The Effects of Adding Stealth Gameplay to the Level Building Process of an Action Game
By: Steve Baroski
Supervisor: Myque Ouellette
Masters of Interactive Technology degree conferred May 17, 2008
Thesis / Project completed: February 28, 2007

As video games increase in popularity and in quantity, there is a somewhat natural progression towards the mixing of various genres.  Action games seem to be the most viable platform for this genre-mixing; Role Playing Game-style stat-boosting, puzzle-based or sports-based mini-games, platforming-style jumping puzzles, have all managed to seep into various action games, often in a hope to provide some variance to the gameplay experience. Stealth gameplay is one particular pseudo-genre that has even managed to become the entire focus of an action game, creating a new genre in and of itself. This begs the question, what exactly happens to the design process of an action game when an entire new gameplay style is introduced and uses the same playspace? Can one effectively create a level that satisfies players of both genres? This thesis aims to study the effects of adding a new gameplay style to an existing level that uses an almost contradictory play style.

The results of this study show that playtesters enjoyed both stealth gameplay and action gameplay when used in a single playspace. While there were certain conscious decisions and tools catered specifically towards stealth gameplay used during the design process, the result was generally positive, even with slightly flawed stealth implementation.

Download entire thesis (.pdf)