Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 12
General Principles
of Level Design
If you have ever found yourself admiring the environment of a game or enjoying
the way the game's challenges keep you guessing, you are appreciating the work of
that game's level designer. The level designer creates not only the space in which
the game takes place—its furnishings and backgrounds—but also the player's
moment-by-moment experience of the game, and much of its emotional context.
Successful level designers draw on fundamental design principles that apply to any
kind of game, such as ensuring the player always knows his short-term goals and
the consequences of risks, as well as design principles specific to the type of game
being designed. Level designers work closely with the game designer to make sure
layouts are appropriate for the storyline and to achieve the atmosphere and pacing
required to keep players engaged in the game world. Level design will not be a
quick and easy process if you do it right. This chapter will identify 11 steps that the
level designer takes, from initial handoff to user testing. The final section details
problems to avoid in the level design process, including the key directive to never
lose sight of your audience.
What Is Level Design?
Chapter 2, “Design Components and Processes,” described level design as the pro-
cess of constructing the experience that will be offered directly to the player, using
components provided by the game designer. Note that the terms
game designer
and
level designer
are not interchangeable but refer to separate roles that, on larger devel-
opment teams, are almost always played by different members of the team. In the
rest of this topic, the word
you
means
the reader as game designer
, but in this chapter
only,
you
indicates
the reader as level designer
.
Level designers create the following essential parts of the player's experience:
The space in which the game takes place.
If the game includes a simulated
space, as most do, then level design includes creating that space using a 2D or 3D
modeling tool. While game designers determine what
kinds
of things will be in the
game world, level designers determine precisely
what features
will be in each level of
the game world and where these features will be. Level designers take the game
designer's general plans for levels and make them specific and concrete.
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