Level design is a funny thing.

I studied architecture at university, and when I told people I made games as a hobby, they would say something like “oh, well architecture and games must have so much in common.”

I can see similarities, and you definitly use the same language and processes, but in many ways, games are much more machiavelian in their aproach to guiding players. (not even getting into crap like lootboxes and gambling)

When I started designing the hub levels of Desert Child, I quickly realised a traditional layout for a city not only wouldn’t make narrative sense, but would actually be boring and mechanically detrimental.

After some reading and thinking, I decided to look at 21st century supermarket design as a base for how to direct players around the hub cities. Also, narrativly, I decided to hone in on some extreme visions of what a city with flying cars and a fresh start might look like.

The best image I could find, really!

Obviously, not all of these goals apply to Desert Child, I’m not trying to entice players with a sense of freshness by using pixelated produce, but many of the small psychological quirks of the human brain are interesting to experiment with in trying to coax players around a level in a certain way.

Like the comparison to architecture, I realised that level design in this situation really only shared a top-level similarity to urban design, and in a lot of cases, I would have to devise my own method by which to design the hub, both as a game space and as a story space. (though I try to see these two things as not mutually exclusive goals)

One aspect of the modern city that I kind of toiled over, is the inherent re-use and redevelopment of land and areas. Cities like London are in-fact ancient spaces that have been built on top of themselves over and over for hundreds of years. I’ve decided to run with this idea that humans don’t do this accidentally, and that we find value and comfort in the reuse of our shared spaces. Additionally, in the world of Desert Child, it is even more pertinent, as the abandonment of Earth was a result of a lack of this kind of recycling.

The city of New Olympia is located on Mars, in the shadow of the mountain, Olympus Mons, in the year 2071. The city is relatively young, but has grow so fast that parts of the city almost feel like they have been trampled over by a need to expand and redevelop the space to house a growing number of people.

I’m trying to incorporate the silhouettes of structures you might see in Rome or Athens, monoliths that people have had to build roads around and re-purpose as places of congregation. The difference in Desert Child, is that these are not ancient structures, but simply shapes in a city that will soon be reabsorbed and reused by it’s citizenry. I guess I’m asking the player to accept this real change in human behavior and values, that people now will not view a structure as static and “finished”, but constantly evolving and being reused.

A bridge I’m working on right now.

Well, I could probably wank on about this forever, but since I’m not showing much artwork, I should probably end it. Here are a couple of cool things to check out:

The Design of Everyday Things - Don Norman
101 Things I learned In Architecture School - Matthew Frederick
Block’hood (Game) - Plethora-Project LLC, Devolver Digital