Did I miss anything out? What kind of challenges do you have when it comes to designing good level layouts?

@achillesmaziotisvasileiou9309

Жыл бұрын

Player Navigations without ui , navigation with : Environment , Lighting , Items , Npc , etc. In general if the player can navigate without ui , i think your Level is in very good condition and also you need to have in mind the problems that you mention . . . btw much love , I love your videos and the discord community .

@timdoesleveldesign

Жыл бұрын

As opposed to going too big, you'll also often see levels that are exactly fitted to the size that the intended gameplay and content requires. This tends to feel unnatural and "gamey" and can make the level feel too busy. Don't be afraid of using some negative space to balance out your composition and help bring the attention to where you need it! :)

@timdoesleveldesign

Жыл бұрын

Ooh, one that comes up every now and then: dealing with verticality in the early phases of design when working with node maps/bubble diagrams/top-down layouts etc.

It's funny how true the "too big" bulletpoint is. As someone who's having his first professional experience with level design for a project at work, initially I was doing the level blockouts on a separate project from the actual game we're working on, and as soon as I got access to the actual project and started moving things over, I realized my maps were huge and I shrunk everything by like 50%, if not more!

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Hehe yeah, I did it too - there's a level in Bulletstorm that I worked on (Jumpship Takeoff) and I shake my head whenever I think about how excessively big some of the spaces are, even in the shipped version :)

LD community need contents like this to speed up their learning progress and put time more on meaningful and more polish stuff in their layout. Thanks for it Steve, keep it up 👍🏼❤

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Cheers Amin 👍

A really great video. I’m working on a small project that started as “open world”, but even I get lost and get bored running from one section to another. The point about verticality really hit me when I started playing Uncharted recently. The level design is great (imho) and so different from me just trying to make reasonable hills and land that isn’t too flat. The point of having blocked areas where the layer doesn’t need to go but the environment still “looks” open is crucial. I came up on the hidden problem when laying out a starting area where I want the player to walk through a canyon before they see the cool building… so I had to move the building 😂

This channel is one of the most underrated I've seen this year so far. Watched the 3 part level design guide, great breakdown and iterative process! The more mistakes are discussed, the more ways one can improve.

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Great to hear, cheers :)

I feel like for every game that's open, samey, and empty, there's another one that's claustrophobic, cluttered, and chaotic. Balance is hard.

Never change your pronunciation of the word linear!

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Haha - I know I'm saying it wrong, but maybe I'll stick to my guns anyway

YT just recommended your video and it's been really useful and helpful to me, some of the tips were new for me and I'll surely take them into my account for the future. My main problem is the urge to build up "too big" spaces, I already knew about this problem before, because of how demanding and stretching it is to fill up, elaborate, test, etc just for one big room. Even though in some of my maps I've managed to build up and elaborate on my desired enormous spaces, I'd still prefer to shrink them down by 50% at least from their original size, but I guess it's still experience and challanges after all. Anyway, Thank you so much for your succinct, but really helpful video for level design!

@stevelee_gamedev

3 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful, cheers :)

The issues of "Too Big" and "Too Open" became really obvious to me when going from Hotline Miami 1 to 2. For whatever reason the levels went from expertly crafted puzzle boxes to baby's first CS map.

You may have the best level design philosophy videos on KZread. This is coming from a 15 year hobbyist level designer for Halo games. Steve what would is cost to get you in on a level design talk podcast/interview?

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Cheers! I’ve been on the Level Design Podcast, and also Pete Bottomley’s Realtime Roots podcast, if that helps :) Or do you mean your own podcast?

My professor recommended your channel to us last quarter. Your channel is so good!

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Awesome to hear, cheers :)

Unbelievably insightful. Thank you for this high effort

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Aww cheers - great to hear you find it useful 👍

I did notice that the first version of a blockout tends to be a bit too big. For myself it's usually not realizing how big everything actually is even when using a reference model.

Each of these topics could be a great basis for a video of their own with some examples from other games and a showcase of you fixing the issue in a blockout example! Also thanks for yet another wonderful and informative video :)

This video was EXCELLENT, simply EXCELLENT...!!! This is exactly what I've been asking you to do in a lot of my questions. Tell us what to do and how to do it and what not to do, just like you did here. This was a fantastic guide to helping us design better levels. Some of the things you put forth here are so important, but often overlooked, that this is what makes your channel so useful to aspiring level developers or game developers THANK YOU!!!! Keep more of this coming.

