Let there be contrast
Contrast is at the core of every art form.
From a visual contrast in a painting, to a plot twist in a novel,
or a musical cadence — contrast is key to conveying emotion.
Let's explore this powerful concept and see how it is used in
Level Design!
Madeleine à la flamme Georges de la Tour
Contrast is the presence of opposing elements, each bringing out the other.
As humans we don't see the world in absolute terms, we understand things in relation to our previous experiences. Therefore, to highlight something, placing it in a constrasting environment is far more powerful than simply presenting it to the audience.
As a child, I remember innocently asking my grandmother why the weather wasn't always sunny.
She replied "If every day were sunny, you wouldn't appreciate it as much. You need the rain to appreciate the sun."
visual contrast
The most intuitive way to create contrast is through visuals.
In Level Design, especially in open-world games, we use landmarks as visual guides for the player. Since landmarks are meant to be visible from a distance, we need to make sure that they contrast with their environment.
Elden Ring
FromSoftware
The Erdtree from Elden Ring is a stunning example.
First, its size: it is by far the largest element on screen. It's quite hard to miss, which gives it a symbolic importance.
Next, its color: the white/yellow hues of the Erdtree contrast sharply with the tones used for the surrounding castles and the terrain.
Then, its shape: the organic, chaotic form of the tree stands in stark opposition to the geometric, straight lines of the castles beneath.
We could keep on going with texture, luminosity, orientation, and so on.
In fact, there are many levers to create visual contrast.
While making something larger is often the first approach that comes to mind, remember that contrast works both ways (something small among larger elements), and that size is not the only lever you can use.
Size
Shape
Position
Orientation
Density
Color
Luminosity
Texture
Sharpness
Movement
As you can see there are many levers to play with, but I want to point out one specific type of contrast: luminosity.
Luminosity is often considered the strongest type of visual constrast, as human vision is primarily based on detecting luminosity.
There's a saying among level designers: "Players follow the light like mosquitoes".
You should pay extra attention when working with lights, as it is a very strong attractor. We need to make sure that lights guide players in the intended direction.
We've already discussed how visual contrast is used for landmarks, but it is also applied on smaller scale.
When guiding the player along intended path or when you want to highlight an important element, make sure to rely on contrast.
Now, let's do a quick exercise:
Click and hold (just tap if you are on mobile) on the image below to reveal a screenshot.
Pay attention to how your eyes naturally move across the image once you see it.
Alan Wake 2
Remedy Entertainment
After a very brief moment, there's a high chance that your eyes will be drawn to the telephone booth on the right side of the image.
Despite multiple lights being present, the one from the booth is the brightest, and your gaze will naturally be drawn to it.
The telephone booth is actually the player's next objective when they arrive in this street.
Here, thanks to luminosity and color contrast, the player's eye is drawn toward the key element of the level (you can also use composition techniques such as leading lines, which we'll explore in another article).
When working on player guidance, it's really helpful to take a screenshot from the player's perspective, then either blur it or make it black-and-white.
This makes the elements that attract the eye more obvious. Make sure that those elements are the things you want to highlight.
Note that blurring your image will not help if you rely on sharpness contrast; the same goes for making it black-and-white when working with color contrast.
Visual contrast helps highlight the most important elements of a scene and can also help the player with spatial cognition. If different parts of your level contrast visually and have distinct visual features, players will have an easier time creating a mental map of the level — preventing undesired backtracking as they will quickly recognize areas they have already explored.
Pacing contrast
As a level designer, you are not only tasked with physically building a level, but also with carefully managing its pacing in order to deliver an engaging experience.
The key concept to understand here is Player Tension.
The word tension doesn't necessarily have a negative meaning — it can be described as emotional intensity or engagement.
It is also not necessarily related to difficulty. While Player Tension can be created through challenge, it can also arise from emotional or narrative elements.
Player Tension
Time
Here is a classic Player Tension curve, which might remind you of the Three-Act Structure or the Kishōtenketsu concepts.
The first contrast that comes to mind is the starting point versus the climax. In every story, you want to build rising tension that keeps the audience engaged.
However, notice the curve is not a straight line — it's made up of peaks and valleys.
These tension releases — or downtimes — are essential and should not be overlooked.
Following a tension peak with downtimes allows the player to process what they've just experienced.
