Dark Souls / Souls-Franchise Map & World-Design

Klaus Hustle

Hey there,

i am a huge Fan of the Souls-Series, including Bloodborne ofc.

I am wondering how they approach their awesome level-design, does anybody here have a clue? I find this stuff, especially with all this connected buildings and stuff so hard to draw.. i mostly try to design something in iso-view, or trying it with a plain map in top-view. But it's harder then i thought. I could also try to build very rough forms in 3D and design it that way.

But i would really love to know how they are doing it. I cant find anything related  

Maybe someone here knows or heard about it, cheers!

Skinpop

what I know is that miyazaki did all the level design for bloodborne on his own, and I think that shows. 

divide and conquer. my approach would be to build gameplay sections, then glue them together. keep verticality in mind. think about aesthetics after you have the sections ready. i'm only an amateur though.

Klaus Hustle

was'nt your post longer originally?  

so, what u meant was, building interesting buildings & places and link (glue?) them together right? yeah, sounds good, think it's best done in 3D.

basically, im still looking for the best approach that lets the creativity flow. and i see a lot of creativity and "soul" in miyazakis work!

pangaea

Here is a map viewer of dark souls.
http://kayin.moe/?p=2218
You should look at the painted world of ariamis, which is the best level in dark souls.

On Miyazaki he copies a lot from Berserk, D&D and ICO. 

You might want to check out http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/tag/dark-souls/ and read through some of his posts.

You might also want to read Berserk http://mangasaurus.com/view/42478-01213725 (NSFW). 

Jonas Ronnegard

Skinpop said:

what I know is that miyazaki did all the level design for bloodborne on his own, and I think that shows. 

divide and conquer. my approach would be to build gameplay sections, then glue them together. keep verticality in mind. think about aesthetics after you have the sections ready. i'm only an amateur though.

After a lot of experience with Japanese developers I know that when ever a japanese company say that "this guy did all the art, this guy did all the design" etc the most possible truth is the opposite, not saying that's the truth in this case, but it's worth remembering, there are many japanese developers that have god status in japan as well as western countries but often almost haven't touched the development of the games they are known for, it is just better for pr and business to lift up one person.

Klaus Hustle

pangaea said:

Here is a map viewer of dark souls.
http://kayin.moe/?p=2218
You should look at the painted world of ariamis, which is the best level in dark souls.

On Miyazaki he copies a lot from Berserk, D&D and ICO. 

You might want to check out http://www.ultimaratioregum.co.uk/game/tag/dark-souls/ and read through some of his posts.

You might also want to read Berserk http://mangasaurus.com/view/42478-01213725 (NSFW). 

this stuff looks like pure gold to me lol, im looking forward to read through this!

and i know berserk, i watched some of the anime episodes and all 3 movies, but i think the stuff that might happen right after the last movie could be much more interesting than everything else. didnt get that much of a dark souls vibe out of it, probably i should give the manga a try.

passerby

If you view the entire world of DS1 in a map viewer, it is a very interesting study how all the shortcuts make a large world fairly easily traveled.

What i find impressive in DS1 is that after playing through a area once, its layout sticks in your mind. The game has no map and a rather large world, but i know my way perfectly around every area by memory which says something to the design of it,

Cibo

In DS1 you can open doors or lift down ladders so you can use the same "checkpoint" twice. You start at a bonefire, fight your way, maybe defeat a boss and you find a ladder and landing at your starting checkpoint. Now you can always use the ladder to start you way behind the defeated boss to your next location and so on.
Maybe they designed the World first and the Bonefires and shortcuts later to relax the level design.

Skinpop

Jonas Ronnegard said:

After a lot of experience with Japanese developers I know that when ever a japanese company say that "this guy did all the art, this guy did all the design" etc the most possible truth is the opposite, not saying that's the truth in this case, but it's worth remembering, there are many japanese developers that have god status in japan as well as western countries but often almost haven't touched the development of the games they are known for, it is just better for pr and business to lift up one person.

for sure, I agree with you. if I remember correctly the info came from ENB talking about his interview with miyazaki in one of his videos, so I'm inclined to believe there is some truth to it.