Expanding the Definition of Landmarks In Level Design
By: David C Vargo
Supervisor: Myque Ouellette
Masters of Interactive Technology degree conferred July 18, 2010
Thesis / Project completed: May 25, 2010

Landmarks are an important part of understanding a place in time and space.  They help guide people along paths and enhance memorable experiences along that journey.  When game designers have used landmarks in the past, they have typically understood them in an abstract manner.  Devoid of context, designers think of them in the standard definition as a tall vertical structure dominating its surroundings.

This study redefines the limited definition of landmarks by focusing on their contextual meaning (semantic), rather than a predetermined abstract meaning (syntactic). By addressing the aspects of landmarks that make them memorable, this endeavor posits principles to help future level design efforts.

This study presents four characteristics for semantically defining landmarks:

1. The entity cannot move from its current position.
2. The entity does not change during play (its composition or nature does not alter significantly during the course of a game).
3. The entity is unique and contrasts from everything else in the game.
4. The entity uses the surrounding context to promote its relevance.   

By building a map around five unique semantic landmarks and having a testing pool experience it, this project hoped their objective and subjective responses would validate the expanded definition of landmarks.   However, with the linear layout of the map removing the navigational aspect of the intended landmarks, the study can only review the memorable factor of the design.  Considering the limited effectiveness of the some of the five landmarks as shown in the survey results, the landmarks are a partial success.  

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