Written by: Wu Ming
封面：《RKGK/Rakugaki》Steam 商店页面
introduction
Developed by Wabisabi Games and published by Gearbox, RKGK/Rakugaki (RKGK), a single-player 3D platformer, tells the adventure story of the protagonist who rebels against repressive rule through graffiti. The game uses graffiti as the content carrier, with comics and cyberpunk as the main art style, combining extremely high saturation colors with graffiti, coupled with passionate music, to bring players a distinct sensory stimulation. At the same time, the cultural attributes of graffiti and cyberpunk also echo the core of the story, and the synergy of narrative, art, and music constitutes the "outer packaging" of this game.
Excellent and creative level design
As a platforming game, RKGK's main selling point is the level design, and the development team has a full understanding of its own size and player base. As a result, the development team put most of their efforts into level design, and the deeper they went into the game, the more eye-catching the design became.
From the developer's point of view, this work embodies the basic design content such as macro circulation layout and micro level layout, as well as advanced design content such as creative integration, gameplay mechanism, and rhythm control, which can be used as a typical reference for learning level design knowledge. Let's take a look at a few of the game's most distinctive levels as examples to create a different kind of challenging levels while creating other gaming experiences.
The level is a means of verifying the player's actions (the performance of the protagonist), so it must be designed based on the character's abilities, so it is necessary to clarify what abilities the protagonist has first.
As you can see in the image above, in addition to the basic walking and jumping (in this case, regular moves and one jump), the player also has a number of additional abilities, such as double jumps, sprinting, etc. It's these extra abilities that give room to the level design.
After clarifying the protagonist's abilities, the smallest units of the level design should be listed according to the protagonist's abilities, so that when facing complex levels, the designer can better analyze which corresponding challenges the designer has set for which protagonist's abilities.
Once you have made the above preparations, you can disassemble and analyze the target level (interested readers can apply or supplement the module to analyze the game level). The main point is to follow the principle of "experience first", after reviewing the level experience, backward what means the designer used to create these experiences, and then take the means of replication analysis to try to restore the target experience, and finally use the restoration degree of the experience to test the accuracy of the analysis, and continuously optimize it.
Blindfold levels
From an experiential perspective, the blindfold level may not be the most difficult in the game, but it must be one of the most unique and fun. As the name suggests, the biggest feature of this level is "blindness": the map is pitch black, and the player can only determine the environment by relying on a specific light source, the location of the props (the items have luminous properties), or the graffiti that spreads through the "mind control screen" after spraying.
Although the levels are difficult, unlike other levels that focus on the action, this level is more about exploration and the decompression of painting the walls with spray cans step by step.
At the beginning of the level, the system lures the player into a deep pit with a prop spray can, resulting in a relatively ceremonial opening. At the same time, it also brings multiple emotions such as doubt, surprise, and curiosity to players.
After falling into the pit, the player can only see power-ups, monsters, and a screen that can be painted, but otherwise it is pitch black.
When the player sprays the "mind control screen", the scribble spreads out to reveal the outline of the map. The player was able to move safely.
Of course, in order to adjust the pace of the experience, some difficult jumping challenges have been added to this level, and considering the balance of difficulty, this part of the journey is all bright, and the player can clearly see the ground and obstacles.
This gave us some design implications: we can use luminaries to guide the level when the environment is unlit, so that "there seems to be no way, but there is actually a way", so that the player can feel like they are following the map. The guidance part can be divided into "line guidance" and "point guidance".
Line guidance is the use of gold coins and other props to line up and guide players to take a certain safe route. However, it should be noted that it is not possible to dig a pit during the online guidance process. This is completely different from the spray paint cans that lure the player forward at the beginning, which appears when the scene is first entered, the level does not actually begin, and the player is deceived by the poor information, but it is harmless. However, if this kind of inducement is used in the level, the player will most likely not attribute the failure to themselves (which is not the player's problem in the first place), and will have a strong negative emotion.
