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Level environment progression in video games
I'd been trying to develop something like this for TV Tropes for a while--I even made a YKTTW about this a while back. But since I'm not really as big on TV Tropes these days, and with the difficulty of cutting through the clutter on YKTTW to get stuff done...well, let's try this again, on our own.
So, if you've played videogames with levels, you'll have noticed that the level settings/environments usually go in a certain order. Or whole words, if there are many, many levels.
The first levels/areas are usually grasslands, plains, or fields. Think something like generic sunny day outdoors in a park.
- World 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. (though other first levels often look similar, granted)
- World 1 (Grass Land) of Super Mario Bros. 3
- Yoshi's Island 1 in Super Mario World (SMW also features a variation where Donut Plains is actually the second major area)
- the first few levels of Yoshi's Island
- Bob-omb Battlefield in Super Mario 64
- Green Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 1
- Emerald Hill Zone in Sonic the Hedgehog 2
- level 1 of Felix the Cat
- Mushroom Way in Super Mario RPG (open grassy area with small hills)
- the Grassland biome in Terraria (where you always start the game)
- Even Sector 1 (SRX) in the space station in Metroid Fusion is supposed to simulate a grassy environment.
Then, shortly after, you might get a forest level of some sort. Not jungle, though; temperate forest, unless the game is set in a tropical locale. (Jungle comes later.) This happens in:
- Yoshi's Island 2 in Super Mario World
- the Mad Forest in Castlevania 3
- later levels in World 1 in Yoshi's Island (think Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy)
- Rose Way in Super Mario RPG (a marsh-like area with denser vegetation)
- Mega Man ZX has a slight variation on this as Area A, the starting area, is itself a forest.
Early-mid game will usually feature such locales as the following: snowy areas, mountains, underwater, caverns/sewers, urban/industrial areas. Possibly a jungle, if it's not too filled with nasty beasts. Or a desert, if it's not too filled with quicksand and weird physics. Examples:
- Excerpt 3: Industrial and Excerpt 4: Deadscape (mountains) in Scurge: Hive
- World 2 (Desert Land) and World 3 (Water Land) in Super Mario Bros. 3
- World 3 in Yoshi's Island (jungle)
- Sector 2 (TRO) in Metroid Fusion (jungle, could count as forest in above category)
- Areas B and D in Mega Man ZX (urban)
- Desert biome in Terraria
In the later middle portion of the game, you might get the following sorts of areas: ice (usually with slipperyness), jungle (with more exotic/difficult enemies), sky (with lots of bottomless pits), mines (possibly with dark areas, though darkness-themed areas are usually late in the game). Snowy mountains might appear here. Examples include:
- Jungle biome in Terraria - lots of nasty, nasty creatures, especially in the underground jungle
- World 5 (Sky World) and World 6 (Ice World) in Super Mario Bros. 3
- Excerpt 5 (Mines) in Scurge: Hive (with "blackout basement" effects)
- Phazon Mines in Metroid: Prime
- Nimbus Land in Super Mario RPG (even though there's no platforming here)
- the Crystal Pillar in Super Valis IV is rather ice-like in appearance.
- Abandoned Mine in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and Mine of Judgement in Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Dark areas, when they happen, tend to be late-game areas. By dark areas I mean ones with a darkness theme, often complete with interface-based darkness. Examples:
- World 8 (Dark World) in Super Mario Bros. 3
- Sector 6 (NOX) in Metroid Fusion
- the Chamber of Extinction in La-Mulana (has "blackout basement" effects)
- the original Blackout Basement level in Kremkroc Industries in Donkey Kong Country (set in an industrial area)
Lava areas are typically late-game areas, but there are frequent exceptions (they're just rarely ever early-game areas):
- Tower of Execution in Castlevania Legacy of Darkness (late)
- Barrel Volcano in Super Mario RPG (late)
- the Underworld in Terraria (late)
- Donkey Kong Country 2 has scattered lava levels throughout the game.
- La-Mulana's two lava areas are one early-mid-game (Inferno Cavern) and one late-game (Tower of Ruin).
- Lethal Lava Land and Bowser in the Fire Sea in Super Mario 64 (mid-game)
Void or void-like areas are almost always late-game, generally the final dungeon. Their otherworldliness practically screams "very definitely final dungeon". Closely related to dark areas.
