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Shortly after his breakout, he leads a daring break-in at the FBI to uncover who ratted him out.
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Hoxton in all his glory, featured here in this promotional art. By sharing the design of a Payday 2 level I hope to illustrate what a dynamic level can look like and also showcase the overall possibilities of dynamic level design. The process of making a dynamic level will vary from game to game it all depends on the game's mechanics, setting and other details. These dynamic elements need to be designed with care, so that the level actually changes in meaningful ways between playthroughs. Instead of crafting a linear experience in meticulous detail, a designer must seek to create a broader structure of what will happen in the level and then design dynamic elements, things that change between playthroughs, within that structure. The process of building a dynamic level certainly differs from more traditional single player level design. This can make dynamic level design ideal for co-op games and it can be essential for retaining players over longer periods of time, just like Payday 2 has done.
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This approach has the added benefit of allowing different players to come together and enjoy the same level, irrespective of whether they have played it many times before or not at all. Dynamic levels are still designed and built by hand, so to speak, which makes them different from procedural levels which are created from automated algorithms.ĭynamic levels are useful in games where the developer wants the levels to provide more gameplay than a single playthrough would. This is achieved by introducing elements that change between playthroughs, things that make the level a bit different each time you play. Payday 2, Left 4 Dead 2 and even XCOM2 all use some form of dynamic level design.ĭynamic level design is all about creating levels that are as replayable as possible it is about retaining the challenge and keeping players on their toes. In this article I will discuss what dynamic level design is and how it was used to build “Hoxton Breakout”, one of the game’s most popular missions. I would argue that the lifeblood of the game is its dynamic level design it is what keeps the game replayable and fun. Another draw must be the fleshed out progression systems that offer tons of customization. How then has the game kept players engaged throughout the years? The many and regular content updates are surely a big part of it. The game recently celebrated it’s third birthday, yet it still retains a steady player base. Payday 2 is a cooperative first person shooter where players band together to commit various crimes in the endless pursuit of wealth, infamy and cool masks to cover their criminal faces with.
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