Autumn is nearly upon us, and with it, Halloween! What better way to celebrate the best season of the year than with a Quake mapping jam? Continue reading “Announcement: Quake Halloween Jam 2019!” →

Let’s say I’m making a level for a classic first person shooter. To start, I build an arena and add some monsters. I don’t want the player to be attacked as soon as they start the game, so I add a hallway to one side of the arena and start the player there.

Here the “E”s mark enemy monsters in the arena and the “P” is the player start in the hall.

My level is simple, but I’m happy with what I’ve built, so I invite a friend to playtest. My friend walks along the hallway, enters the arena, and alerts the monsters, all according to plan. Then things go wrong. Instead of fighting in the arena, my friend steps back into the hall and fights from the doorway as the enemies funnel in. Instead of a dynamic gun ballet of dodged projectiles and swirling destruction, my friend has turned my level into a shooting gallery: dull, safe, and slow. Continue reading “The Door Problem of Combat Design” →