- the Chaos Realm in Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow and Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
- Smithy's Factory in Super Mario RPG (a combo void/industrial area)
- the Cleft of Dimension a.k.a. the Interdimensional Rift, and then the Void, in Final Fantasy V
Areas that don't have definite appearance points:
- Ruins - these could appear anywhere, depending on how the ruins relate to the plot. If they're just a random choice of setting, they could be in any level. If they are the ruins of the player-character's hometown, or the antagonists' former base, they're usually first. If they're foreboding ruins with a nasty secret, they're often later.
- Gimmick/event areas - things like burning buildings, carnival ride areas, and levels themed on some oddity.
- Fortresses and towers - usually not at the beginning of the game, but can often appear at dramatically important points, and frequently appear at the end.
- Nighttime areas - Sometimes, some areas are set against darker backgrounds, implying nighttime. This is irregular and can happen anywhere the context demands it (or where the designers felt like putting it there).
Note: Castlevania games that take place within the title castle have their own area sequence quirks, but do not follow these standard trends, as they do not use external locales.
Let's do a few case studies:
Super Mario Bros. 3: Worlds 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, and 8 have been mentioned here. 4 (Giant Land) and 7 (Pipe Land) are gimmicks.
Super Mario RPG: Mushroom Way and Bandit's Way are your grassy areas. Kero Sewers is sewers, Rose Way is a swampy area, and Forest Maze is a temperate forest. Then the Moleville Mines are featured before the underwater area (the Sea and the Sunken Ship), but they are followed by a mountainous area (Land's End) that leads to a sky area (Nimbus Land) and a lava area (Barrel Volcano). The game finishes with Bowser's Keep (a castle), and then a very definitely final dungeon set in a void-like area. Booster Tower and Star Hill are kinda like random grab bag areas with respect to these trends, that just fit into the game.
Scurge: Hive: the first area is a prologue level on your own ship. The second area is just the lab base itself which is overrun with creepy crawlies and rogue robots. The third area is an industrial area, the fourth a mountainous area, and the fifth area is a mines area. However, the sixth area is, rather oddly, a forest area (albeit a very dangerous one).
Metroid Fusion: the generic sci-fi high-tech BSL general area surrounds all the individual sectors. The sectors are Sector 1 (SRX) - a grassy/cavey area, Sector 2 (TRO) - a tropical forest area, Sector 3 (PYR) - a desert with fiery enemies, Sector 4 (AQA) - a water area, Sector 5 (ARC) - a snow/ice/cold area, and Sector 6 (NOC) - a dark area. So this is basically two early-game areas, two early-mid-game areas, and two mid-late game areas.
Magic Knight Rayearth (SNES RPG): You start off the game in an open field. Your first dungeon is a forest. Then you get a gimmicky/event dungeon. Then you have an underwater dungeon, a sky dungeon, and a volcano dungeon. The game finishes with another gimmick dungeon and then a castle. So nothing out of the ordinary.
Mega Man ZX: Area A (where you start) is a forest area. Area B is an industrial area. Area D is a nighttime urban area on a raised street. Area E is a power plant (i.e. industrial). Area F is a lake (water), Area G is a gimmick area (bunch of buildings on fire, or later, burned out). Area H is an abandoned amusement park (gimmick), Area I is a confinement location (and is like ruins), Area J is another underwater area, Area K is a lava and mine area, Area L is an abandoned research lab (ruins/industrial), and Area O is urban. The final dungeon is a tower. The bonus dungeon is ruins. (Areas C and X don't really count as they are peaceful areas filled with NPCs.)
Sonic 1: Green Hill Zone is grassy fields peppered with lakes. Marble Zone is ancient ruins peppered with lava (a bit early, eh?). Spring Yard Zone is a gimmicky zone with urban motifs. Labyrinth Zone is a water area. Star Light Zone is a nighttime urban area. Scrap Brain Zone is a fortress of traps.
Post some other games' area lists. Do they generally follow these trends? What exceptions are notable? Should my descriptions of these trends be tweaked?
Comments
I think you've hit upon a pattern here, but it's too narrow. Games often shift between environments, but I think the order you've pointed out is more applicable to long-gone eras of gaming. These days, environmental shift depends heavily on the genre and storyline of a game, not to mention any precedent set if it's part of a series. The Legend of Zelda forest/fire/water trio is a good example, but then you have examples where the environment shifts more organically; think Skyrim, where snowy mountains give way to lush, temperate forests very naturally.
The pattern is further complicated by man-made structures. A medieval city might have a castle, the township itself, sewers, dungeons and more. Even a castle on its own can contain very diverse environments in the world of vidya, and then you have places such as science labs which handwave anything contained within them.
