back on the Wolfenstein, Doom and Doom II levels, and it seems to me that on many instances, but not all, a player could traverse the entire map and would, in this sense and in my opinion, get a better game experience out of those particular levels. I think about the "Downtown" or "Spaceport" levels from Doom II, and IMHO I think that those kinds of levels are superior to say something like "The Valley Enterance" level which I believe is the first level leading to the Valley of the Jedi in JK, where essentially you follow the stream until you come to a path, then a bridge and so on.
Myself, as I design my level I'm trying to keep this in mind. Am I making a mistake?
Opinions? Agreements? Disagreements? Insults? Admonishments? Praise? What do you think? Blue_Ghost