Holistic Level Design in Dishonored 2 (immersive sim GDC talk)

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An updated KZbin version of my GDC 2017 talk on Holistic Level Design in Dishonored 2.
If you like this video, please consider helping me make more (and join our Discord community!) by supporting the Patreon: / stevelee_gamedev
00:00 - Intro
02:31 - Part 1a: Affordances
06:55 - Part 1b: Player Intentionality
12:54 - How Intentionality affects perception of Linearity
14:43 - Intentionality, Immersion and Inception
15:59 - Part 2: World Building
21:38 - Saying things about us as people
24:05 - Part 3: Interactive Narrative
27:50 - Obeying and Rebelling in Half Life 2
32:24 - Conclusions
This video is part of my Talking About Level Design video series, which I've collected into this playlist: • Talking About Level De...
#leveldesign #dishonored #gamedesign

[@idoppiaggidiaristarco4184]

Man, I want you to know that the Dishonored Series has one of the best level design ever made. I’ve played each one of them a hundred times and I can’t get bored yet. Well done! I just want you to know that you guys made a piece of art.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

That’s awesome to hear, much appreciated 👍

[@LeateqOfficial]

even as a non dev i can appreciate all the work you have done dishonored 2 has one of the best levels i've played

[@thebulletkin8393]

Been getting into games like these recently, Gloomwood really got me thinking about level design more as it just feels so fluid and fun to play around with. So thankful for your content!

[@1cedragon]

This is no doubt one of the best talks on level design (and game design in general) that I've ever watched. Thank you so much for your work!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Wow that's great to hear - thanks :) (I'm happy with it too, and am glad I took the time to do my video version of it)

[@C0bblers]

I've been gaming 40 years and Dishonored 2 is a master piece and my favorite game, thank you so much for making it as amazing as it is.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

I only played a small part in it (as one of about 120+ people in the team) but cheers Mark, appreciated :)

[@muzboz]

Just... exactly what Itzura said. :D

[@chubbyninja3000]

fantastic video. would really love to see more breakdowns of levels from other games or even more dishonored level break downs.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Noted, and glad you like the video, cheers 👍

[@helpumuch6887]

While watching your videos I’ve realized why I dislike so many copy paste games that are out there. Y’all are truly masters of your craft and have made me appreciate games in a different way

[@Goozeeeee]

What a wealth of info. Interesting and well presented, why doesn’t this have more views???

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Haha I agree, it’s a disgrace! (Glad you like the video, cheers)

[@gourdbox]

Excellent stuff, thank you. Love the mccloud comic book mention at the end. I keep an extra copy of that book around to give to people who haven’t yet read it!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Haha that's a noble cause - amazing book. And glad you liked the vid / talk :)

[@GeoffPlays]

Oooh I didn't know one of the D2 level designers was talking about the game on youtube!! This is awesome! Dishonored is my all time favorite series, and the second game especially is my favorite for its depth. The brilliant marriage of world building/story telling and level design is just *chef's kiss*. Here's hoping for more brilliant spaces to explore in Dishonored 3 someday! 1800's World's Fair level when? =p

[@rahulraghu4928]

I just know that this video will get quoted one day in a future Hbomberguy video called “Dishonored 2 is great and here’s why”

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Haha, so long as he gives me a proper shoutout, sounds good to me

[@shinjinanahara]

Yet another excellent video with a good mix of theory and examples. I first came across Understanding Comics at university whilst studying film and it's a great book. The Dishonored series is one of my favorites. I would love to see more breakdowns on different levels in that series or other games in general.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Cheers Shinji, glad you like the video (and Understanding Comics). I have a few ideas for ways of making LD breakdown videos, we'll see :)

[@nicudelpapa4056]

Loved the video and how you treat these concepts, thank you for your work ❤

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Great to hear you liked it, cheers :)

[@etistyle96]

thx. I recently played the last of us part one and this idea of interactive narrative really kicked in this game.

[@Merevarine]

Awesome talk, awesome video. Thank you so much, Steve!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Cheers Irina!

[@atcolombini]

Very interesting and useful video, thank you! I spent a lot of time with a notebook solving the Jindosh Lock without even walking into other parts of the level. And then, after unlocking it, I proceeded to walk around the level and get other solutions as well, in part for completion and and but also becaus the idea of ignoring content so many people worked so hard to make.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

I'm in awe of the people who sat down and figured it out, because I'm no good at that kind of puzzle :) (It wasn't me who came up with it btw - it was Christophe Carrier, the level design director). Nice to hear that you did feel like you wanted to see the level regardless. And I hope solving it still felt satisfying!

