Reverse Level Design 1

My main goals this year are to develop my communication skills as a level/game designer. I feel confident enough in my abilities to create game concepts and mechanics so this year will be about developing my skills to make those concepts and mechanics actually mean something. Research seems pretty limited in terms of actual level designing; there are few books available to me and even fewer examples of professional industry work. At the moment it seems like I’m going to have to do everything by myself.

The books I have been reading are based more around design philosophies and how to evocate a reaction in the player. They provide great information and advice in general games design experience but again, little to nothing in terms of actually describing the best way to communicate level concept/designs to other people.

When actually playing a game everything is tightly bound together, the sound, art direction, the design and programming all mesh together to create a virtual world in which the player steps into. Trying to look at one of these separately can be tricky with all the other distractions around them.  I was lucky enough to come across The Art of Halo: Creating a Virtual World, which had some of Bungie’s very earlier level design sketches. It’s great to see the first stages of creation, when something went from nothing to something.

Taken from The Art of Halo, Original sketch concepts of levels from Bungie's Halo series.

This inspired a good warm up exercise related to my M.A project, instead of creating a concept on paper with the intention of it being developed into a real game I would do the opposite. I would take an existing game and take it back to the development stages. There are a few reasons for this. First, it will allow me to see that even the most visually impressive game, look exactly the same on paper as a cheap one. Second, it will allow me to see ‘the flow’ of level more clearly, how they are broken up into different gameplay sections. And thirdly, it will let me see which areas of the level are difficult to communicate through visuals.  Hopefully I’ll have the results posted on here soon.