Through contrast, they also make the next peak more impactful.
Moreover, maintaining a continuously rising level of tension leads to player fatigue and mental overload.
Unless you intentionally want to create this sense of exhaustion (which I'd recommend keeping brief), you should include buffer zones — both in space and in time — to introduce downtimes; these will ensure your tension peaks shine.
Do not be afraid to experiment with the number of peaks, their intensity, and the time it takes to reach a peak from a downtime (to create suprise or build suspense).
However, remember that Player Tension must be adjusted carefully: too much tension will cause fatigue and overload, while too little will lead to boredom.
Maintaining a precise balance is key to keeping the player in a state of Flow.
Difficulty Tension
Emotional Tension
Narrative Tension
The Last of Us Part II
Naughty Dog
Player Tension can be categorized in three main types: difficulty, emotional, and narrative
(I will expand on the Teach / Feel / Tell framework in another article).
Difficulty tension refers to how much the game is challenging the player's skills.
Note that time-based challenges (requiring the player to perfom certain actions within a limited time), while not necessary to create tension, often greatly increase the perceived tension.
A boss fight is a good example of level climax primarily based on difficulty tension.
Emotional tension refers to how strongly the game is conveying intense emotions (not necessarily tied to story development).
These emotions can be negative, such as fear or anxiety; but also positive, like euphoria or a sense of empowerment.
Epic moments, exotic gameplay sequences, and high-pressure situations are examples of level climaxes primarily based on emotional tension.
Narrative tension refers to how much the game is delivering an important piece of information about the story.
This can take many forms (in-game text, walk-and-talk sequence, etc), but cinematics are often used to precisely control the delivery and make sure the player is completely focused on the moment.
The death of a major character, a plot twist, or the game's ending are examples of level climaxes primarily based on narrative tension.
When designing your level, mapping out the peaks of your Player Tension curve will help you achieve strong contrast and variety in both intensity and tension types.
Make sure you pay attention to your downtimes — give them enough space, and identify which gameplay features best fit these quieter moments.
Gameplay features that require low player attention, or mental load (casual traversals, trivial walk-and-talk segments, ressource collection, low-tension cinematics, etc.) are typically best suited for downtimes.
Finally, know that this Player Tension curve concept is scalable.
We explored how we can create contrast within a level, but you can expand this reasoning from a single room to the whole macro progression of your game.
Thematic contrast
Every level contains thematics that are conveyed to the player.
A Thematic is a key word, a powerful concept that the game conveys to the player.
For example: chaos, weakness, comfort, hope, etc.
Since conflict lies at the heart of every good story, a level should present a conflict between thematics.
Typically, as the player progresses through a level, they should experience an evolution in opposing thematics — going from order to chaos, from weakness to strength, and so on.
Once again, I strongly encourage you to create a curve that illustrates this evolution.
Here are some basic examples:
Thematic A is rapidply replaced by Thematic B.
Thematic B slowy ramps up, replacing Thematic A and going to an even higher level of intensity. At the end, Thematic B slightly declines as Thematic A comes back for a bit.
Thematic B slowy ramps up, replacing Thematic A and going to an even higher level. Then Thematic B drops instantly as Thematic C arises.
You should adjust the thematic evolution depending on what you want to convey to the player, and more importantly, how you want to convey it.
I recomend keeping the number of thematics low (2 or 3), as too many can become overwhelming and dilute the intended message.
However, you can subdivide one of your main thematics into several sub-thematics.
For example, you might have a level that transitions from safety to fear, but throughout the level the player can experiences different types of fear (fear of heights, fear of being drowned, fear of being buried alive).
No matter your thematics, they should always be meaningful.
You should choose them carefully so they resonate with the story and with the emotions the player character is supposed to feel.
Ask yourself what the purpose of your level is, what state the player character is coming from, and what state they will end up in.
Key moments of change (for example a plot twist) should be supported by a shift in thematics to reinforce their impact.
From grandeur and honor, to misery and disgrace.
The intro of Dishonored transforms Corvo — and the player — from an esteemed bodyguard into a discredited prisonner.
Dishonored
Arkane Studios
Let's now explore how thematics interact with Visual & Pacing Contrast.
Let's start with Visual Contrast:
As you might expect, a change in thematics should be visually noticeable.
