I keep hearing people on other sites ragging on the unoriginality of having ice levels, fire levels etc. in games, is this a big deal?

I don't think so. It really depends on the gameplay and how well the levels are made. In most cases it is fairly unimaginative but I don't mind them if they are worked into a story. It depends how big the levels are, how levels are divided (are they entire worlds or just sections of a linear story).

If you are talking about entire worlds then consider the star wars movies. Most of the planets are themed around one thing. You've got your ice planets, your jungle planets, a planet of pure lava, a planet that is all desert, another is all ash. None of them have a myriad of environments like earth does. But the series is still creative because the rest of the story, and how it moves around alot, so the viewer is not stuck on some fire world for hours.

I guess the way this related to games is that if you have a viable reason for those kind of levels then use them, but they better fit into your story. And if you do use them you had better have a variety of environments.

In the end... whether or not it's a big deal to me depends on each case. I can imagine situations where i would enjoy and be irked by such levels.

Yeah, these setting are WAY overdone, but then a lot of settings are WAY over done. Fire world, ice world, desserts, caves, sewers, castles, etc. etc. etc.

A good game to look at in regards to making very interesting and diverse settings between acts is No One Lives Forever and No One Lives Forever 2. These games are really fun shooters, but they also have some of the best level design in any game I've ever seen.

Also, in NOLF 2, you go to the "Iceworld" of Siberia and to the "Fireworld" in the interior of a volcano. The point being that you can do these types of dramatic settings without being clique.

One of the best level designs in any game is in NOLF 2. You fight a pack of female ninjas in a trailer park being ripped apart by a tornado. Brilliant and well executed.

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Original post by Ketchaval I keep hearing people on other sites ragging on the unoriginality of having ice levels, fire levels etc. in games, is this a big deal?

Uh, I dunno, do they keep buying the games despite? [rolleyes]

(Sorry, I seem to be losing patience for they who don't seem to understand "vote with your dollar.")

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Original post by Wavinator Quote: Original post by Ketchaval I keep hearing people on other sites ragging on the unoriginality of having ice levels, fire levels etc. in games, is this a big deal? Uh, I dunno, do they keep buying the games despite? [rolleyes]

It all comes down to two things 1. how it is implemented 2. marketing.

Yeah, implementation is key. Super Mario 64 is the king of totally unrelated, cliche settings. You've got an absolute ton of levels, each with some kind of theme, and the only connection between them is the fact that they exist inside painting that are contained within one castle. There were mountain summits and sunken pirate ships, and magic carpets and grassy fields and blasted deserts and blazing lava pits and mysterious pyramids and toxic caverns and soaring towers and all kinds of stock environments like that. It was absolutely brilliant.

Other games, like the Turok games, send you on a story-based adventure through adjacent levels that just happen to include a volcano, an ice field, a desert, a mountain, a tundra, a veldt, and a jungle. Horse crap. Nobody buys that, and it hurts immersion.

So if you can make it work, do it. If you really, really need to have fire worlds and ice worlds and you can't quite fit it in, rework a lot of the design. A game that's been pulled and stretched to fite the presentation over the mechanics is an ugly, clumsy thing. Redisign the presentation. Invent a world that's metaphysically dividen between fire and ice. Design dieties of fire and ice who are constantly at war, and as they gain and lose ground lava bursts forth or oceans freeze.

You're clever. I'm sure you can make it work.

Editted to remove boneheaded error. I might have missed some other ones.

[Edited by - Iron Chef Carnage on July 7, 2005 11:58:01 PM]

How about taking the game to a world filled completely with exploding barrels. ;)

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Original post by dink How about taking the game to a world filled completely with exploding barrels. ;)

heh, one of my all time favorite home-made doom ii deathmatch levels...

Don't forget the wooden crates filled with ammo and medicine. And all keys should be stored in plain sight at least ten rooms away from the door they unlock.