The difference between dot and line leads is that the path of dot guidance is incoherent, and the player can only determine the safe point, but not the safe path, which actually encourages the player to complete the challenge by jumping. Designers need to pay attention to the fact that even if the dot guide is used, it is still necessary to give some hints about the route, no matter what way it is used.
In addition to using the classic prop pile to prompt the player to jump, spraying the edge of the path like the one shown above is also a good way to do so. In general, you can't unnoticeably let the player advance between guide points (especially if you're facing a wide range of jumping platforms or open ground). On the contrary, in the face of the situation that the distance between the jumping platforms is small or the path is narrow, the guidance can be appropriately reduced), and the reason is similar to the line guidance.
In addition to dot and line guidance, the size of the light source is also an important part of the design. For example, elements such as gold coins, spray cans, chests, and "mind control screens" only emit light on themselves, and do not illuminate their surroundings; Sprawling graffiti and save points have a lighting effect that illuminates the surroundings.
Gold
Archive point
Sprawling graffiti
For a range of light sources, it is more necessary to adjust the size according to the level layout, such as the save point, which is similar to a "safe house", which should illuminate a small and medium-sized area to show the surrounding environment, so as to achieve the role of transmitting safety information. The scope of the sprawling graffiti is similar to that of save points, except that it serves more as a reminder of danger zones.
All in all, plan the location and illumination range of the light source based on the distance you want to set for the player, destination, or other challenges.
In addition to the challenge design, you can also see the cool point design in this level - let the graffiti spread over a large area continuously, directly illuminating the entire room, and the player reaches the peak of exploration and coolness at this moment.
From the perspective of the overall difficulty balance of the level, because the pitch-black visual effect makes it much more difficult to clear the level, in the dark, there is usually no too long jump platform (basic obstacles), or more challenging damage mechanics (advanced obstacles) that test the player's operation. This is not only to balance the difficulty, but also to allow players to better feel the sense of exploration as the graffiti spreads through the pitch-black space, revealing the full form of the level.
Ups and downs
The Float and Sink level can be seen as a variant of the Blindfold level, and the reason why it is called Float and Sink is because the road in this level will rise and fall in a cycle of smoke.
If the Eyepatch level is completely invisible to the jumping platform, i.e., the visible parameters of the jumping platform are 0, and these parameters become 100 after the player achieves certain conditions, then the floating and sinking level adjusts the visibility of the jumping platform on this basis, that is, the player actively triggers the display to change to an automatic display according to time. Under the double adjustment of the display conditions of the jumping platform and the path design, the difficulty of the floating and sinking level has increased dramatically.
This level focuses on testing the player's instantaneous memory ability and distance control ability. According to the setting that the floating platform will rise and fall over time, players will definitely experience at least one or more platform state changes when passing through the platform. This requires the player to observe and memorize the terrain when the platform is revealed, and then perform actions such as jumping based on the memory. Especially when passing through the "time-limited destruction platform", the difficulty will reach its peak.
"Time-limited destruction platform" refers to a platform that counts down from the moment the player stays in the tile and is automatically destroyed after the timer ends
The picture above is a partial display of the floating and sinking effect in the level and the "time-limited destruction platform" at the same time, although the gold coin guide is set, there is still a certain degree of difficulty.
Overall, the difficulty in the design of this level lies in the control of the ups and downs and the distance traveled, that is, the player needs to go through several ups and downs through the path from point A to point B. Also consider whether you need to use other modules to balance the difficulty in the case of float and sink challenges. This requires the designer to conduct multiple rounds of testing according to the character's movement performance and make continuous corrections in order to complete a more reasonable level design.
At the same time, the Floating and Sinking level also provides us with a design idea, which is to combine different modules so that the same level module can provide a variety of challenge experiences. When the designer is short on inspiration, they can try to use rational means to permutate and combine the level modules, or adjust the conditions for the existence of the jumping platform to create different level challenges.
Glass levels
The above two levels are examples of how to transform the change of module composition into a change in the experience, while the glass level focuses on how to change the player's operation and playthrough logic through the design of the module.
