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I'm a student studying game development and I have an assignment about level design due in a few days, the last question is about identifying high level design decisions from a game scenario, but the scenario is a very simple outline of a stealth game.

What is a "High Level Design Decision"?

Kromster
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BlackEyedJester
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    Word-definition perspective: high → distant, above; level → abstraction layer; design → intelligent arrangement; decision → judgement, conclusion (They probably mean design decisions made from a very broad, generalised perspective—it's a vague term though. Ideally, ask the person who wrote your assignment.) – Anko Feb 06 '15 at 13:25
  • Ask the professor! – House Feb 06 '15 at 15:39

2 Answers2

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High level decision could mean anything that is not too specific, but is clear enough to understand what is the idea of the game. This is to avoid your team making the wrong idea of what you have in mind for the game, since "Stealth game" is a too broad term.

For example in your case of a Stealth game, these are some questions that would lead to High Level Design Decisions:

-Will the game end once the character is discovered? If not, can you fight those who discover you? Or do you have to hide again having no combat at all?

-Is the game divided in levels, or there is one big map with different points of interes?

-Can the player disable/incapacitate those who are looking for them? Has he no power over his enemies?

You can go on and on. But the idea is that you should focus on the most important aspects of your game, so it's clear to your team what the game is about and how does it feel.

Leo
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A few examples:

-Will the player face human opponents or AI's?
-Is it first-person, third-person, isometric, etc.?
-Can the player interact with and/or change the environment?
-Is it a 2D game or 3D game?
-How "far" is 1 unit of length?
-Can the game be modded now or possibly in the future?
-Is there a terrain? With gravity? Can the player jump?
-Can the player run instead of walk? How fast does he walk and how fast does he run?
-How many unique types of content will the game require? Models, textures, etc.
-Of all the things that need to be finished before the release date, what must be finished?
-Of all the things that must be finished, how many can you actually afford to finish on time?

"High-level design decisions" affect a large portion of the player/user's experience. Whether or not to add gravity needs to be decided up-front since it would interact with everything in the game world, including the user.

Jon
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