pubs
Aderack: I’d love to see a game with completely subjective level design. We sometimes get this in cases where, say, the inside of a building — after a transition — is way bigger than the outside, or where the Metroid 2 map winds around and over itself (though that can be interpreted as “flattened” 3D movement around the planet).
What I mean, though, is that the reality of anything not directly in the player’s line of sight is up for grabs. Ideally, this would be executed in such a manner that the player does not necessarily notice things shifting around.
Toups: I’m not sure I get it. you mean like it’s different every time you play?
Aderack: No, I mean the only basis for reality you have is what you’re seeing at that absolute moment. If you try to retrace your steps, you may well find yourself someplace alien. Perhaps the player would be guided by there being one thread of consistent reality to follow.
Toups: kind of like silent hill but not scripted?
Aderack: Sort of.
Toups: have you played LSD d00d?
Aderack: No.
Toups: that’s… apparently what it’s like? I haven’t played it myself, either
Aderack: I mean, simple example: You walk down a corridor and turn the corner. There’s something you don’t want to deal with around the corner, so you turn back — except when you do so, the corridor no longer leads back exactly where you expect it to. Everything you do is moving “forward” in some way.
Toups: yeah. I feel like there’s a game that at least has a segment like that…
Aderack: And it would all be in real-time like that.
Toups: but I can’t think of it
Aderack: There are lots of games that have parts similar to this. Lost Woods. Though I’m thinking of it being rather more subtle and surreal.
Toups: yeah
Aderack: The idea being to create anxiety. You never know where you’re going. The way that dreamspace makes no logical sense.
Toups: right. it would be kind of difficult to uh make that work in a way that’s not frustrating
Aderack: Not really all that difficult.
Aderack: I’m thinking in particular of it being sort of a FPS format. Since that would be idea, camera-wise.
Toups: you know I think there’s a DOOM level like that. maybe it was fanmade. but basically like you’re in this maze. but the paths keep changing as you cross certain lines. so when you turn around you have to go a different way. which isn’t quite the same but it’s an approximation. I have distinct memories of that sort of thing…
Aderack: Sort of, yeah. I’m really thinking about an urban setting. Streets and landmarks that keep shifting.
Toups: that’d be pretty awesome, yeah
Aderack: You can stop and ask for directions, and they’re always random.
Toups: hmmmm. sort of like… this?
Aderack: There are maps you can stop and look at, at bus terminals or whatever, and they’re always just abstract enough that you can’t quite figure out where you are, yet they seem plausible. There’s never a “you are here” dot. Or maybe there is, right toward the beginning. Or if there’s an ocean walling in one side of the city. If you get on a subway or bus or whatever, none of the stops have exactly the right name. And it keeps making turns and stuff. Until you’re completely lost.
Or alternatively: level design that is set, yet which doesn’t conform to any rational design. It only makes sense in the moment.
Toups: uhh
Aderack: And it does make perfect sense when playing; it’s only when trying to think of it in broader terms that it doesn’t add up.
Toups: kind of like Half Life 2?
Aderack: Does the geometry there not add up?
Toups: not… really?
Aderack: Metroid 2 is a good example.
Toups: yeah it is
Aderack: Except, imagine it in 3D. And it being… more. Rather than some bits simply overlapping, have the entire thing irrational. Distances between things, transitions… The entire concept of space is fucked-up, though it doesn’t seem that way.
Toups: yeah
Aderack: All the better if the whole aesthetic is continually, albeit subtly, changing. And maybe if people refer to you by name, the name keeps changing. The nature of your mission is always in flux, though your immediate goal is usually clear enough. And the transitions seem natural.
It’s only when looking back that you realize how insane it all is. “How did I get on a powerboat with a leopard?” Thing is, the game would have to take itself completely seriously. Not let on that there’s anything odd happening.
Toups: haha have you played indigo prophecy
Aderack: You know. No, I’ve not.
Toups: you should
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