Do Players Explore Optional Areas When Given Incentives in a Traditionally Linear Shooter?
By: Robbie Stevens
Supervisor: Sandy Petersen
Masters of Interactive Technology degree conferred 12/18/10
Thesis / Project completed: 12/18/10

Do players need incentives to explore optional areas? Or, if given the option do players explore without guidance? Are players capable of welcoming new design methods in a familiar game series? This Master’s Thesis investigates these questions and asks whether incentives inherently make players explore optional areas in a traditionally linear game.

In order to test this a non-linear Gears of War level was built over the period of two months. The level gives players the choice to explore optional areas and clear linear objectives. The goal of this map was to provide the player with a new game-play experience in Gears of War and see how they react to it.

There was extensive pre-planning for this level because Gears of War is not traditionally built for non-linear levels. The process of planning, implanting and testing this level pushed the traditional Gears of War gameplay in order to give players an open and free experience.

Download entire thesis (.pdf)