The core feature of the glass level is the platforming nature. The previous Float and Sink level had a "time-limited destruction platform", and the feature of the glass platform was that the player's jet gliding and dashing behavior would cause the platform to shatter (the base movement would not), and would not automatically spawn when destroyed. By changing the platform existence condition module, the player's operation and experience are completely different from the ups and downs of the level.
When facing a glass platform, the player's gliding ability is completely unusable (gliding will cause the glass platform beneath their feet to shatter and prevent them from landing). Also, after a glass platform is broken, the shattered platform will not spawn even if the player stumbles and falls (one of their stamina will be deducted for falling from the ground) and then reviving at the nearest platform. The Glass Platform will only refresh if the player dies with all of their stamina. The designers also made full use of the characteristics of the glass platform to carry out rich experience design, such as using the glass platform to hide the collectibles.
On the other hand, if the glass route is the main level route (i.e., the route where the platform is broken and the level cannot be advanced), the designers have two ways to deal with the situation where there is no way ahead. One is to use a switch to reset the glass platform after the player hits the level. The second is to arrange ordinary platforms in the glass platform route, but the ordinary platform route does not mean that the difficulty is reduced, but focuses on another operation to test the player, or leads to another way of clearing the level. Normally, the speed of passing through the normal route is much lower than the route through the glass platform. Of course, players can also rely on continuous loss of stamina until they die to refresh the glass platform, but this will greatly detract from the score of the level, and it will also waste a lot of time.
In this way, the designer limited the performance of the character by controlling the existing conditions of the platform, forcing the player to turn to another set of playthrough logic and control options when faced with a similar platform structure as before.
For example, the level design in the picture has almost no difficulty when gliding is available. However, on the glass platform, after the player's sprinting and gliding abilities are limited, the travel strategy is constrained, the error tolerance rate is reduced a lot, and the difficulty of the level increases.
In the above listed levels, there are still a lot of excellent design content, including but not limited to level line design, rhythm control, etc., due to space limitations, only the design ideas and key precautions are elaborated, and others such as jumping distance settings, guidance method selection, etc., can only be analyzed frame by frame according to your needs, and then turned to application.
At the same time, it is worth thinking about how the initial feeling design was formed. For example, after experiencing the blindfold level, you can disassemble, copy, transform, and integrate part of the design into your own work, but how did you get the idea of making the map completely black at the beginning? Dismantling and analysis is an afterthought, a means of reproduction rather than the origin of creation. The author does not have an accurate answer to this. Creativity can come from many sources, and we need to practice it continuously to form a complete and clear methodology for "how ideas are generated and applied".
The clash of core racing parkour and exploration puzzle solving
In addition to the excellent level design, the shortcomings of RKGK are also very obvious. One of the core problems is the experience conflict between the collection gameplay and the speedrun gameplay.
The game has three types of objectives for the player, namely speedrunning, collection, and rating, and at the same time, there are three types of collectibles in the level, namely gold, ghosts, and G points, all of which count towards the rating. Gold coins and ghosts can be exchanged for skins and graffiti outside, and the latter is often carefully hidden in the level and requires the player to explore very carefully to find it.
From a collection perspective, players need to explore the map carefully. Since the location of collectibles is designed with the core purpose of exploring and solving puzzles, players often need to turn back and forth to achieve a relatively high collection rate. Speedruns, on the other hand, require players to take the fastest route with the most extreme maneuvers, and they will inevitably have to give up some collectibles. Scoring, on the other hand, is a comprehensive metric, and it is an advanced challenge to move forward almost perfectly under multiple considerations, not only balancing the relationship between collection and speed, but also taking into account things such as cleaning up monsters and keeping them harmless.
And different game objectives bring different feelings to players. When the main goal is to collect and explore, players will be delighted by discovering the collectibles carefully hidden by the designer, and they will also feel a sense of accomplishment by finding the collectibles in the entire level. Similarly, when speedrunning is the main objective, players will be immersed in the thrill of speeding through many obstacles, and they will also get a sense of accomplishment from seeing their excellent time performance in the settlement panel.
