Posted October 15, 2021 by Marralu
There are many ways in which a person can visually document their games for reference in the designs future. However, there is one method that can really help a designer create a very in-depth layout on how there level is going to function and that is beat diagrams. Beat diagrams are a way in which a designer can not only layout their maps/levels, but also document areas that have high or low player activity. These diagrams can either be extremely basic, or very in-depth on how a level is going to operate.
For a story/campaign mission, beat diagrams can show the different areas/beats that the player has to go through in order to advance. These "beats" can show areas of high intensity and what type of things are present in that spot of the level. For example a player is in a part of the mission that requires them to defend their position from oncoming enemies. This would be an area of high intensity due to the player being in constant combat. When beat maps are used for multiplayer levels, thing are a little bit different. The reason why is because unlike a story mode level where enemies and weapons are placed in the same area every time, multiplayer levels are a lot less predictable due to there being no A.I enemies. In these circumstances, a beat diagram can help show areas that have the potential to have high conflict. For example there is a heavy weapon spawn on a map, this would be an area of high intensity since a lot of players are going to want to get that weapon which leads to a lot of conflict in that one spot.
Overall I find that beat diagrams are extremely beneficial for game design especially when designing a level. These diagrams help a designer see how they can potentially balance their levels which is extremely important for games like first person shooters. As long as the diagram is organized and professional manner, people will have no trouble on seeing how a level is laid out as a whole.