Over the various past lessons you have been introduced to how powerful observing Perspectives can really be. However there are billions of possible perspectives that exist on a map. Learning to observe key perspectives is important to saving yourself sometime. One type of perspective that is common across all maps and extremely useful to observe is the Perspective that exists for each spawn point on the map.
The first of many
The spawn perspective is typically the first full controllable perspective of the map that the player receives. Note that I say controllable perspective meaning that the player is able to fully move his perspective at his will from this point forward. Other perspectives may be seen first, but I will cover those in later lessons. Being the first controllable perspective all eye catching techniques are extremely important to study. From this first perspective player begin to decide exactly how they move around the map. It is important to take the time to study each and every one carefully. Spawn perspectives are the only truly guaranteed perspectives that you can observe exactly as the player will see it since there has been no previous Eye Catching, Incentive, Deterrent, or other influence upon the perspective.
Observe them heavily
As a designer you should be aware of everything that the player can see from each spawn point of your map. Know what incentives exist, what paths are available, what deterrents may exist, etc. Take the time to analyze the eye catching that exists in the perspective to get a good idea of where the player may be heading. Keep in mind that there are many factors that will influence all future perspectives. The spawn perspective is the start of a long chain of perspectives that only ends when a player dies and then restarts from there until the game ends. Every perspective in the chain is influenced by the spawn perspective so setting up the spawn perspective properly will lead to huge control over the player when dealing with Path Manipulation.
You control your players
Whenever you place any spawn point the first thing you need to do is stand on it, find some way to force spawn on it, or just find some way to view the spawn’s perspective. Take the time to observe what is in the scene. Spawn perspectives are very powerful tools for applying the Knowledge is Power concept and teaching players important parts of the map. Take note of what weapons the player can see. Take note of what paths the player can choose from. Take notes of any possible threats that may exist in the perspective. A good general rule to go by is to give the player at least one path as the focus of the spawn perspective. Give the player direction and guide him from where he spawns. If a player spawns and the only thing he sees is a wall, what is he going to do? He has an equal chance to turn right or left where he will proceed to choose his path. You want to remove as much unpredictability as possible in order to have stronger control over the player. Remember that you have control over the player’s experience. If you want him to go right towards rockets then turn his perspective so that the path to rockets is in plain sight. If you want him to go left for the sniper then turn that perspective left. You have full control.
14 comments:
Thanks for this lesson! I had never really thought spawn perspective before. For Reach, are you going to make a lesson for the loadout screen picture? I think that could also be useful
I was definitely planning on covering loadout perspectives under a different type of perspective that also covers screenshots in map threads and what nots. Not sure if that is going to be lesson 11 or not yet. But yes I am very happy with the new loadout screens as they can help a lot with Knowledge is Power and First Impressions and what not. Glad you enjoyed the lesson and I hope you have read the other ones as well ;). Oh and thanks for actually taking the time to comment too... no one does that anymore lol.
I remember this. Its like the first thing you teach people when you go on their conquest maps cause spawning is always the first thing you do. But yeah, I still use this info when placing my spawns, and I have gotten some really smooth spawn systems because of it.
This is why on a lot maps the points will fan out from the center spawns on the left facing slightly to the left and vise versa, right?
Typically yes... spawn batches are popular if multiple paths are available around it. Some may be focused towards one path while the others focus on other ones. This is one of the reasons for spawn fanning.
I'm glad you remember such an important lesson Bart. And I am very glad that this has helped you across all of your maps. Btw, when you guys are done reading Lesson 10, I fullfilled my promise and just released Lesson 11 as well. Check it out because it also has to do with spawns.
Hey man, great writeup I learned some things. A lot of people are going to get better watching this and Reach will be a better game for customs players.
Speaking of customs, Reach was hacked and some guy is posting videos on youtube. DONT CLICK if you dont want any spoilers.
Godly, and RF viewers, enjoy your first look at customs/firefight options and an upclose look at all the forge pieces: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTpBhAowpCA&feature=search
Along with this video, enjoy a little something about the last 2 multiplayer maps, Boardwalk and Countdown. And the last Firefight map, Glacier.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROU_ojr4hEw&feature=search
And one more for good measure, but don't click if you want to stay dark about campaign. Campaign appears halfway and there is a warning when its about to come up. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0YFM0hKE0&feature=search
Bluedevil... I already know about those videos. He is one of my friends. lol... I personally asked him for the forge items and gametype stuff. Good looking out though ;).
Sorry it couldnt be of help. Can you ask him to place objects until the budget is full so we can get a glimpse of our money boundaries?
I will see what I can do... he is quite busy doing the gametype stuff for us right now though and he has a ton of requests. I'm glad he was there to actually meet ours. But it was of help don't think that it was in vain bro.
This shit is getting intense :o
(I'm talking more about the first bit lol, and the previous lessons)
I know spawn points are important, but I had actually no idea that they were thsi crucial to a players experience, nor that I could control a players path with them.
Thank you for this, I'm gonna go fix some stuff on Stalemate when I get home..
I wish you had an edit-comment option, I hate myself for writing "thsi" instead of "this".
That said, I just wanted to add in that in Halo: Reach spawning perspectives are gonna be alot more powerful now that you can decide what kind of view players will have whilst respawning.
Yes they are a very powerful tool and they are not one to be taken lightly. Also as for Reach you still need to focus on your normal spawn perspectives. Loadout cameras are a completely different topic that I will be covering soon called Static Perspectives... they are the same kind of perspectives that you use for map overviews and screenshots. The reason they are a different lesson is because a player cannot fully control them... hence the term "static". So there are a few different techniques to making them.