examples of creating visibility and navigation

The Last of Us is a source of interesting solutions that designers use to make information for the user as visual and non-destructive as possible the overall atmosphere of the story adventure. Consider all the examples found during the passage.

Location research

Sequential exploration of the location allows the player to explore each room. This can help the user either learn more about the plot through notes, or carry more ammo. The exit is always at the very end of the location. So, for example, by entering the house in search of Ellie (Fig. 1), the player can find out more information about the game world. The exit from the exploration space is located on the second floor in the farthest room (Fig. 2), which allows you to explore each room to continue playing through the game.

In the same way, the sequence in the exploration allows you to direct the player to important pickups that will come in handy in the future passage. For example, secondary characters come up, direct the lighting and talk about the previously existing objects near the corpse (Fig. 1). The developers use non-linearity, namely, several entrances to the location, placing a corpse with a new weapon in the middle (Fig. 2). This allows the player to pick up an item when choosing any passage to the next location.

A landmark is a great way to set a goal for the player, which he will achieve throughout the next level. It’s also a great way to point the user in the right direction so they don’t get lost. For example, when escaping through a burning city in which some kind of action is constantly taking place (people fleeing from infected people, accidents), the player is directed using a brightly lit building (Fig. 1). During the further passage of the game, the user is given a goal in the form of architectural spaces that stand out clearly from the familiar environment, for example: a church, a tower or a bridge (Fig. 2-Fig. 4).

Safes at the location are made in a certain way. In space there is always only one safe and not far from it you can find clues with codes.

Consistency in research allows developers to make an interesting learning moment. So the developers of Naughty Dog were able to show the cost of an error to the player in order to make the user’s movement more accurate when exploring locations.

To dilute the gameplay, small activities are used to give the player a break after fighting the enemy. These can be boxes that stand out from the rest of the environment and have rounded handles, thanks to which the player understands how to use this object (Fig. 1). Large rises that are highlighted either with rags or with yellow paint (Fig. 2). As a rule, when a player sees flooding, this indicates activity with a wooden raft on which a secondary character must be moved (Fig. 3).

Simulation of life and history through the environment

Naughty Dog loves to pay a lot of attention to detail in their games. The player is introduced to how other people survive (Fig. 1). Moments of interaction with animals allow you to make any moment in the game very sentimental (Fig. 2). Touches the soul and happiness of children, which they experience with a rare game of football (Fig. 3).

A lot of attention is paid to children in the game. This allows you to make the game world richer. You can also meet a child who plays with a plush toy (Fig. 1), lullabies in rooms where no one lives anymore (Fig. 2), a large number of toys (Fig. 3). Touching is the grave (Fig. 4), where you can see a toy, which indicates that this is a hole dug for a small child. This is also evidenced by the small size of the grave and the note that lies nearby and which refers to this child.

As you progress through the game, you can periodically meet signs on the walls that indicate that cicadas have already passed in this space (Fig. 1). This always indicates that the player is on the right path in the game’s story. An interesting technique that can rarely be seen in games is large shadows (Fig. 2), with the help of which one can guess the actions of the characters from which these very traces come.

Navigation and visibility

To smoothly load the next level without a loading screen, developers use activities that will separate the user from the previous location. These can be openings through which you need to climb (Fig. 1), garage doors (Fig. 3) or turnstiles (Fig. 4). The same technique is used to dilute the gameplay of the game. More than once per game, you can meet locations with a certain number of enemies. To force the player to kill all the opponents in the location, they use an activity that will draw the attention of the enemies to the user and take a lot of time to complete (Fig. 2).

To guide the player, natural signs of the environment are used, with which you can show the exit from the location (Fig. 1). Some of these signs are highlighted in green so that the player understands that it is possible to go in this direction and there is no danger there (Fig. 4). Similar signs are also used to direct to a certain building, in which there is a learning moment with the cost of a player’s mistake (Fig. 2). Also, these signs are used to indicate in which direction the desired landmark is located (Fig. 3).

In order for the player to know where to move, guide lines are used, which can be represented as yellow wires, which most often lead to the generator that needs to be started (Fig. 1). Sometimes developers use blood trails to guide them to specific locations or items (Figure 2). Yellow wires are sometimes used to explain exactly where the generator needs to be moved in order to start it (Fig. 3).

The openings also attract a lot of attention. This is how developers use large holes in the walls of houses (Fig. 1). Open doorways that attract attention so that the player does not miss important items for him and to continue the passage (Fig. 2). Near an open window opening, windows clogged with wooden or metal planks are used (Fig. 3).

Consider the design of the doors in the game. Any doors that can be opened have round door handles (Fig. 1). Non-opening doors do not have any handles (Fig. 2). Sometimes developers use various junk at closed doors, or at half-open doors they use objects that the player cannot remove in any way (Fig. 3). Sometimes the doors are closed with special large metal supports (Fig. 4).

Metal doors in street passages use a separate visual language. Such closed doors are framed with barbed wire (Fig. 1), metal locks are used that cannot be broken (Fig. 2). Sometimes in open such doorways, foliage is used that cannot be passed through (Fig. 3).

A little more about foliage. In the game, the developers at Naughty Dog use it to mark the boundaries of the level or places that the player cannot climb (Fig. 1). Designers make borders using metal fences with barbed wire (Fig. 2). In nature, boundaries are marked with the help of rounded shapes of mountains (Fig. 3).

By framing some places with foliage, they try to convey to the player the information that there is an opportunity to pass or climb here (Fig. 1). Sometimes developers also use broken boundaries. For example, designers often make destroyed fences or openings in them (Fig. 2).

Stairs and stairwells also have their own visual language. Blocked stairways are indicated either by large breaks in them (Fig. 1), or by various objects on them that the player cannot remove (Fig. 2). In order for the user on the roof to see the staircase leading down, the designers make it slightly protrude upwards (Fig. 3). In order for the player to understand that the ascent is either up or down, the designers use natural signs depicting stairs (Fig. 4).

Developers often use yellow paint to draw the player’s attention to important objects (Fig. 1), on interactive items (Fig. 2), to frame openings (Fig. 3), on all the various climbs (Fig. 4). Yellow ribbons are also sometimes used to mark climbs (Fig. 5).

The color red in the game is used in different ways for different situations. Signal torches have a bright red color so that they can be seen from afar. They are used to indicate the location of the enemy (Fig. 1). The red color is also used to indicate dead ends that are blocked with rubbish (Fig. 2). The red color is also used to guide the player’s movement in the escape (Fig. 3).

A few more interesting design decisions. To explain to the player that there is a passage behind the bookcase, the designers made a frame around this bookcase in the form of cracks (Fig. 1). To draw attention to a car that has ammunition, designers open all the doors, which also attracts a lot of attention (Fig. 2). To draw attention to the ammo box, the developers frame it with empty shelves, which forces the player to check it (Fig. 3). To indicate that the building can be entered, designers leave slots in the windows (Fig. 4).

Total

The Last of Us Part 1 allows you to learn a large number of interesting and working design techniques in about 13 hours of play. This game really deserves attention for studying.