The Thematic A part of your level should look distinct from the Thematic B part.
You can achieve this by using the contrast levers we saw earlier (color, shape, luminosity, etc).
However, keep in mind that visuals carry implicit meaning (read this article on visual grammar).
Always ask yourself which side of the contrast lever best represents each thematic.
Let's look at an example:
God of War
Santa Monica Studio
In this part, Kratos gets separated from Atreus and starts to panic (as much as Kratos can panic). Eventually, Kratos finds Atreus and meets Freya for the first time, who will become a valuable ally...
Let's examine how the game visually represents Panic VS Relief:
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Position: the walls are close to Kratos, creating a narrow corridor VS an open-space with no walls
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Color: monotonous cold colors VS varied warm colors
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Texture: stones VS grass and wood
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Shape: geometric and sharp edges VS curvy and smooth edges
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Luminosity: dark spots and bright fog VS evenly lit space
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Sharpness: dense fog blurs everything VS no fog, everything is sharp
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Density: few elements on screen VS many elements on screen
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Movement: the environment is motionless VS swaying vegetation, moving characters
The game also brings confusion in the first part by presenting multiple pathways to the player, most of them leading to dead-ends, forcing the player to backtrack.
In the second part, the important elements are positioned at the center of the screen, and the game quickly transitions to a controlled cinematic.
Now, on to Pacing Contrast:
Your thematics should be reflected in your pacing.
The player should feel the thematic shift through the Player Tension.
For instance, if the first thematic is calmness and the second is panic, the Player Tension curve should reflect that shift, with the panic section featuring more frequent and higher tension peaks than the calmness section.
However, you must pay attention not only to how much Player Tension is delivered, but also to how it is delivered.
Let's illustrate Calmness VS Panic using our 3 tension types:
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Difficulty tension: low cognitive load gameplay, no time-based challenge (resource looting, walk-and-talk) VS high cognitive load gameplay, time-based challenge (combat, QTEs)
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Emotional tension: mild sequences, no exotic gameplay VS intense sequences, exotic gameplay
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Narrative tension: casual narrative themes, information delivered through means that do not require strong player focus (in-game texts) VS high-stakes narrative themes, information delivered through means that require player focus (cinematics)
Once again, let's look at an example:
BioShock Infinite
Irrational Games
In this level, Booker wakes up on a beach and must escape Columbia with Elizabeth.
For most of the level the player can casually wander around the bay, progressing at their own pace.
At the end of the level, the player is suddenly attacked while trying to get tickets for the zeppelin leaving Columbia.
This level transitions from Leisure to Violence.
The Thematic Evolution curve for this level would roughly look like this:
Leisure VS Violence
In the beginning, Leisure is the main thematic. The player's interactions do not require much attention and can be considered casual (talking with NPCs, looting beach baskets, eating candy).
However, as Player Tension must always increase over time, the Violence thematic is gradually introduced as the player progresses, building up with emotional and narrative tension peaks.
Both the frequency and intensity of these peaks increase as the level progresses.
For example, the narrative themes presented to the player through dialogues and visuals become less subtle; NPCs initially talk about how warm the sea is, and later address heavier subjects such as segregation or authoritarianism.
Another way the Violence thematic is subtly introduced is through the type of resources the player can loot across the level.
Initially, the player can loot some money from the beach baskets; later on, they can spend it at a vending machine which sells combat resources like health packs and ammunition.
The presence of combat ressources subtly reminds the player that combat is part of the game, and they should pay attention to their health and ammo.
This creates tension and hints the second thematic without directly introducing combat.
Finally, combat appears suddenly in a room that was previously oddly calm, signaling a sharp thematic switch with a significant contrast that leads to the level's climax.
This climax is primarly based on difficulty tension which was mostly absent before, therefore reinforcing both pacing and thematic contrast.
Conclusion
Contrast is the key to creating memorable experiences.
As a level designer, you should use contrast to guide the player, keep them engaged, and convey powerful thematics.
Design is a craft not a perfect formula; so these rules are meant to be experimented with. They act as a framework and a toolbox to help you create levels that will successfully deliver on your intentions.
I believe these concepts can also be valuable for other disciplines, such as Art or Writing.
Feel free to expand this framework with your coworkers’ expertise, and make sure your team keeps contrast in mind when creating a level or a mission.