As for high ratings, they are usually pursued by a small number of extreme players, testing the overall strength of players, and bringing a sense of accomplishment that only a few people can achieve their goals.
The only hard condition for completing a level is to destroy the controller at the end of the level, and there is no "true failure" in the level, i.e. the player will not reset the level after all their health is deducted, but will be teleported to the nearest safe point at the cost of deducting a certain number of points (even if all the points obtained in the level are deducted, they can continue to be revived at the safe point). Due to the low cost of defeat, the goal of "destroying the controller at the bottom of the level" does not have a particularly strong driving force, and the player's attention is more likely to be distracted by the three types of objectives mentioned above. However, they are not mandatory for players to complete, they are only reflected as "soft objectives" in score settlement or outside collectible rewards, and it is difficult to distinguish between primary and secondary status, so when players can pursue any goal in the level, the gameplay experience is extremely susceptible to the level being affected.
For example, one part of the level is designed as a "cool road" to allow the player to sprint and drift as much as they want, and the player is just immersed in this experience, and the other part of the road adds some collection elements and reduces the appearance of "cool road", and the player is guided by the collection design to produce another experience. But the most lethal thing is that sometimes, the "cool road" and the collectible will appear at the same time, but the flow of the two is separate, and in a few cases, even puzzle elements will be inserted.
From the perspective of design logic, the developer's goal is to expand the game time by hoping that players can replay the level with different objectives, and then continuously improve their operation proficiency. This directly leads to the separation of the layout of the speedrun and collection flow of the level. Generally speaking, it makes sense in the design logic for two moving lines to converge and separate. However, due to the small size of the single level of "RKGK", the two moving lines are frequently separated and converged, and from the perspective of the game experience (at least the author's own game experience), the layout of the moving lines based on this design goal has caused a relatively obvious tear in the gameplay process.
In the image above, for example, the red route is a "cool road" that is suitable for sprinting and has relatively few obstacles, but on the side of the "cool road", which is the blue box, there are additional collectible gold and spray boxes. As a result, the player has to choose between parkour and collect and jump back and forth, similar to Yasuo's remnant blood but the struggle over whether to catch up on 5 hits.
Image: Internet
At the time of game settlement, if the collectible player sees that he has not collected all the collectibles, he may attribute it to something missing from the "cool road"; Speedrunners may also be affected to a certain extent by the collectibles on the side of the road during the race. This tangled experience may be uncomfortable for some players, and it will only slow down until you have set a clear goal after playing for a while. Similar negative experiences are very obvious in the early stages of the game, coupled with the bias of the early levels towards the tutorial, resulting in the author's low evaluation of the process of the first hour of this game (the above is one of the main reasons).
From the perspective of positioning, "RKGK" is not an extremely hardcore platforming game, and the proportion of players who engage in multi-week and repeated challenges may not be very high. As a designer, I still tend to prioritize the majority of players, putting the first experience first, and bringing a better gaming experience to the widest range of players.
With this in mind, adjustments can be made from several angles.
Highlight one of the two options: collect or speedrun, and optimize the design of the item position. However, in terms of the actual cost of modification, it may be more affordable to focus on collection. Then, you can consider removing some racing guidance in the parts that are easy to cause players to get tangled (races without tangled points do not need to be changed), such as acceleration blocks, straights, and open spaces, and add more gold coins and health recovery boxes, so that the player's first experience is more focused on collecting content.
Secondly, developers can also open more evaluation parameters and collectibles after players have cleared the level, such as gold medal time or rating options, the number and location of gold coin boxes, etc., so that players can focus more on executing a certain goal when they play for the first time, which can not only reduce the sense of entanglement, but also stimulate players to play for multiple weeks.
Mash-up graffiti art style
In addition to the core gameplay of platforming, the game is also characterized by the visual experience created by the huge 3D graffiti and cutscenes.