[@atcolombini]

@@stevelee_gamedev I'm awful with those puzzles but I had to try (and also had a lot of time to figure it out). Carrying the Overseer to Paolo undetected felt great! And I love exploring every corner of immersive sims. Thank you for your awsome job!

[@valia]

Very good content, thank you. Have been making games for 7 years and still feel I know very litte.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Even if there's always a lot more to learn, I hope you feel like you've made progress over the years! And thanks, glad you like the video(s) :)

[@muzboz]

Thanks for revisiting this talk in a new format Steve. Nice one!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

You're welcome, glad you like it 👍

[@kameronbarger2052]

Super helpful, especially when attempting to apply these ideas to my current school project.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Great to hear - cheers Kameron, and good luck with your project 👍

[@jeanfouche3904]

30 minutes gone in an instant : great video !

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Great to hear, hope it was useful 👍

[@NZgoblin]

Such a well done video 👏

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Cheers, glad you liked it :)

[@ProfLL]

Thank you for an excellent, insightful video!

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Glad you liked it, cheers :)

[@inchworm9311]

wow this was a smart video. got me excited to make some better levels. great work

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Great to hear, and thanks 👍

[@gamedev4032]

Interesting talk, I don't like immersive sims myself but some of the concepts could apply to any game. However, I think that there's a big unspoken AAA bias on most of the popular level and game designers on KZbin who talk a lot about immersive sims, open worlds, systemic emergent gameplay. I think that it does a huge disservice to indie game devs who are looking up to these KZbinrs while also being told to avoid overscoping. The things that make some big budget game like Breath of the Wild popular are often exactly the ones that you need to avoid like the plague if you ever hope to actually finish and release your game. And even if you manage to implement some of these ideas successfully, you would never have been able to produce enough content for these systems to really be useful.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Hm - while I understand where you're coming from, (and I definitely intend on doing a video about the importance of managing scope sometime), to be honest I'm not sure I agree that it's a "huge disservice" to indie devs, talking about game design principles in big games - there are lots of valid reasons to do it. We do it to "talk" to other AAA devs; we do it to talk to fans of AAA games, and we do it knowing that the design principles employed in larger games can always influence and inspire the design of indie games (immersive sim influenced indie games include Gone Home, Eldritch, Quadrilateral Cowboy, The Blackout Club, etc). I think it's kinda down to individuals and teams to gauge what they want to do, what to be influenced by, what to take on and what to avoid? :) Anyway, like I say I appreciate where you're coming from, and definitely agree that many of these ideas are hard to do with in a typical small team game. Thanks for the thoughtful reply, and glad you found the talk interesting 👍

[@gamedev4032]

@@stevelee_gamedev My comment was worded too strongly. Videos describing techniques used in AAA games are still interesting and useful, just a little bit overrepresented on KZbin. It seems harder to find tips that can be applied to smaller productions. Your serie on how to make a Half Life 2 level was very instructive. Keep up the good work.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

@@gamedev4032 No worries :) Cheers!

[@theoofth]

9:39 the thanos of dishonored

[@ORANOID]

Very cool video, thank you! I want to ask, what high school education you had when you employed to arkane? I have heard, that some people couldn't get a vise there because of education.

[@stevelee_gamedev]

I had a university degree in game design fromTeesside university in England, and because I applied to work at Arkane before stupid bullshit Brexit happened, visas weren't a problem for me. People from England were able to move to France with no problems because of free movement within the EU (I also moved to Poland 5 years earlier, to work at People Can Fly). Hope this helps, and that visa stuff doesn't hold you back. Glad you like the video!

[@ORANOID]

@@stevelee_gamedev thank you!

[@susu5331]

It is interesting how many modern big releases suffer from weak intentionality but not all break immersion, recent Assassin's Creed games and the original Layers of Fear had a lot of issues with example 1 and 2, as a result they don't really feel all that polished to play despite being very polished visually. Dark Souls on the other hand suffer from all 3 examples, but at least for Dark Souls 1 many players really immersed themselves into the game world and feel the loneliness the devs are trying to convey.

[@patrick_h_lauke]

Great video (though i'll admit that your weird pronunciation of "linear" kept jumping out at me ;) )

[@stevelee_gamedev]

Haha someone else brought this up to me a while ago. Now I'm off to watch some videos on how to pronounce it properly...

[@patrick_h_lauke]

@@stevelee_gamedev more like "linny ah". anyway, sorry, felt tight to nitpick what was otherwise great stuff (came here from twitter via the video about the level you submitted to arkane). always fascinating to see these sorts of breakdowns

[@dongxx]

There is no such thing as an immersive Sim stop it