Enjoyed the video Steve! I thought you were going to touch on it a couple of times but I’d say, the use of contrasting scale is a very powerful tool. For example, taking the player through a tight enclosed space before emerging out into a large open area to really emphasise the difference in scale and the feel of an area.

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Yeah totally - I kinda held that it back as something to talk about more fully in a separate video sometime ;)

@cardo128

Жыл бұрын

@@stevelee_gamedev I look forward to watching that one 😊

Great video Steve. Thanks for sharing your tips :)

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Cheers, glad you like it 👍

Thanks for another great video Steve, appreciate the hard work 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Cheers Ahmet, appreciate the kind words 👍

Great advices to keep in mind, thanks !

Your videos bring a lot of value to designers. Keep up the amazing work 😎

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Cheers Raees :)

Very Insightful, yes I made all those mistakes. Thank you for sharing your experience.

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Thanks, you're welcome 👍

I Just realised.. I'm doing the exact opposite of some of the problems that he mentioned. But it's also a problem 😅 so guys keep a balance always

Great resource! :) Also really like ur style of the vids, like the positive video examples of how its done Right.. and thats a cool way to say 'linear';)

@stevelee_gamedev

5 ай бұрын

Haha I've started pronouncing linear properly, out of pure self-consciousness. Maybe I'll sneak my weird way of saying it back into some future videos though... (Glad you like the videos!)

@Nyllsor

5 ай бұрын

@@stevelee_gamedev Looking forward to anything you wish to upload :) Thx again!!

Great video! Instant sub

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Cheers Ben, great to hear :)

@bencourtemanche

Жыл бұрын

@@stevelee_gamedev Been watching a bunch of your vids they're all so good! Your videos are very inspiring and informative. I'm currently in my second year studying Game Design and I'm very interested in level design. I'll definitely have to check out the patreon as this seems like a great community to be a part of👍

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

@@bencourtemanche Cool, would be great to see you on the Discord - any questions, let me know 👍

Fantastic content, thank you

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Glad you like it, cheers :)

As a junior level designer (1 year in industry, vr games) i need to admit that i've learnead a lot from your channel. Level design is a complicated subject. I'm glad that your channel exist :) I have a question: do you think i should learn some texturing or programming ? In a case of the next job and to self development. There are wide range of needed skills between companies and i'm little confused :)

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Hey, that's great to hear that my videos have been useful, cheers! Have you encountered level design jobs where texturing or programming have been asked for? That seems fairly unusual to me - particularly texturing. But learning to code can be a nice bonus, and open up certain doors in the long term (particularly if you want to do game design as well as level design).

@MatroxDeRasta

Жыл бұрын

@@stevelee_gamedev Hey Steve. In our industry in Poland, the requirements for level design differ from each other. For Unreal 5, they put a lot of emphasis on blueprints. In Unity, in turn, basic knowledge of C #. Sometimes it goes the other way and they focus on, for example, setting lighting or texturing. Also we have two options to choose from - more technical or graphic. That's why it's a bit hard to find the right company that will appreciate your level designer's assets because knowledge of the engine matters as much ;)

Such an interesting video, thank you! When you first design a level, what are the steps that you follow? Do you go directly into blockout? Or make a kind of "blueprint" of how the level would look?

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Hey Bogdan, glad you like the video :) My first steps in the level design process is often to understand what I'm doing and plan things out in a text file - I made a video about it here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/YnqH1dV9h6isfMY.html

Hi, I am really curious on what Dishonored 2 levels you worked on. I recently played through it and I really enjoyed the level design.

@stevelee_gamedev

9 ай бұрын

Hi - the Dust District was the level I was the main LD on, and I also helped out a teeny bit with the first mission, and one of the later ones :)

Subtle trick to bend linear into a different word just to make sure we stay attentive. ☺

Imagine how much better Starfield could have been if the devs had watched this video first.

Hello, do you offer any level design courses? Do you have a forum for questions? Or can't you make questions in your course? Thank you

@stevelee_gamedev

5 ай бұрын

I don't offer any courses, - the closest thing is that I run a level design Discord community, and we do level design jams every few months. Supporting the Patreon gets you instant lifetime access... ;) www.patreon.com/stevelee_gamedev

+1

Spaces way too big? You mean like Starfield?

what's "lineer"? do you mean linear?

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Yes :)

Greg Linnear

@stevelee_gamedev

Жыл бұрын

Gary Linearker