The name of the game is "Rakugaki", which means graffiti in Japanese. Instead of directly using the English word "Graffiti" to correspond to graffiti, the production team chose to use the Japanese etymology because the production team deliberately created a connection between graffiti and Japanese culture. As the main carrier of game content, graffiti, it has a distinct Japanese style, and even includes some classic Japanese comic elements. The collision of two very different art styles, traditional Japanese and cyberpunk, makes the graffiti in RKGK give players a unique look.
Geisha graffiti
Torii graffiti
Dragon
Godzilla
When these doodles are combined with exclusive interactive animations and music, they will immediately release extremely cool audio-visual effects.
Doodle animation
Of course, art is not limited to the scene, "RKGK" also sets some collection rewards, including special character skins, costume colors, auxiliary robot colors, etc. However, perhaps due to the size of the studio and the cost of development, except for the special skins (which are only 8), the other collection rewards are not very attractive, which is better than nothing.
Some of the costume colors and special skins are displayed
The core of the graffiti culture plot
The core of the plot of "RKGK" echoes the graffiti culture. In the 70s of the last century, the U.S. economy fell into severe stagflation, the unemployment rate soared, and due to multiple factors such as racial discrimination and education level, the vast majority of the unemployed people were blacks, Latinos and other vulnerable immigrants. In the midst of the embarrassment, the disadvantaged in the Bronx, New York, found a set of entertainment activities that made fun of suffering, and the hip-hop culture was born, which quickly spread among the underprivileged. In the process of continuous development, the connotation and expression of Hip-Hop are also constantly enriched, and this poor people's entertainment gradually has the role of carrying the dissatisfaction and anger of the people at the bottom of the United States at that time with their own situation and mainstream society.
The wave of unemployment led to the formation of gangs in the Bronx, and in order to divide their own boundaries, early graffiti was born. These "graffiti" were originally drawn by gang members with "artistic talents", so most of them were oathed territories and vulgar content. It wasn't until some people at the bottom who had a strong desire to express themselves and longed for attention began to express their thoughts through graffiti, that the latter gradually elevated to art and transitioned to social pop culture. As one of the expressive branches of Hip-Hop culture, graffiti naturally has the characteristics of rebelling against mainstream society and expressing maverick views.
The plot of "RKGK" does not have many routines: the villain uses the electronic screen to control people's thoughts, and the protagonist uses graffiti to destroy the screen, terminate the villain's mind control, allow people to express themselves freely, and finally overthrow the villain. The simple story has no foreshadowing and explanation, and there are not too many metaphors and connotations, basically showing the rebellious spirit of graffiti and the core of self-expression directly to the player, which belongs to "direct expression of the chest". However, the decent plot gives the player a clear and clear mission goal, which can be regarded as satisfying the story-driven requirements.
Interestingly, RKGK's NPCs are crudely crafted as what should be important interactions, and they're thrown directly into the prep room when the player unlocks new features. Although its art design is relatively eye-catching, it does not appear in the plot at all, and it does not actively interact with players.
NPCs in the game
epilogue
In addition to the above, the operation of "RKGK" is remarkable. The sprint in the game is the most characteristic movement performance and the basis of the racing challenges in the level, and many of the "cool roads" are based on the sprint performance. The operation feel of this part is close to the driving feel in racing games, and "drifting" can be realized. At the same time, with the accumulation of the character's energy bar, the dash will be upgraded twice, which is not only faster, but also can directly destroy the boxes or monsters that the player touches. Combined with super-burning music, it can bring players an extremely refreshing parkour experience.
Normal sprints
Advanced sprints
Overall, RKGK is a 3D platforming game with high-quality core gameplay, although limited by cost, its plot packaging is not particularly prominent, and the art resources are not abundant, but Wabisabi Games has put more resources and energy into the core gameplay design, and delivered a flawed sketch-level work. If it can match the gameplay and art style, this is a game dessert worth trying.
Finally, from the perspective of game development, in the current reality that many teams are pursuing small-scale innovation to reduce costs and increase efficiency, this development method of focusing on core gameplay and micro-innovation is worth learning. For level design developers, RKGK is also a basic and comprehensive reference case for level design.
Images: Unless otherwise specified, the pictures in the article are from screenshots of the game or made by the author
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