Hey guys, this wasn’t the next post I was planning on doing but I thought I would just share this quick info.
This post is about LDs doing more research before starting their work on their levels. I know this sounds like an obvious part of level design but I see a lot of young level designers go in and making the level instantly without much thought. I was guilty of this when I was younger as well.
So what research am I referring to for level design then? First think of the theme of your level, such as Victorian, utility, native, etc. Now start look into the architecture and how their structures of these buildings, what rooms they have. Toilets, kitchens, construction.
Each of these layout will be different depending on the theme and will obtain different items as well due to the theme. This will not only help influence your design but also help your artist (or artistic side depending how you are working) understand how to decorate your level and may possibly help you guys come up with interesting methods to sign post.
Another reason is you never know what you might see, which could inspire your design and provide you with something even more incredible.
For example look at this power plant, which in my opinion is super cool, this top catwalk is interesting as instead of the bridges connected maybe the player has to rotate them from the ground floor to get them to join. With all these layers and sections, it looks like a great area for traversal. Being able to go up, around and under this area is amazing.
Now when it comes to white boxing your level you will be able to show this to your artist and they will be able understand what you mean by those giant boxes. Pictures speak a thousand words.
Now if you were to put a twist on this power plant and want to give it a twsit to make it feel like a maze, now you want to start the reference pictures for mazes.
So now we can see that there dead ends but also viewpoints to allow players to find their bearings. When designing this level we can add vantage points for players to scan the area for clues.
Summary on why research/reference is important:
- Give you a better understanding of what is believable in this theme.
- Provide an idea for your artist on what you want.
- Inspire your design choices
Hope this helps and makes you think about carrying out research before starting on your level. Which will make it better.
Thanks guys