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Devlog #3 ~ Level Design - Points of Orientation
Because of the story I needed to create a 19th century city. In order to reduce effort I decided that it should not be possible to enter houses, which makes sense because the people barricaded up their houses to be safe. Given that I wanted to create an exploring horror game, the world should be interesting and worth exploring. A simple forest is not very exciting when you face trees 90% of the whole time. Here I want to interpose two concepts which I call "point of interest" and "point of orientation". In my humble opinion every level design should have at least a couple of these. A point of interest is a part of a level which is interesting to the player for one or more of the following reasons: he can receive something which helps him, which makes other parts of a level accessible or where he receives more informations about the story etc. Examples may be levers to open doors, loot, questitems, bosses and so on. A point of orientation is something which simply is remarkable that the player can remember where he is and where he came from.
Obvious break with the rule that good level design is easy accessible. Players remember this place more easily.
Now I want to spill some of theses "points" all over the map. The points of interests are obviously my game goals - stoups to refill your phials and crosses. Then I will need many point of orientation. I wanted to make the city streets and alleys maze-like, twisted. The player is supposed to be confused sometimes but it should not be boring! That´s why I need many points of orientations. Based on the story we know there have been street fights and riots. Let´s barricade some streets up with wooden palisades and all kinds of stuff the cult members could find - crates, barrows, tons and so on. This will be definitely remarkable. There could also be some burning piles of wood here and there. Furthermore I have added a small river, different types of streets, and a couple places that differ from the normal level in the way I placed assets. The three gallows in the picture below are placed at the entrance of an alley (which is a hard break to other parts of the world, where everything is easy accessible) and according to my playtesters they recognized this part of the level since they where forced to pass them everytime the wanted to turn there. 
A river is a great point of orientation for a level which still is supposed to be "maze-like". Don´t make it too easy for the player.