Game Design 2Lecture 8: Layering & Separation

http://gcugd2.com david.farrell@gcu.ac.uk

2013

Notes...

• Coursework online!

• Tutorial feedback

• Read Tufte’s book chapters! I have a copy that I can bring to tuts -& there are copies in library.

Reading

• Tufte pages 53 - 66

• http://bit.ly/l4dlight (Left 4 Dead use of light)

• http://bit.ly/worldofgootour (video)

Flatland

• Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions

• 1884 Novel by Edwin A. Abbott

• Contemplates how world would look to lesser and greater dimensions

Triangle in 2D

Triangle in 1D

Sphere in 1D

3D represented in 2D

Data Visualisation

• Life is navigated in 3D

• Mathematics can portray xD

• All(most all) of our displays are 2D

• How do we map data to 2D?

• One technique is layering and separation

“Escaping this flatland is the essential task of envisioning information”

Tufte, Envisioning Information, Page 13

Information

• simple or complicated

• detailed or sparse

• analogue or digital

• NEVER confusing or cluttered

Design

• understandable or confusing

• clear or cluttered

• the point of design is to reveal detail and complexity

• the data is never at fault

• the user is never at fault

What are the layers here?

Colour defines the relationship

! "An undifferentiated, unlayered surface results jumbled up, blurry, incorherent, chaotic with unintentional optical art. What we have here is a failure to communicate” - Tufte p58

Negative Space

1 + 1 = 3

Harmonising Elements• Careful layout diminishes 1 + 1 = 3 clutter

• Avoid ‘active negative space’

• Words have fewer descenders than ascenders (so safer to put above a line)

• Curved text is hard to read

Box Plots

Subtle Differences

• All differences mean something

Games Examples

• Games use layering & separation to communicate with player.

• HUD is layered on top of game world

• Games like Half Life 2 & Shadow of the Colossus foreshadow future events through use of background layers (even though we don’t use the phrase “layers” in this way often)

Madden 10

Championship Manager

Left 4 Dead

World of Goo