Level Design

Tips and tricks

Take this site with a grain of salt because I don't have professional experience nor I can prove or disprove anything which I wrote about. The main goal is to learn. Read other sources and then produce texts, give hints and tips and apply the acquired knowledge in my own levels. To write about level design is also a learning process.

One of the most important parts of a game is for the environment to be intelligible and easy to navigate. A confusing environment leaves the player lost without a sense of direction. A good level design should provide hints and be navigable in a way that allows the player to find its way. In some aspects it can share concepts with the urban planning of cities.

Every level has a more rational and logic side that is about function. At the same time there is the artistic side that is about expressing emotions. Both sides should talk to each other in a level. In some cases the emotions are more important. In other cases the function is more important. There isn't a single and universal solution for all problems. What can't happen is for a level to be a problem for both the player and the game.

• Begin and planning
  • Top down vs. Bottom up
  • Floorplan
  • Blockout
  • Too many routes
  • Realistic vs. Fantasy
• Gameplay design
  • Bad pathing
  • Traps
  • Random challenges
  • Well made challenges
  • Challenges lacking explanation
  • Incoherent obstacles or challenges
  • This is not fun
  • Landmarks
  • Lack of landmarks
  • Good pathing
  • Paths outside the player's view
  • Confusing paths
  • Loop design or circular paths
  • When details conflict with the gameplay
• Architecture and design
  • Unrecognizable form and function
  • Incoherent architecture
  • Lack of any sense
  • Bad texture and lighting
  • Exploring the environment
  • Good examples of coherence and cohesion
  • Problematic collision
  • Scale and proportion
  • Terrain
• Textures and lighting
  • Good contrast
  • Excess of contrast
  • Lack of contrast
  • Ambient lighting
• Storytelling
  • Progression and linearity
  • Good examples
  • Bad examples
  • Cultural references
  • Good scripted events
  • Bad scripted events
• Technical side
• Books
  • The Hows and Whys of Level Design
• List of level design references

• Errors and learning
• Mark Rosewater - 20 years, 20 lessons
  • Fighting against human nature is a losing battle
  • Aesthetics matter
  • Resonance is important
  • Make use of piggybacking
  • Don't confuse "interesting" with "fun"
  • Understand what emotion your game is trying to evoke
  • Allow the players the ability to make the game personal
  • The details are where the players fall in love with your game
  • Allow your players to have a sense of ownership
  • Leave room for the player to explore
  • If everyone likes your game but no one loves it, it will fail
  • Don't design to prove you can do something
  • Make the fun part also the correct strategy to win
  • Don't be afraid to be blunt
  • Design the component for its intended audience
  • Be more afraid of boring your players than challenging them
  • You don't have to change much to change everything
  • Restrictions breed creativity
  • Your audience is good at recognizing problems and bad at solving them
  • All the lessons connect
• Mark Rosewater - Life and design lessons
  • If your theme isn't common, it isn't your theme
  • Every set is someone's first set
  • Sometimes on the way to beautiful, you have a lot of chaos
  • You have to be willing to question your absolutes
  • Stop trying to make the thing everyone else wants you to make. Make the thing you want to make. You're at you're best when you're passionate about what you're doing. Find your passion
  • The right answer is not always apparent at first
  • Look outside the box only after you've looked inside it
  • If you can do without it, do without it
  • If it doesn't fit, don't force it
  • Listen to the uninvested
  • Nothing is set in stone
  • Everything affects everything
  • Give yourself time
  • Mistakes are valuable
  • Don't fight human nature
  • Pay attention to feedback
• Sam Stoddard - Development lessons
  • Nothing beats good process
  • Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
  • Math is more reliable than intuition
  • Don't try to fix everything at once
  • Try the wrong way first
  • Change is good... and frightening
  • Listen to dissenting voices
  • Making Magic sets is really hard

...

Curiosity

There is something that goes wrong in the brain of some people that causes a severe inability to memorize paths and/or a lack of sense of direction. In a game a person may get lost and more often this is caused by the level design itself. If you extend that to real cities and parks, the architecture and design choices made may cause people to get lost in there. However, for some people getting lost and lacking a sense of direction is way beyond the average and they have trouble inside schools, buildings, colleges or supermarkets. There is no specific cause but it seems to have roots in genetics.

• Directional Dyslexia - Reading Well
• Problem with remembering routes - Memory Improvements Tips
• Why Certain People Have a Terrible Sense of Direction - David Ludden