Perhaps the best way to figure this kind of thing out is in relation to a baseline? If your characters start in a cosy town with lots of greenery, then it stands to reason that a volcanic or desert environment would be very confronting, whereas an ice-themed environment might be more comfortable as an implicitly natural part of the hometwon environment. Darkness-themed and void-themed late game areas are confronting because they represent the violation of life's basic rules, but that doesn't mean much if your character is a void demon themselves. In that case, it might be the icy environment that is most confronting in relation to the baseline, as a place devoid of both lush vegetation and the in-game familiarity of the void environment.
Marble Zone is an industrial level, not ruins? News to me. And it is interesting when certain level types appear "out of order"-- like, say, in Sonic Unleashed where the urban and jungle levels are the penultimate areas of the game, or Wind Waker where the first proper dungeon is fire-themed Dragon Roost Cavern.
I'd describe it in much more general terms, like what Alex is getting at...
More like a difficulty curve, but with environmental ominousness or something along those lines?
Oops, I derped with Marble Zone. I think I was confusing it with Star Light Zone or Chemical Plant Zone or something, for a moment.
@ClockworkUniverse: Yeah, something like that. It follows two patterns, one of increasing ominousness/danger/unfamiliarity, and the other of increasing gameplay difficulty, which is often tied to the first because it makes dramatic sense or something, I guess.
@MadassAlex: This might fit more of what you're talking about as far as more story-driven games go:
Ys: the Oath in Felghana (Ys III: Wanderers from Ys?): mine, temple ruins, fire caves, dark mines, snow mountain, snow/ice caves, castle, castle dungeon, clock tower, evil shrine, evil tower.
That said, the pattern I cited definitely has value beyond just being easy gameplay design tradition. Most people have seen grasslands and forests before, so they feel more familiar. Jungles, deserts, and caves are less familiar. Snow-capped mountains with icy bridges, rocky islands surrounded by lava fields, and abandoned mines in complete darkness are even more exotic, while things like pocket dimensions and voidspaces are (to some extent literally) out of this world. The way these things work fit a general progression from the familiar to the unfamiliar, and thus a general narrative of exploration.
Buildings, especially major buildings like castles and fortresses, tend to be (or have been) seats of power in real life, so it makes sense that climactic showdowns tend to happen in places like those.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideogameSettings
Just splice it somewhere into this article, I'd say.
Does it work only on Japanese stuff?
I don't know; I'm not familiar enough with western games in general. Technically Scurge: Hive is a western game but not really one independent of the console platformer tradition. I would cite Juka and the Monophonic Menace but that game is practically a fraternal twin of Scurge: Hive.
Anyone here familiar with, say, WRPGs that could offer some input on how they order things?
Or maybe games like, say, Monty on the Run or Giana Sisters?
I think Dungeon Siege fits the pattern.
While I might be wrong about this, I think Banjo-Tooie kind of follows that pattern by starting with a grassy field stage (Spiral Mountain) and a forest-like one (Mayhem Temple) and ending with an ice/fire level (Hailfire Peaks) and a sky one (Cloud Cuckooland). It is not really a perfect fit though since you do not necessarily have to beat all the stages linearly to get to the final boss (who is in a tower stage) and the middle stages are all over the place.
I guess Banjo-Kazooie mixes all of that up even more, since it has a forest/grassland level near the end (Click Clock Wood).
Anyway, this is not to trash on glennmagusharvey's idea. I honestly am not sure what to make of this either way. Maybe Alex is right about it more being about having a general baseline for levels.
Rayman Origins has awesome levels. My favorite is the Gourmand Land. It has two sides.
The first is a surface level which is the Slippy Slidey Ice Land, but with Ice Cream and other Frozen Treats, and also some fruit salad thingies.
Then you get the underground part, which is the Lava Land, but instead of Lava, it's boiling hot salsa, and there are giant boilers and pinatas.
More videogames should have food levels
Rayman Origins mostly has one setting: acid trip. It might look like there's consistent themes for a few levels at a time, but it's really just the psychoactive effects taking hold as you descend into Lovecraftian immemorial lunacy.
I mean seriously, who the fuck comes up with this?
French people. And some Moroccans too
Rayman has always been about acid trip platforming.
^^^Maybe it's a margarita on the rocks level or something.
Nah, it's arctic fruit. But for some reason you have sassy forks that look like they came right off The View.
Yeah like I said, the first part of the level is artic fruit smoothies and ice cream. Second part of the level is boiling hot salsa.