-
Book Overview & Buying
-
Table Of Contents
Level Up! The Guide to Great Video Game Design - Second Edition
By :
In the great chili pot that is video game design, hazards are the beans. Just like beans, they act as filler when you don’t have enough meat to go around and … they help the designer make “music.”7 The goal of good level design is to help players achieve what psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi8 calls flow. (I told you we’d get back to it.)
Csíkszentmihályi’s theory proposes that there is a point between boredom and difficulty. A place where players become so engrossed that they become energized, focused, and unaware of time. But in order to create flow, you need to know how to orchestrate these elements together.

Reaching the state of flow feels like making music; it’s the rhythm of a great level. A natural rhythm of the player’s movement and actions—or flow—starts to emerge as he traverses the level.9
To me, game element placement is orchestrated like the instruments...
Change the font size
Change margin width
Change background colour