Fallout's Level Design & Movement - Game Design Analysis
Summary
TLDRThis video script delves into the art of environmental design in the Fallout series, highlighting the use of spatial mystery and wayfinding affordances to engage players. It explains how the game's open world uses landmarks, paths, and obstacles to guide exploration, creating a sense of discovery and narrative immersion. The script also touches on the importance of 'prospect and refuge' in creating tension and a survival instinct within the game's atmosphere, emphasizing the balance between technical design and compelling storytelling to craft a rich gaming experience.
Takeaways
- 🌟 The script discusses the importance of environmental design and interactable spatial cinematography in open-world RPGs like Fallout.
- 🎮 The unique aspect of video games, especially in open-world settings, is the interactivity that affects game design and player engagement.
- 🕵️♂️ The video focuses on how Fallout uses spatial mystery and wayfinding affordances to grab a player's attention and guide them through the game world.
- 🏙️ Fallout introduces the wasteland with landmarks and affordances that hint at the direction players should take, setting the stage for exploration.
- 🔍 Mystery affordances, such as distant, intriguing landmarks, entice players to explore and discover more about the game's environment.
- 🛤️ Wayfinding affordances guide players on the path they should take, using roads, signs, and environmental cues to lead them towards objectives.
- 🗺️ Fallout New Vegas uses the map itself as an affordance, creating a calculated path for players to follow, with barriers and hidden shortcuts.
- 🏞️ The game design encourages exploration by placing side locations and quests along the main roads, branching out like a tree with smaller branches.
- 🕶️ Fallout 3 is praised for its atmospheric and mysterious dungeons, which challenge players to navigate and explore expansive interconnected areas.
- 👾 The use of prospect and refuge in Fallout games creates an intense atmosphere, where players seek safety and monitor their surroundings.
- 📖 The script emphasizes the importance of narrative focus in game design, where every element from gameplay to level design should complement the story.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the video script regarding Fallout's level design?
-The main focus of the video script is on how Fallout's level design, particularly environmental design and spatial cinematography, grabs a player's attention through spatial mystery and wayfinding affordances.
What is an affordance in the context of video game design?
-In the context of video game design, an affordance refers to the function or allowable action of an object that brings attention to itself, such as a door that signals it can be opened to lead to a new place.
How does the introduction of the wasteland in Fallout games use affordances to guide the player?
-The introduction of the wasteland in Fallout games uses mystery affordances, such as distant landmarks, and wayfinding affordances, like paths and signs, to guide the player in the right direction to start their journey.
What is the significance of the tumbleweed, robot Victor, and wind turbine in Fallout: New Vegas in terms of level design?
-In Fallout: New Vegas, the tumbleweed, robot Victor, and wind turbine serve as dynamic wayfinding affordances, moving in the direction the game wants the player to move towards, which is towards the saloon.
How does Fallout: New Vegas use the map to lead the player through the game like a roller coaster?
-Fallout: New Vegas uses the map as a series of barriers and paths that subtly influence the player's journey, with the map structured like a tree with branches leading to smaller branches, encouraging exploration and discovery of side locations and quests.
What role do dungeons play in Fallout 3's level design in terms of exploration and mystery?
-Dungeons in Fallout 3, such as interconnected subway stations and city ruins, play a significant role in the level design by providing an atmospheric, mysterious environment that encourages exploration and can easily lead to players getting lost in a good way.
How does Fallout 3 use physical obstacles and enemy obstacles to enhance the wayfinding experience?
-Fallout 3 uses physical obstacles and enemy obstacles to make the path to the player's destination more complicated, which in turn makes the journey more interesting and encourages the discovery of additional content along the way.
What is the concept of prospect and refuge in the context of Fallout games?
-In the context of Fallout games, prospect refers to the ability to monitor surroundings, and refuge is being within a safe place, usually enclosed. The game uses these concepts to create intensity, fear, and a sense of survival, influencing player behavior and movement.
How does the 'The Pitt' DLC for Fallout 3 use the concepts of prospect and refuge to enhance the player's experience?
-The 'The Pitt' DLC uses the concepts of prospect and refuge by forcing the player to sneak around and seek refuge while avoiding mines and a sniper, creating an intense and vulnerable experience that changes as the player progresses and gains more control.
What is the atmosphere created by the 'Far Harbor' DLC for Fallout 4, and how does it affect the player's behavior?
