A GAMES DESIGN BLOG

I’m always keeping an eye out for good Level Design resources to recommend to people as I believe that it is a hideously under-documented topic and what documentation does exist is often buried deep in forums, wikis or blogs. The remainder I find isn’t actually useful documentation that Designers can learn from. A large part of this is due to the way the information is presented and written rather than the quality of the advice. 

So in the interests of trying to aggregate the genuinely useful links I find I shall be trying to keep this post up to date with what I find.

Single-Player

• Level Design Pre-Production - Dating back to 2003 this article goes over the practical aspects of actually designing a level layout before you start building it.
• Using Loop Layouts - From the Valve Community Wiki. This is a concise and to the point explanation of using looping layouts in single Player Levels with several case-studies from Valve Games.
• Bouncing or Back-Tracking – Also from the Valve Wiki another concise page detailing effective use of Back-Tracking or “Bounces” in Level Layouts. Again lots of excellent case-studies.
• Color Theory – Another page from the Valve Wiki! This page ties-in with what I describe in Continuity Level Design about contrast and composition but also covers more general color theory.

Multiplayer

• Competitive Level Design – Dating all the way back to Quake 3 this page is an excellent grounding in the tactical and strategic considerations required by designing competitive maps.
• Level Design Patterns – (Warning PDF Alert!) Skip to Page 10 for the useful stuff. A Good grounding with Case Studies on common Patterns in Level Design. The Principles can be applied to other genres than FPS games quite easily.
• Making de_dust – Proof that it’s better to be lucky than smart the creator of the worlds most played Level takes you through the creation of de_dust.

Similar Posts:

• 7 Ways to Make Your AI Smarter
• Gut Feelings: A Review
• Basing Level Design on Concept Art
• Understanding Games
• Continuity Level Design