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Be a level designer or hire a level designer which is the true way

Discussion in 'Game Design' started by mfatihbarut, Dec 21, 2020.

  1. mfatihbarut

    mfatihbarut

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2018
    Posts:
    1,059
    Hi all,
    I am a programmer who has experience enough to finish an indie game (the first time).
    I am working on a mobile tower defense game.
    The thing is I stuck at level design (Graphical background of it).
    Even though I can draw 3D machine like props I have no artistic talent therefore can't design a level.
    Btw 100x100 (comparatively very small) clean and clear low poly design does the job like attached picture.
    I believe I really can finish a successful tower defense game which has original concepts but still paying for a level designer is a little bit bigger risk than I can take. Starting a journey to be "Level designer" without an Artistic talent also makes me worried.
    Therefore any recommendations would be very appreciated.
     

    Attached Files:

    EternalAmbiguity likes this.
  2. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    Apr 10, 2012
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    12,670
    It's good that you recognize that 3D modeling and level design are different disciplines. Just because someone can create nice 3D models doesn't mean they've developed the skills to arrange them in a way that looks good and is fun to play.

    Level design is going to cost you one way or another: you can pay someone else to use the skills that they have spent time developing, or you can invest the time yourself to develop those skills, at the expense of taking time away from other tasks such as programming, testing, marketing, etc.

    Maybe you can find a collaborator who is willing to risk working on the promise of revenue share. Many experienced developers will not take this risk because it's unlikely that they'll receive any payment in the end. But you might get lucky. If you're making the game as a hobby and not a commercial venture, then you could either find someone else who is interested in joining you to work on it for free as their hobby, or you could add learning level design as part of your hobby.

    As a programmer, you have the advantage that you can write code to do some work. You could set up analytics, get playtesters to play, and then study the analytics to identify problem areas in your levels. Or you could set up ML to automatically play and adjust your levels to maximize some criteria of "fun".
     
  3. mfatihbarut

    mfatihbarut

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    thanks, but believe me "having fun" is not the main issue at my stage.
    Because there is no stage /floor to stay on to, at all.
     
  4. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    I mean defining criteria that would mean the level is "fun" to play for players and then writing ML to test against those criteria. But that may be beyond what you want to do, so there's analytics, a rev share partner, or studying level design yourself.
     
    angrypenguin likes this.
  5. mfatihbarut

    mfatihbarut

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    Let me tell you another way
    Sponge Bob: Where is the Car?
    Patric: Where is the road? road? road?
     
  6. TonyLi

    TonyLi

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    I'm saying that if you want to create levels yourself, you can use your programming skills to help. Make a basic level, test it, and then improve it based on ML or playtester analytics.
     
  7. mfatihbarut

    mfatihbarut

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    I found a free and ready to use level props (looking very professional), happy to solved my problem.
     
  8. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    However, it sounds like you, @mfatihbarut, may be confusing art skills with level design skills. From the following:
    Art skills are about making things look good. Level design is about crafting a particular interactive experience.

    Start by figuring out what the experience you want people to have on each level is. Then decide what each level should have, and how it should be laid out, to best achieve that. Thankfully for the majority of games much of this can be done with simple shapes and colour theory, so you don't need art until some ways into the process. I believe that would very much hold true for a tower defence.
     
    Martin_H, Ryiah, TonyLi and 1 other person like this.
  9. BIGTIMEMASTER

    BIGTIMEMASTER

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    5,181
    Dont hire people until you've already published and sold a game (or a few) and made some profit from it.

    Make do with whatever lousy art you can create or otherwise acquire. Games don't require nice looking art. That is just a bonus that helps them sell. Like fake tits. They grab eyeballs but they don't win friends and influence people. So don't worry about it unless you are trying to get hired as an artist.

    Learn to use correct terminology to communicate with precision. Will be a disaster working on a team if you can't do that.
     
  10. warthos3399

    warthos3399

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    Relax...take a breath...You stated that you have created all the GFX for the game, and from the SS, it looks really good. So just let your level build itself from your vision. You had to have a vision of what you wanted, when you thought of it, right?.

    You dont need to hire a game designer, its in you, you just need to see...
     
  11. yzRambler

    yzRambler

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    Jan 24, 2019
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    It's long way from good idea to archieved. More pratices and more attempt.