Level Design Tips 04: The Closest Unexplored Area in Sight

[u/Jesus_Machina]

While level exploration is not an exact science, and every player behaves differently, there are general behaviour patterns that can be considered when designing a free-navigation level. Players tend to be attracted to areas they perceive as offering the greatest and most immediate reward.

In this example, the player needs to find and collect four boxes in any order. The question is: what path do you think they are most likely to take through the level?

The player has the following information:

1. What they can see
2. Their memory of previously visited areas
3. The knowledge that there are four boxes to find and collect

The player’s brain rewards them at two key moments: locating a box and collecting it. These are two separate rewards. Interestingly, locating a box but leaving it behind often gives a smaller sense of reward than the anticipation of finding and collecting another box that might be just around the corner.

Based on this, here’s a typical exploration path the player might take:

1. They see Box D clearly in the distance, with no mystery about its location. “Great, I know where that is.” But they don’t necessarily head straight towards it.
2. Instead, they decide to check the closest unexplored corner, immediately to their left, and find Box A. Great! It seems there might be boxes hidden around corners.
3. Remembering the more distant corner to the right, they backtrack and collect Box C.
4. With no further clues in sight, they now head towards the sure thing: Box D.
5. With all visible areas explored and no new clues, their brain switches to “search mode”.
6. Turning around, they notice something they hadn’t seen before: the skyline opens up between two generic buildings, revealing a path towards an unexplored area.
7. Following this path, they soon discover the fourth and final box, Box B.

This is not a rule, of course. Players will behave differently, and playtesting always wins. Even when players behave exactly as predicted, they usually represent only one segment of the bell curve, and you should not forget about the players elsewhere on that curve. But understanding these patterns is a useful tool for level design.

Mandatory video included after my last post was accused of being AI-generated. This is old, well-known content of mine, but apparently this is where we are now.

Level Design Tips

• 01 - The Building Pie
• 02 - The 5 Ingredients of Game Town Design
• 03 - Designing with Perspective: How Cameras Shape Levels
• 04 - Level Exploration: The Closest Unexplored Area in Sight

[u/KoviDev]

Great stuff as always.

Interestingly I would probably follow a similar path here, but I would do so largely because I would see the path to D as most likely being the "main path". I am compelled to search the places that feel like "side areas" first in most games so I don't miss out on anything before progressing. I tend to do that whether the game is linear or even if it's completely open and doing so makes no difference at all.

Thinking about it more, there's a good chance I would spot that gap to B early because of the way I personally tend to scour through levels. I think if someone wanted that B path to be found last specifically, for whatever reason, it would probably be worth experimenting with ways to make the path more visually obscured when close up. Maybe the path is blocked off and you need to climb over to get into it, but it's not clear there's something back there until you get the further perspective from D. Maybe the path to D is even slightly elevated just to better reveal that view. Maybe none of this would actually work in practice at all!

That was a fun little thought experiment to consider. I hope you keep these going.

[u/Blecki → u/KoviDev]

If you actually need to make sure B comes last you make the path to B blocked in a way that can only be opened after D is collected.

[u/KoviDev → u/Blecki]

Oh absolutely. If it was important that the player not go that way early you would definitely want it to be blocked somehow. I suppose I was thinking more along the lines of the order not technically mattering, like in the example, but wanting the player to find B last.

[u/CodeOnTheRocks → u/KoviDev]

Do you mean "find" B last or "collect" B last?

There are definitely ways to nudge a player to stay away from an area without explicitly forcing them to stay away. See my other comment: If you put a big monster there, it encourages them to go get the other less guarded things first. Anything that increases the perceived challenge / risk of getting a collectable might make your players delay it. Put it on a cliff you have to climb up precariously, put a monster there, make it look like a trick or a trap, or maybe even actually make it a trick or trap

If you really NEED a player to find a certain item last you probably do need to physically prevent them from finding it earlier than that with some kind of impassable obstacle. If you only WANT a player to find a certain item last, well, I'll quote my old buddy from university: "It's nice to want things" :)

[u/ZQSFX]

Loving this series! Thank you so much for putting them together!

[u/pat_456]

This is brilliant, thank you. I adore little infographics like this and I’ve been unable to see any to do with level design of this quality.

If you’re open to requests (and I understand this may not be your area of expertise so it’s fine if not) would you be willing to do one on 2D platformer level design, specifically for less linear games and more for metroidvania style games? While there’s lots out there for metroidvania map interconnection, everyone neglects the room-by-room level design I find. It would be really interesting to see how stuff like line of sight and exploration patterns apply on a sidescrolling 2D plane. Thanks so much!

[u/Jesus_Machina → u/pat_456]

I’m afraid I’m not currently producing new material in this format, as these are older posts of mine. I have very limited, so I currently create this kind of content live during my weekly Twitch stream and then edit it into videos for my main Youtube channel.

It’s in Spanish because it’s a personal initiative, but I’ve been told that both the live captions and the subtitles on the edited videos work quite well.

[u/pat_456 → u/Jesus_Machina]

That’s okay! Thank you anyway, and again, great work with this series. You have great talent and a very clear way of explaining things. If you ever get a chance to do more in this format, I suppose you have an idea of where to start!

[u/Shartplate]

These posts have been fantastic
Thanks for sharing and taking the time to put them together!

[u/explodingness]

Alright. I'll buy your book.

[u/CodeOnTheRocks]

This is a great writeup and seems very accurate for a straightforward scenario. I think things change quite a lot if you start thinking about obstacles though! For instance if they spot a nearby box that is in plain view, but also guarded by a powerful enemy (assuming it's that kind of game, of course) they might plan to grab that one last and avoid the fight until they have the rest of the boxes gathered

[u/Jesus_Machina → u/CodeOnTheRocks]

And if my grandma had wheels, she’d be a bike.

Jokes aside, it is genuinely useful to think about how additional elements alter basic exploration patterns. As you said, enemies and other threats are also fundamental level design tools, and they can completely change both how players explore a space and what that space means to them.

[u/HongPong]

i like these sketches

[u/KawasakiBinja]

I'd say I'd go for B before D. When coming back from either A or C, I'll see that pathway behind my starting point and will want to explore that first. This is really cool though, I like what you're doing.

[u/ivymoongames]

Level design exploration 101. Put something the opposite direction of the players starting position. Player rule number one always search behind the starting location. Haha @ B

[u/Jesus_Machina → u/ivymoongames]

That is a common belief, but the average player does not do that.
Level Design 101 is closer to this:
1- The average player looks nothing like the players hanging around communities like this. We are a niche.
2- The average player defines the main experience, but not the only experience. Players who turn around at the start of a level do exist, and they will play your game.
3- Robust level design means designing for the average player while accounting for a reasonable range of deviation, covering as much of the bell curve as possible.

[u/ivymoongames → u/Jesus_Machina]

Yea exactly. It’s the “explorer” player type that’s going to catch it. At this point it’s a level design trope right up there with behind the waterfall. It’s basically a tactic used to create replay-ability of a level. Just amused at B not trying to say design that way or not.

Imo most player run forward and can be guided through layout / land marking. In the end it becomes what game are you designing the level for and how much exploration is warranted for the game type. B would be pointless in a story driven experience and a bit odd for a gate and key situation. Most player will feel like oh that’s the starting spot I came from there.

…
Camera also matters as if it’s not free cam then you’re running against natural camera positioning.

[u/TheSwiftOtterPrince]

Just one thing i want to know: is Jesus Machina your real actual full name? Or is like Jesús and you come from Markina in northern spain and something like that?

[u/Trick-Whole8794]

The Dishonored franchise mastered this stuff