-The 'Far Harbor' DLC creates an atmosphere of mystery, horror, and creepiness, affecting the player's behavior by encouraging them to seek prospect and refuge, whether that be in major locations or the best available cover, to survive against the intense environment.
How does Fallout's narrative and aesthetic contribute to the level design and player engagement?
-Fallout's narrative and aesthetic contribute to the level design by making the world interesting and mysterious, encouraging exploration. The immersive and atmospheric aesthetic of the game, especially in Fallout 3, is a significant factor that draws players into the game world.
Outlines
🌆 Environmental Design and Spatial Cinematography in Fallout
The first paragraph introduces the concept of environmental design in the Fallout video game series, focusing on the importance of spatial mystery and wayfinding affordances in open-world RPGs. The speaker, who aspires to enter game design, explains the term 'affordance' as it relates to attention and function, using doors and coffee mug handles as examples. The summary highlights how Fallout games use distant landmarks and directional cues to guide players, such as the neon sign of a saloon in New Vegas or the Washington Monument in Fallout 3. The paragraph also touches on the game's use of interactive elements like moving tumbleweeds and wind turbines to direct player movement.
🗺️ Wayfinding and Exploration in Fallout's Open World
This paragraph delves deeper into the way Fallout games use environmental storytelling and level design to encourage exploration. It discusses how the game's map is structured like a tree with branching paths, leading players from one landmark to another, creating a cycle of discovery. The speaker contrasts this with Fallout 3's interconnected subway stations and city ruins, which offer a different kind of exploration experience by presenting obstacles and enemies that force players to deviate from their original paths. The paragraph also introduces the concepts of 'prospect' and 'refuge' as elements of wayfinding that contribute to the game's intensity and survival aspects.
🎭 Narrative and Aesthetic in Fallout's Level Design
The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of narrative focus in game design, stating that all elements, including level design, should complement and extend the game's story. It reflects on the speaker's personal connection to Fallout 3 and the role of the game's immersive and atmospheric aesthetic in drawing players into its world. The paragraph concludes by stressing the need for interesting and aesthetically pleasing elements in open-world games like Fallout to maintain player engagement and curiosity.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Environmental Design
💡Spatial Cinematography
💡Affordance
💡Mystery Affordances
💡Wayfinding Affordances
💡Prospect and Refuge
💡Level Design
💡Narrative Focus
💡Immersive Atmospheric Aesthetic
💡Dungeons
💡Branching Paths
Highlights
Environmental design and interactable spatial cinematography are key aspects of Fallout's open-world RPG experience.
Fallout games use spatial mystery and wayfinding affordances to grab a player's attention and guide their movement.
An affordance is the function or allowable action of an object that brings attention, like a door leading to a new place.
Fallout introduces the wasteland with hints and affordances, starting with a path and signs leading to the first settlement.
Landmarks and distant objects in Fallout act as mystery affordances, enticing players to explore.
Fallout New Vegas uses the entire map as an affordance, guiding players through a calculated path with hidden shortcuts and guarded barriers.
Side locations and quests in Fallout are introduced through nodes, where players choose between multiple paths.
Fallout 3 and New Vegas use mystery landmarks to lead players from one point of interest to another, encouraging exploration.
Fallout 3's dungeons, like interconnected subway stations, create an atmospheric and mysterious environment for exploration.
Physical and enemy obstacles in Fallout 3's dungeons add complexity and interest to the exploration journey.
The concept of prospect and refuge is used in Fallout to create intensity and a sense of survival, influencing player movement.
In Fallout 3's 'The Pitt' DLC, the player's vulnerability and the need for prospect and refuge are emphasized through environmental challenges.
Far Harbor DLC for Fallout 4 creates an atmosphere of mystery and horror, using fog and hidden creatures to enhance the sense of danger.
Level design in Fallout extends and presents the narrative to the player, complementing the overall game experience.
The narrative and aesthetic of Fallout are significant factors that entice players to explore and engage with the game world.
Fallout's immersive and atmospheric aesthetic is a key element that contributes to the game's appeal and player engagement.
