Level Design

  I don’t know much about level design to be honest so I have been looking through a few websites gathering some information from tutorials and articles. It’s quite clear how much planning and preparation is put into the design before it started. I will go through a process I think is a general guideline I think everyone seems to stick to when creating an environment. The majority of artists I have looked at have planned and executed a whole map in just 3weeks. I’m guessing this must be industry standard but I think time management is vital when doing so.

 This is the basic work flow I have come across with most artists but i have been looking at one in particular named Alex A.Galuzin

Ideas – Initial vision of the level, what it consists of. This will mainly be images of things that trigger your imagination, put them all down on a mood board and write a list of the things you want to include, don’t set a technical limit yet. Get some cool ideas to work from for inspiration then you can move on.

Reference – Collect reference images, get a feel for the atmosphere you want to create, this gives you a better image in your head of what you want to achieve in the end.

Visualization – this puts you into the mindset, it’s very important to see your final product before it is done. If this doesn’t happen you will be doing it by trial and error which will equal bad planning and a lot of frustration.

 

 

Planning and Execution – Sketch out a few visually pleasing guidelines of what you think the map will look like for example a top down view of how it will play out and where you would want the player to explore. After this you can jump in to the editor and starts blocking in big shapes in your map, no details just get the basics down roughly.

 

 

Atmosphere - Set the scene outside the environment to create the feel you wanted. Add the sky and terrain to see how the space will look, again not much detail the basic lights.

Playable Map – Test the map, run around in it, see if you like how the map is planned out. Having no details on the map at this stage will help you really concentrate on the layout itself.

Textures – Start blocking in your textures and getting rid of the checked patterns!

Adding Objects – Any objects you wanted to include can now be modelled and textured it’s like a phase one of putting in the detail. Still at this stage add the big details then go to the small and don’t just concentrate one area of the map.

Adding Objects Phase 2 – Strat detailing specific details of the map, polish up individual areas.

Lights – Add the light you think will create the best atmosphere you want to achieve

Gameplay – As well as you ask other to play the map, they will probably find flaws that you won’t!

 

  Following these artists has given me such a better idea of what level design is all about and how to develop my own ideas. I will do more research like this when it comes to group projects!!