Blog Post #2 ♡ Composition

Introduction

In this blog post, I will discuss the composition in good level design and how each composition layer has a purpose in a level’s big picture. I will also brainstorm ways to improve my UE4 map level through angles, observation spots, lighting and more.

Composition

Composition refers to how you arrange and place design and scene elements. Level design isn’t as easy as just placing random blocks and hoping for the best; the composition of a level should guide the player’s eye and present an easy-to-understand harmonic idea (Piaskiewicz, 2014). There are three sets of layers in composition: foreground, center of interest, and background.  

The foreground is a prelude to the full composition, and is meant to create the main frame for the composition’s dominant. The center of interest contains the composition’s ‘dominant’, which is the focal point of the composition. The dominant needs to stand out from the rest of the scene’s objects, but has to be consistent with the scene’s objects as well. The background closes out the composition, and is commonly seen with the horizon and/or sky. It usually contains a calm and moody color scheme, and the objects are less detailed so it does not take the focus away from the dominant. This way, it brings out the dominant’s silhouette and creates depth in the level.

For my Among Us map, the foreground would be the viewing deck area, and the center of interest would be all the different buildings such as Electrical, Medbay, Galley, etc. The background would contain the horizon and clouds, as the theme of the map is a ship at sea.

Sight and Composition Angles

The angle defines how player will be able to observe the dominant. The player can change the sight angle to achieve bigger impact by modifying the dominant's size, height or placement.

Right now, I could stand to improve the composition layers better by adding elevation in my map. My level is basically completely flat, and to improve this, I could add ladders or even stairs, like the Airship map in Among Us. Something that I was considering is to make the viewing deck’s height level (z-axis) slightly above 0, so the player would be seeing the center of interest from above. This would also help the sight angle, and would change how the player is able to observe the dominant (Piaskiewicz, 2014), along with the rest of the map. 

Observation Spot

Currently, my level does not have any good observation spot. A good observation spot at the beginning of the level could be by changing the elevation of the viewing deck so it can observe the level from above. At the end of the level, I could create a rising platform so that the player can see the level from the top again.

Lights

Since my level is currently composed of a flat plane and a bunch of different-sized rooms, I think that lighting can be placed at the top of every room. Right now, there are no windows in any room, but I plan on adding windows in certain rooms so there is “natural” light in the level.