Activity · Level Design
No-HUD Navigation
Guide a player with layout, composition, landmarks and contrast rather than objective arrows or spoken directions.
What learners need
- A small blockout tool or game engine
- A start point and destination
- A simple route-observation sheet
Instructions
- Build a short route with at least one turn and one competing opening.
- Remove objective markers, signs that simply say where to go, and spoken instructions.
- Use no more than three guidance methods such as framing, contrast, light, landmark or repeated shape.
- The designer stays silent while a partner plays and records pauses, wrong turns and moments of reorientation.
- Change one signal and retest with a fresh player if possible.
Adapt it by level
Use one destination and ask learners to demonstrate two clear guidance signals.
Add an optional route and require the critical path to stay readable without removing choice.
Test with several players, compare route traces and discuss where guidance becomes over-direction.
What it develops
- Composition
- Environmental communication
- Observation
- Evidence-led iteration
What you can look for: The designer can point to observed route behaviour and explain which environmental signal helped or failed.
Keep moving
Useful next steps.
Greybox before art
Use simple geometry to test scale, route and timing while changes are still cheap.
Teaching player flow without objective arrows
A practical sequence for showing how composition, contrast, landmarks and space guide attention.
Unreal Level Designer Quick Start
Epic's practical introduction to viewport navigation, levels, actors, basic geometry, lighting and playtesting.