Transcripts
the blinding light of the sun the dust
rising through heavy wind with the
tumbleweed a mountain peaks
above the thick ocean fog silence falls
upon an abandoned
polluted city of creaking steel in the
distance
is a landmark close or far shrouded
in endless mystery that you must
discover
how does fallout's level design make you
move
[Music]
one of the most important aspects of
fallout to me is environmental design
or in more technical terms interactable
spatial cinematography
the special quirk of the video game
medium is obviously
its interact-ability that really affects
every aspect of game design especially
in an open world rpg
i planned and hoped to cover many
aspects of environmental slash level
design in the future
but in this video i will primarily look
into how fallout grabs a player's
attention
specifically through spatial mystery and
wayfinding affordances
as i think they are very important in
these games and to make this clear i am
not a professional at
all but i hope to go into game design
eventually and these types of videos are
as educational to me as they are to you
so i will try my best to be accurate
with this topic
and i will link down below a lot of what
i use to research these concepts
first of all you might be wondering what
an affordance is and affordance has to
do with attention brought by the
function slash allowable action of an
object for example a door brings
attention because we know that a door's
function is to
open and lead to a new place an even
better example that many people use
is the shape of a coffee mug handle that
makes it very
obvious where you grab the mug from the
terms i will talk about aren't even
entirely exclusive to video games but i
will be talking about them in terms of
that
every modern fallout game introduces the
wasteland the same way you step out from
a confined space into a vast one the
introduction is filled with hints
and affordances to get the player to
move in the right direction to start
their journey
in fallout new vegas you have the very
obvious landmarks like the neon sign of
the saloon
and the water tower at the graveyard on
top of a hill fallout 3 has an entire
city out in the distance with the
silhouettes of the washington monument
and the capitol building
those are mystery affordances a distant
thing usually something pretty big
that entices you to explore it the first
view is absolutely
filled with wayfinding affordances this
affordance deals with the attention on
what path
the player will take both fallout 3 and
new vegas start with a path that leads
into a road
both have a ton of signs that lead to
the first group of people or settlement
and going beyond just those two types of
affordances in new vegas the tumbleweed
the robot victor and even the wind
turbine
all move in the direction the game wants
to player to move towards
which is to the saloon in fallout 3 you
have a town that probably seems more
interesting to explore than
any other place immediately visible and
once you're down there there's an eye
bot moving in the direction of megaton
as well as a sign that explicitly says
megaton
with an arrow now this stuff is not
crazy i don't think anyone's having an
epiphany about any of this stuff but
what i find interesting is that this
part of a fallout game is what holds the
player's hand
the most well that is beyond some of the
trailing missions
in fallout 3's main story i want to
focus on fallout new vegas
once you've gotten out of the beginning
area what actually leads you
anywhere well if you got to the
graveyard you will have noticed
a grand tower above the city in the
distance a city you also see in the
opening cutscene this location is
already mysterious and the player will
naturally want to go towards it the only
issue
is that the player can't go there there
is really no direct path
at this immediate point to new vegas and
once the player tries any shortcut
towards the city like the highway they
will be met with the hardest enemies in
the game once the player fully realizes
they can't just
walk over to the city the mission
becomes complex the main mission tells
you to go the complete opposite way to
prim
what i like about fallout new vegas is
how the entire map itself
is in affordance that leads you through
it like a roller coaster the
next barrier is the mountain range
itself that
you have to walk around and any
shortcuts are hidden
and or guarded this calculated path of
players likely to take is subtly
influenced by highway 15 highway
188 and these barriers all falling under
wayfinding affordances
along this grand journey are side
locations and quests usually starting
with what is called a node a point at
which the player must choose between
two or more paths to take along these
main roads are other intersecting roads
and paths that the player will fall into
without even talking to any npcs like
the path to the mojave outpost which
also has a mysterious landmark as well
the road up black mountain the road to
repconn hq the road to camp searchlight
and i can go on and on about roads that
lead to
i guess side locations this map is like
a giant tree with branches leading to
smaller and smaller branches
both fallout 3 and new vegas lead the
player with mystery
affordances landmarks out in the
distance like the lucky 38
like the washington monument the player
reaches a landmark
explores and possibly starts a quest
then sees another landmark where the
cycle continues
fallout new vegas did this extremely
well to the point where i easily forgot
about the main quest and spent like an
hour
on side quests just because i walked
down this one road
off the beaten path to make a great open
world you need
affordances like these to push the
player to explore more to keep moving in
order to discover more of the game's
content
one thing i think fallout 3 did better
than new vegas was its dungeons
my favorites being the expansive
interconnected subway stations and city
ruins
these tunnels and cityscapes were
