What goes into level design?

I'm gonna be 100% honest here, I know absolutely nothing about level design. I read a single article on side-scroller game level design, and that's literally my entire education on the subject.

I've come to the point in development, where I have enough to actually start working on the levels, and I know what would look cool, but I want to make good levels, not just good looking ones. I want levels that make sense, and that help show the story.

I don't want to do something like pay for an online course or something like that (I know there are going to be people that have a problem with me saying this), but I need to know the basics of how level design works. Like what goes into the decisions level designers make.

Is it all just thinking of how to portray the world and story, while thinking about "what looks cool", or is there a whole lot of terminology and ideologies involved?

Can someone help me out? Again, I can make something that looks cool, but I want to make sure that it will actually turn out to be a good level, and that I'm making the right type of decisions.

For example, let's say my game is going to have a maze (it's not). I can google something about mazes, and will probably find a video talking about a game, and all the things that make its maze an amazing one, and I won't have thought of any of the things pointed out, and my maze will look horrible compared to the one in the video.

So what stuff do I need to know about designing levels, to make stuff that actually works?

And just fyi, it's not going to be the type of game that has hidden areas, or enemies, or anything like that. It's pretty much a walking simulator for the most part, so environment building and attention to detail is going to be very important (I think I can take care of that part fairly easily).

 

At it's most pure definition, level design is the expression of the game design structured into a progression, which mean everything that makes the game evolve not just a "physical" level. Level building is the process of turning level design into implemented asset inside the game engine.

I'll be back with resources later, that's me subscribing to the thread.

 

Thank you so much.
Just those few sentences alone gave me a lot of insight, and opened up my mind a little.
Looking forwards to reading more from you.

 

I think in terms of games one important aspect for level design is how to lead/direct or gain attention from the player to the places you want them to like as example in a labyrinth, you would want to make sure that the player has some visual points of reference, kind of like memorable checkpoints to get through the labyrinth without giving up frustrated because everything looks the same. some points of interest that lure the player could be also helpful, like making a wall out of iron bars, so you would be able to see that something interesting is behind it and pushes the player to try to find out how to get there.
And actually part of level design is also balancing and playtesting it, if you notice that even knowing the path to that "awesome secret" is starting to annoy you to walk, because you would be missing interesting points inbetween and the path is simply taking too long, then you could say for sure that this also applies to players, even more so, since they need to figure out the path.

You can apply this also to open world design, where points of interest might be mountains rising from a fog in the distance or dark caves with some glowy bits here and there, runestones placed in the world at seemingly random places. If you want people to explore, give them things to find, if you want them to follow a path, give them a path (either literally or through building obstacles that hinder players movement if they try to get off of it) or through visually forming a path like a river or placing clues on where to go around the area that always hints to the next place to go etc.

practically depending on game you want to use leveldesign for enhancing game mechanics (in a platformer, if your game is a lot about jumping, you want to have as much jumping opportunities as possible, that are progressively getting more complex and challenging) or you want to use leveldesign as a background for your story etc.

Also, while there are similarities between the genres in terms of leveldesign, I do think it makes a difference, if you make a platformer or open world or something entirely different and I would go and look for articles/tutorials on the specific genres and maybe also check out game design, cause they go hand in hand as far as I know.

 

Gamasutra has a gazillion free articles and videos on level design. You might start with Beginning Level Design, and then read Secrets of the Sages: Level Design and Composition in Level Design.

Beginning Level Design will give you a good grounding, and the other two articles will break down how to make fun, effective levels. Secrets of the Sages will give you tips for making the level more enjoyable to navigate, while Composition in Level Design will help you design your levels to better convey the story, emotions, and vision of your game.

 

TonyLi, more like TonyLit.

 

I almost threw my phone haha. I may give those a look too.

 

Also check out extra credits on YouTube. While they do have their biases, they are a pretty good resource. Especially useful for times when you don't have the energy to actually work.

 

Great advice. Could have used that a few hours ago, I'm beat but don't want to waste time. I did anyway (thanks overwatch)

 

Call it research.

 

I mostly read articles @ http://worldofleveldesign.com/
They mostly use Source Engine and Unreal but the design articles is quite inspiring...

 

There is so much that can be said, for level design.
So for now, I'll come back, when I have a simple, easy to understand answer.

 

This is a subject I've recently had to dive into myself and I've even started work recording a level-designing session that I'll be posting on youtube soon. Admittedly, I'm rather new to this so to make things more clear for myself I've laid out some general guidelines that help keep me focused. Hopefully you'll find some use from these as well.

1) Narrative: What is the narrative as the player progresses through a level. Keep in mind, this doesn't just mean 'story'. It's more of a non-tangible, emotional feeling. Should they feel stressed? Heroic? Scared? Curious? Should tension build or release at certain parts? And how quickly should that happen?

2) Metrics: This takes into account the mechanical abilities of the player and npcs. Things like running speed, jump distances, field of view, range of sight. All need to be considered and almost certainly these factors should be nailed down before you start any real work on levels.

3) Technical Limitations: You need to understand the technology your are using and how to maximize its effect without over taxing your target low-end hardware. Luckily, for most small indie projects, this is likely to be the least important issue simply due to the fact that graphical fidelity and limit-pushing technology is rarely the biggest concern.

4) Mechanics: I've taken Mark Brown's 'Mario Level Design Formula' to heart for this one. Levels often should provide new and interesting twists that layer on top of the basic gameplay concept. The goal of levels should then be to simultaneously teach these mechanics to the player as well as challenge their understanding and execution along the way with new, interesting, and difficulty-ramping ways.

 

Partly as a shameless self-promotion and partly as providing a more detailed insight to my own mind when designing levels.