Advice for designing/building a 3D world.

I'm currently building a 3D platformer (like Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie) using Blender and Unity and I'm finding it somewhat difficult to design and build a 3D world suitable for 3D platforming. Right now, I have a list of areas that I would like to see in a level e.g. giant fountain, sunken ship, courtyard, etc. From there, I draw a map on paper and write down where I want each area to be. That's not too hard to accomplish, but the difficult part is turning that into a 3D world that feels good for platforming. I've been using Blender for a while now so the issue isn't whether or not I can build 3D models. What's a good process for designing/building an entire level from start to finish? What are some tips and/or pointers you find helpful that may help me in designing/building a 3D world?

Any help/advice is greatly appreciated.

 

First read Dan Taylor's Ten Principles of Good Level Design.

Then jot down the purpose of the level:

• What are the navigation features?
• What's the story? (The level design can tell a story as much as words can.)
• What does this level show/teach the player?

You might want to record some other info, too, such as how long the level should take to play, depending on your game.

Next, gray box (aka white box) your level. You might find this article helpful. Continually playtest your gray box design until it's fun. If it's not fun with gray boxes, it probably still won't be fun once you add detailed models.

 

Thanks for the info! I just read Ten Principles of Good Level Design and it definitely has a lot of useful information. I'm definitely going to take a pause and do more pre-planning for my game and first level, then I'll be sure to graybox and playtest that before doing anything detailed.