extremely atmospheric extremely
mysterious and very easy to get lost in
but in a good way i remember popping out
of multiple subways and arriving in
locations i had no idea
existed going through alleyways and
defeating enemies until i arrived at a
main quest or side quest
this massive dungeon was absolutely
filled with the mystery of exploration
and
easily convinced me to come back again
and again to explore the entire city i
love getting lost in fallout 3. and you
may be thinking
isn't that the opposite of what
wayfinding is supposed to do
well not exactly because an aspect of
the wayfinding affordance
is obstacles like the mountains or roads
in new vegas that make you have to
switch your path to a new one in fallout
3 you arrive in the ruins with some
original goal maybe to get to the
washington monument or
the gnr building but you are constantly
hit with physical obstacle and or
enemy obstacles making the path to your
destination more and more complicated
making this puzzle more and more
interesting to the point where you will
find other bits of content throughout
this
ever complicating journey you may even
forget about what the original goal was
in the first place
both new vegas and three do branching
paths in different ways
both being very effective
prospect and refuge prospect is the
ability to monitor your surroundings
refuge
is being within a safe place usually
somewhere enclosed
primary prospect and refuge means you
currently have those things
secondary prospect and refuge means you
are looking for those things
in a world as dangerous and as
mysterious as fallout this is actively
happening in the game
in the pit a fallout 3 dlc expansion
crossing the bridge into pittsburgh
seems peaceful at first
until you get attacked by dogs realize
there are mines everywhere and a sniper
is actively shooting at you
this forces the player to sneak around
and seek refuge but also avoid the mines
while the sniper has both prospect and
refuge to use against the player the
player will most likely be forced to get
out of refuge or cover
at some point in order to climb up the
bridge and take out the sniper this
first section of the dlc
makes the player realize how vulnerable
they will be in this story despite
any attempts you will always be stripped
of your stuff and made a slave to work
in the steel factory later in the dlc
you are thrown into the steel yard to
retrieve
ingots for the slavers this part of the
game is supposed to be intense you
literally have nothing now
and now you start from the bottom forced
to go on this suicidal mission
to possibly get supplies to free
yourself scary mutilated shrogs roam the
walkways and path
so it's best to sneak around and have
enough prospect to see the troggs before
they see
you the player can seek refuge on roofs
pipes etc
that trucks can't get to the most
rewarding part of this section
of the dlc is getting to the very top of
the factory after getting past a ton of
enemies
and you are physically rewarded with a
bunch of ingots but it's also rewarding
to go from being extremely vulnerable on
the ground with no safety forced to seek
refuge and then earning your right to be
above all that now you can shoot your
way through the entire yard on the way
back down without a care in the world
about your surroundings
like you had to before far harbor is a
phenomenal dlc expansion for fallout 4.
everything in this dlc is meant to
create an atmosphere of mystery
horror and creepiness the first
settlement speaks of a mysterious
fog that has overtaken the entire island
that disgusting horrific creatures hide
within it the first settlement is
barricaded with guard posts its people
are very vulnerable free roaming in this
dlc has a lot of intensity since the
fall creates very
limited visibility creatures hide under
water and
one of them even disguises itself as a
water-based plant
that will pop out if you get too close a
massive
mutilated hermit crab disguises itself
as a pre-war van
to surprise attack you and there are a
ton of other examples of this type of
stuff in the dlc
especially in the early game the players
trying to survive best they can
seeking prospect and refuge whether that
be a major locations ruins of a pre-war
house
or the best thing they have around them
such as behind a rock
this is especially influenced by refuge
containing supplies
ammo money etc to help the player get an
edge on their environment
you can use prospect and refuge to give
a sense of intensity
fear for the player's life to create a
sense of survival
to make a great open world like fallout
you can't only depend on these very
technical elements
this video only covers some of what goes
into making level design like fallouts
many other aspects influence level
design the most
obvious being the gameplay itself and it
can get really complicated
devs have to iterate over and over until
the level design works best with all the
other systems in the game
honestly what entices me to explore and
fall out most is the narrative and
aesthetic of fallout itself the world is
so interesting and mysterious i easily
expect
to find interesting things like i have
in the past with
other fallout games you can bring
attention to things all day but you have
to make those things
interesting pleasing to the eye fallout
3 is a game i grew up with i played it
tens and tens of times i was obsessed
with it
sucked into the fallout world the
aesthetic of fallout especially that and
fallout 3 is mainly what brought my
attention to the game in the first place
fallout's immersive atmospheric
aesthetic
is extremely salient which might be
something i can focus on
more in a future video lastly like i
have explained
in many other videos a good game has
narrative focus
meaning everything from gameplay to
level design should
complement and extend the narrative
every example i gave in this video
was level design extending and or
presenting
the narrative to or for the player
you
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