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JAWOHL!
Posted By: Ferrex (Dead)Date: 10/16/01 2:31 p.m.

In Response To: ALL READ AND TRY TO ANSWER... (xs_plazma)

: A good deciding factor on how cool a game is, is how big it is, and in how
: BIG, i mean how big is the game. Is it scaled 1:1 (so in the game you'll
: get in ur warthog and travel at least 33000 miles to get around it in the
: game)...

For a while, I (sorta) agreed with this. Bigger and more = better.

However, a tag team discussion with Jaime and John, level and lead designers on Halo (respectively), made a lasting impression to the contrary.

Assume for a moment the crazy and wacky limitation of artist time (yes, I know, Microsoft has billions of dollars, they can just hire more artists!). Assuming artist time remains constant, as you increase the size of the level, you decrease the amount of love they are able to lavish on each part of the level. Even the sum total of the love is decreased, because they have to spend more time just getting the basics in there.

The same goes for us lowly level designers. Assuming a constant time frame, we can make put more into a smaller level than a larger one. Of course, there is a balancing point--a level can still be too small, so you want to nail that exact size that lets all involved parties do their best with it.

My previous stance (and continuing stance, to some degree) was that huge swaths of randomly generated terrain (populated with some hand made "detail areas") could do nothing but improve the game. To wit, infinitely large levels would be Good. However, it was convincingly argued that the uncared for, unloved random terrain would just draw attention away from the detailed areas... dilute them in a sense.

So to get to the point, you're on crack if you think "big" = "good" without any qualifiers.

RE: Your original question: the levels are big.

Cheers,
rex

Message Index



Replies:

ALL READ AND TRY TO ANSWER...xs_plazma 10/16/01 8:22 a.m.
     Re: Bigger than a bread box? [n/t]Lophan 10/16/01 9:25 a.m.
     Re: ALL READ AND TRY TO ANSWER...RAZORBACK 10/16/01 9:52 a.m.
     JAWOHL!Ferrex (Dead) 10/16/01 2:31 p.m.
           Re: JAWOHL!xs_plazma 10/16/01 4:28 p.m.
     Always remember: Quality over Quantity *NM*Fuolornis Fire Dragon 10/16/01 4:10 p.m.



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