Information Conveyance : An Examination of Using Level Design to Communicating the State of Play in a Competitive Video Game

Abstract: This is a study on information conveyance, specifically a study on how specific level design techniques can be used to convey information to the players regarding a competitive multiplayer game's “state of play”. Through an analysis of different games, three different level design elements were identified as effective tools for conveying information and these elements are; architectural placement, visual cues and environmental changes. A third-person multiplayer shooter game was then created with the three elements applied in different forms and then tested for their effectiveness. Afterwards, the game was tested by a number of participants who filled out a survey of questions and were interviewed. It was discovered that the methods tested were found to be mostly effective at conveying information, the architectural placement of the capture point in conjunction with the visual cues aspect of it worked well to inform the players of the state of play. The environmental changes were an example where a method had an impact on the game but since the correlations were unclear, the information was not conveyed effectively, but with a few alterations has the potential to work well.