Another Approach for Teaching Gameplay — Antepieces, Challenges, and Megaman X
Instructive Level Design is an approach to teach players about the game’s rules, mechanics, and patterns while playing the game. It is opposed to traditional games, such as board games, in which the mechanics and its aspects are presented through a rulebook or other written medium.
Some games implement the instructive level design approach by using visual elements, as a “show, don’t tell” style. As stated in a previous article, this approach is also known as Miyamoto’s Level Design.
Moreover, game designers use instructive level design to teach players about the upcoming challenges, streamlining the game’s difficulty. A common approach is to introduce a smaller version of a challenge before it takes place. Thus, the player can practice it before progressing.
This approach is known in Level Design as an antepiece — a smaller and introductory level piece presented before the actual challenge. The name “antepiece” comes from the analogy with “antechamber”: a smaller room or entryway that leads to a larger room.
While traversing an antepiece, the player faces the elements presented in the challenge, but in a trivial or non-threatening manner. In most cases, the player can even go past the antepiece without dealing with its contents…
