The pacing of the game is also a result of their clever level design. Players are encouraged to move slowly, fighting enemies in turns and strategizing their moves through the levels. To do so, level designers added “fingers”, which were defined by Scott Rogers as small dead ends placed around the main path. These paths can lead you to a reward but, if you rush through the game, you are likely to get ambushed by enemies and find a dead end. This leads to another interesting element of level design, which is placement. Souls games are famous for their challenging enemies and combat scenarios, but what players learn as they progress through the game is that levels are designed to be your allies when you get to know their secrets. In fact, you can use several methods to best your enemies, for instance, you can divide groups of enemies into smaller, more manageable sizes. Players can also use the environment in their favour, using cliffs, traps, and hallways to defeat foes. In fact, using aggro is really useful in many situations since it allows you to bring the fight to your territory.

An additional concept that was introduced in relationship with level design was ‘Exposition’, and I learned more about it through a GDC talk by Greg Kasavin about this topic in video games. In his own words: “A game’s exposition refers to the deliberate arrangement of its content, including its structure, its systems, and its narrative, in support of the game’s experiential goals”. There is an extraordinary amount of care in the creation of Dark Souls’ levels and every element on it follows a purpose and is intentional. This makes players invest in the exploration of the world and is present in every element that Kasavin mentions: Structural, Systemic and Narrative. I believe that there is special care in the systemic exposition elements, which are those that are present in the moment- to-moment gameplay. Players are constantly finding secrets in the shape of shortcuts, checkpoints, narrative pieces like item descriptions and foreshadowing moments. Against all odds, this exploratory freedom given to the player not only does not affect the narrative of the game but allows players to forge their own stories within the game’s narrative.