Alright, I've got this prototype for a sidescroller in place. I've got a character, a leader of a gang in a futuristic city fo vice and crime and you get the picture. While meeting with an associate on another side of this city, he gets phoned by one of his gang luitenants that says a rival gang is holding some important gang/family members of yours hostage. You must then race against town to save those important to you. This is a semi-dark kind of atmosphere, and I'm about ready to start work on the design document. Does anyone have some idea pertaining to various level themes? I want to try to come up with atleast ten levels, and ideas in place would be things like a giant skyscraper level, a rooftop level, and a sewer level. Any suggestions at all really would be great. Thanks! -IV

Streets level
Police department level
Industrial Park level
Park level
Slums level
Entertainment District (i.e. broadway)

Red light district
Financial center
Construction site
Parking garage
City park

Obligatory Abandoned Underground Genetic Research Laboratory?

The Docks
Slums
Sewer System
Corporate Office
A Yacht
Train Graveyard
Subway Station


I wonder how you will pull these levels off if you are making a sidescroller. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Thoughtful responses so far. But it raises an interesting question:

Do you design the story around previously fleshed-out level themes? Or should the levels arise from the demands of the story?

It reminds of the game Thief: The Dark Project (Looking Glass Studios), and its sequel, Thief: The Metal Age. The first had missions designed to support story elements, while the sequel attempted to shape story actions around premediated level/mission designs (I say "attempted", even though the consensus is that Looking Glass did a successful job of it).

TraderJack, I like the 2-D side scroller approach - maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but I feel that side-scrollers still warrant some veritable gameplay merit.

-Razorguts

Quote:Original post by Razorguts
Thoughtful responses so far. But it raises an interesting question:

Do you design the story around previously fleshed-out level themes? Or should the levels arise from the demands of the story?

It reminds of the game Thief: The Dark Project (Looking Glass Studios), and its sequel, Thief: The Metal Age. The first had missions designed to support story elements, while the sequel attempted to shape story actions around premediated level/mission designs (I say "attempted", even though the consensus is that Looking Glass did a successful job of it).

TraderJack, I like the 2-D side scroller approach - maybe it's just nostalgia talking, but I feel that side-scrollers still warrant some veritable gameplay merit.

-Razorguts

Very wise insight indeed! See, I'm trying to lay off making my sidescroller very plot heavy, so I decided that I wouldn't lay down too much back story and such because it might bog down production. Now that it's time to flesh out a story-flow for the game, I'm trying to create a large, diverse group of setting from which to build my settings. So I do think I am being safe and taking the "environments based on story" approach, but before I design this story, I want to have diverse environments in mind. It would suck to realize that I've designed a game which only have room for a couple of level. I'm just trying to get my concpets in line so I can know when my margin is.

And thank you! As for the gameplay, I think I can solidly say that I'll be able to deliver quality gaming. Even though this is my first attempt at a large project, I ahve a good team behind me, and some good programming tools to work with.

Quote:Slums
Sewer System
Train Graveyard
or
Subway Station
Construction site
City park
Industrial Park level
Streets level

Thanks guys. These are great suggestions, and will probably each see some screen time! Great stuff! I bet that city park ina dark neighborhood with some creepy illumination at night would be nice.

Quote:The Docks
Corporate Office
A Yacht
Airport
China Town
Red light district
Entertainment District (i.e. broadway)

These are.. well, out-of-the-box kind of ideas. I'm not sure how I'll squeeze those in, but I will certainly take a close look for potential.

Thanks everyone for your contibution. Check out my DevJournal for progress on this project.

-IV