Game Level Design (Game Development Series)

As a level designer in the game industry you can determine exactly what the player sees, hears, and feels in the game. The reward of seeing your game on a store shelf or hearing people talk about one of your levels is an incredibly fulfilling experience. If this is a path you want to take, Game Level Design will show you the way.This book is about the fundamentals of level design: it teaches you common procedures for designing, drafting, and creating interactive environments for games. It explains what level design is, where it came from, and, most important, how to plan, design, and construct levels professionally for modern-day computer and video games. Throughout the book, practical explanations and demonstrations use the basic, advanced, and real-world techniques needed to create game levels for hit titles. It also uses historical examples, interviews with outstanding level designers, and a focus on professional level design, to teach game developers of all levels, from amateur "mod" mappers to seasoned multi-title veterans, how to implement these techniques into your own projects. Although the content in the book uses many examples from popular genres, such as first-person shooters (FPS), action adventures, and real-time strategy (RTS) games, the approach is designed to teach level design as a genre- and platform-independent craft. All games need to take place in environments, and by extension, the rules of level design apply to all games to some degree, so with the skills and techniques you learn here, you'll be ready for any level challenge.