Posted by CogKing on March 20, 1998 at 18:30:36:
In Reply to: JK levels verse levels in other games 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
You are totally right... only in Doom, etc. id level designers forced you to
explore the full level by making you go after the red, blue and yellow keys,
which is kind of artificial. In DF and in JK goals are supposed to obtain the
same result, but obviously some of them were botched in JK. Anyway I agree
with you that some levels feel totally linear (in both JK and MoTS).
I would certainly say that you are NOT making a mistake by trying to force the
player to fully explore your level, but don't go overboard and make him revisit
the same area 10 times... :-)
-CogKing