Locations (levels) in computer games

Speaking of locations, the first thing to say is that such notions as «location in space» and «gaming location» must be distinguished.

What is gaming location?

Location in space is the location of the object in the area. This is an indicator that can be determined either by geographic coordinates (GPS) or by reference to local landmarks (around the corner, on a red brick near a store, etc.)

Gaming location (we will talk about this later on) is a strictly certain area, the exit from which is either impossible, or leads to the loading of another location.

Depending on the genre of the game, the concept of location can have different names:

• Level – most often found in arcade games;
• Round is a typical name for fighting games;
• Map – this is what the locations are called in strategies and shooters;
• Board – location designation in various variations of card games;
• The table is the designation of the location in roulette;
• A slot machine is a separate level in slot-like games.

The set of locations determines the general appearance of the game world. If the game does not mean an open world (which we will talk about later), then the locations are separate levels, access to which appears after the successful completion of the previous one or when the necessary conditions are met (see screenshots below).

Galactic map of locations of the game Space Rangers 2: Dominators

Part of the Mystery Match world map, where each level is a separate location

In case of division into separate missions, as it happens, let's say in shooters, the loading time of the location can be used for the mission briefing.

Briefing when loading a mission in the Call of Duty game

«Open game world» means the process of the game, which is not interrupted by loading individual locations. In fact, these are all illusions, as these worlds are also divided into locations, but optimized so that the loading process is imperceptible to the player. There are also games where the world is divided into several large locations, the transition between which is accompanied by a loading process, and each such «megalocation» is divided into smaller ones. By the way, this is relevant for well-optimized games. If the desire, or some other factors, was not enough for the developers, then the players will be waiting for loading at the location joints (as it was in TES III: Morrowind - Fig. 4). Another option for loading a location is to load only the area visible to the player or a certain number of objects at a given distance (detailed in the picture).

A visual illustration of how explicit location separation can affect the game experience, where «step left, step right» causes the adjacent location to load

Different visibility ranges in WoW

Different drawing range of trees in the game TES V: Skyrim

In general, whatever names are applied to «location», they all mean the same thing, namely – a deliberately certain game area.