Context – Diorama & Level Design

definition of a diorama

This task is to identify what the term Diorama means by researching the definition and from what I’ve found, the most common definition is ‘A model that shows a situation, such as a historical event or animals in their natural environment, in a way that looks real’

I’ve interpreted this to mean that it is essentially to create a small scene to create a story of significance to the theme of choice which is Western.

Types of dioramas

Below are the various types of Dioramas available to help me decide which I will be creating, I personally think a Miniature/Architectural Diorama could potentially stand out as the size would mean the ability to focus on detailing the assets/environment to a higher standard than I’m used to.

• Miniatures
• Full-size Dioramas
• Architectural
• Entertainment
• Museum Dioramas
• Art
• Historic
• Painted
• Gottstein Diorama
• Natural History Diorama
• Snow Globes

diorama examples

Miniature Dioramas

The moodboard below displays various miniature dioramas, I personally really like this idea as I can produce a rather small scene using this in combination with the other two diorama mood boards below which could be a rather unique and visually appealing idea.

Architectural Dioramas

Due to my 2 other final projects being architectural I’d like to produce a small diorama based around architectural design, preferably exterior as I can merge 3 dioramas into one. I really enjoy modelling architecture and personally think this is one of my strong points in 3D modelling overall.

Snow globe

As stated above I really like this diorama as my idea as of right now is to create a diorama using 3 types merged into one which I’m actually very excited about. The images can help me when it comes to designing my diorama because if I decide to go down this route I will already have references to help influence my idea.

Level design examples

Kingdom Hearts

The level below is from Kingdom Hearts, it’s called ‘Rabbit’s house’ and navigation through the level for the player is fairly simplistic and straight forward as you can clearly see the path to objectives. This was collected on a website called noclip.website which displays various levels from different platforms and games which will be linked below and in my bibliography.

captain toad

The image below is of a level from Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, this game features a series of block-shaped worlds on a Miniature style diorama level which is very simplistic and easily navigate-able due to pathways and objectives being extremely clear.

Battlefield 5

Battlefield is a fast paced first person shooter set in rather large levels giving the players the freedom to move around where ever they see fit to hit objectives, for example this game has a variety of modes such as team death match and war. There’s a huge difference between the objectives of the two where in one your only objective is to kill the enemy team and the other is to capture and defend locations from the opposing team. There are clear guides on the map to where you are limited within the map itself and are warned before being re-spawned.

Uses for level design

Within certain games it is important to note which genre of game you’re creating before producing your level or even planning it. For example if you’re creating a fast paced First person shooter you’ll need to take into account where you will be putting cover for the players, whether it’s best to keep the map fairly open or compact because each style will affect the players choices differently. For example if the level is compact like modern warfare 2, the player will have a far more intense and exciting time playing the game (In my opinion)

This is the same for almost any game, there needs to be a clear goal or objective with obstacles to keep the players attention and interest in continuing playing the game. Another example is Mirror’s Edge, one of my all time favorites, this game whilst not incredibly graphical is possibly one of the easiest to navigate as they use clear red indicators to show the best ways of running through each level which lets you take advantage of the parkour aspect of the game and makes it an incredibly enjoyable experience.

Open world games like Grand theft auto are still limited to a certain radius which is still considerably larger than games like those described above, This makes their level design far more complex as they have a huge variety of game-modes available where you need cover from fire etc. However that being said they have a custom game mode where players can create and publish their own level using objects to place freely around their chosen location for their ‘level’ to be played with limitations of where the player can actually go.