Communicating With A Player Via Models

 How does a modeler guide a player?

A vital trait for a successful game is a strong connection with the player, allowing the player to be guided through the game without being blatantly told every step. One of the most subtle, yet successful, ways of doing this is through the models of the game. A fantastic example of this is the Uncharted series, in which the levels will often be large and open spaces with lots of dead ends. Naughty Dog direct the player through their levels with yellow coloured climbables, or brighter coloured edges on walls or objects. 

A fine example of yellow being used in the Uncharted series, is in the second game, where Nathan Drake must climb up a broken train hanging from a cliffs edge. 

During this section the player is presented with a mass of reds and greys, with a single yellow pipe standing out. This grabs the attention of the player and instantly tells them where they need to jump to in order to progress.

Once the player makes the leap to the yellow pipe, a small animation plays indicating that the right way was picked.

The use of the colour yellow in this scene is super effective against the mass of duller colours because it forces the yellow to stand out and catch the player's attention.

A less colourful example of player direction is used in the FarCry series.

In these games the player is urged to climb structures and radio towers to furthur progress, or unlock new weapons and parts of the map.

While not as bright and obvious as the directional guidence in Uncharted, FarCry uses climber's ropes on the ends of ledges that can be climbed to indicate to the player where to go.

The ropes aren't as obvious to the player as a bright yellow pipe would be, but if the player is stuck for a way to get up and can find the ropes, then they know exactly where to head next.
The subtlty of the ropes dotted around the world allows the guidence system to be well hidden and appear natural in the environment, while still being present enough for the player to look out for them while exploring an area.

Another method of guiding the player through a level is using the environment itself. Placing large objects in constand view can give the player a sense of longing, and encourage them to take the best path towards it. Naughty Dog are a great example for this technique as in all their games, the characters constantly talk about and point out the buildings or landmarks they need to get to. Having these buildings and landmarks in the direct vision of the player at all times, gives the player a certain direction to follow, beliveing that they are finding the path themselves instead of it being presented linearly as it is.

Similar to this, in Uncharted 3's rooftop flashback, the player is presented with a large open space, yet is guided throughout the level seamlessly. Exiting windows presents a frame showing the building the player needs to get to, birds fly off in the distance the player needs to go, and the rooftops are angled to guide Nate the whole way through. This presents the level as a large open area type feeling, when in fact it is extremely linear with a set path. While some of this is down to the enemies blocking off areas, the majority of this sequence being played out correctly is down to how the environment is modeled with the player guidence in mind.