Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #leveldesign

Most recents (24)

Since everything I am doing right now is under lovely NDA, I decided to share my experience for #leveldesign portfolio demonstartion. Moreover, it is not a really well-known topic.

#Blocktober #gamedevs
Structure

Usually, people use principle "the better, the higher on the page", but I decided to start as I start in the real life:
-References
-Level flow plan
-Killer-futures
-Art
Aaaaaaannnnndddd... Remember - no gameplay videos with comments.
References

I upload all my references, so people will be able to understand better my initial goal and how I think. This is a part of my #leveldesign #portfolio work:
richard_grey.artstation.com/projects/RnnA4e
Read 12 tweets
I'm researching how "Gestalt Laws" can affect and enhance #leveldesign and #gameart design thinking.

This time it is the "Law of Proximity"

Everything is pretty basic when dissecting it, but knowing the rules before breaking them is what matters here ๐Ÿฅณ

A thread! ๐Ÿงต1/9 Image
๐Ÿงต2/9
Close proximity creates unity and readability. Pushing objects apart creates groupings. But it is a greyzone.

When is unity broken..? Image
๐Ÿงต3/9 Image
Read 10 tweets
wohooo! a #leveldesign #gamedev #portfolio thread!
My class finally completed their journey in setting up their folios and will start searching for studios to join!

Interested in seeing how a 2022 design folio can look like? Dive in! ๐Ÿ˜…
๐Ÿงต1/16
Read 16 tweets
A continuation on my Gestalt research & how it can help World Building. Rearranging objects to create different feelings.
Building Worlds is a team effort as always! โค๏ธ
But this mainly focused on #leveldesign & #gameart

1st up is designing for speed!
This is a thread ๐Ÿงต1/9
This thread focus on the Gestalt principle of "Prรคgnanz" or "Good Gestalt". Meaning that individual object should be arranged so that they together become ordered and create meaning.

Here we arrange objects to try to create the emotion of Caution!
๐Ÿงต2/9
And now we rearrange the objects to try to spark curiosity!

๐Ÿงต3/9
Read 10 tweets
Occluders! ๐Ÿงฑ
Breaking sightlines. Better post this before this old #leveldesign trick becomes redundant due to performance no longer being an issue ๐Ÿ˜…

Kidding!
Breaking sightlines will forever be important when World Building! ImageImageImageImage
There was some healthy discourse around the notion of using occluders for performance in modern games.

It is still very relevant due to the vast number of machines that we deliver games to...

๐Ÿงต2/5
My examples are purposely simplified and brings thoughts to old CS and Quake maps. But the technique is used in many many modern games in various forms and shapes (mountain ridges, canyons, cityblocks, etc)

๐Ÿงต3/5
Read 5 tweets
Incoming #leveldesign update on the @PlayApex map Iโ€™ve been building in #UE4. I've been looking at how the LD in Arenas support the combat loop and tried to match that a bit more.

Here's an updated top down. *Some small changes noted below aren't added. 1/12
So, none of these Arena maps are created equal. I also dislike turning maps into formulas but kind of have to if I am going to rationalize things without the resources or people to test the map. I might be way off with some of this stuff. 2/12
Okay so, looking at the existing layouts there's somewhat of a 3 lane structure. When you head L or R from the spawns you have a mostly safe path that connects to a point of interest. 3/12
Read 12 tweets
Incoming #LevelDesign update on this #ApexLegends Arena map.

After playing the mode a lot, I have a clearer sense of the experience and what these spaces provide from the LD side. As expected, this helped drive some changes to what I was building๐Ÿ˜Š 1/16
For this thread, letโ€™s take a look at the spawn areas and how they are set up. What Iโ€™ve noticed in game:

1.) For the 2 new maps (Phaserunner and Party Crasher) there are set spawn rooms to contain players during the strat/buy phase of each round. 2/16
For Artillery, they arenโ€™t using the new spawn room but players are still locked into a set area. I would imagine this is because the geo is reused from Kings Canyon. We might see this in other reused PoIโ€™s from the BR mode. If itโ€™s not broken donโ€™t fix it, right? 3/16
Read 16 tweets
A thread ๐Ÿงต
Avoiding bad tangents in composition.
Important for #gameart and our Environment Artists.

But also important for us #leveldesign:ers to understand and to avoid!
1/7 Image
2/7
Obviously really hard (impossible!) to avoid tangents in all situations. But sometimes we know exactly where the player stands! Image
3/7
Tangents is an unfortunate wording.. ๐Ÿ™
Often confused with the math counterpart... Image
Read 8 tweets
Incoming #LevelDesign thread.

The new Arenas mode in #ApexLegends looks awesome. As a challenge, I timeboxed myself a few hours over the weekend to design a space for it. I used only the gameplay trailer to figure out the scale/general layout. Here's what I have so far. 1/7
Here is the top-down

So, my daughter is super into spiders and ants ATM. Thatโ€™s where the main focal point came from. Maybe its gathering/filtering water and got destroyed/ broke down. Itโ€™s split in half and would have interiors and ziplines attached from the nearby cliffs. 2/7
The legs are climbable, bent in weird angles, and broken to offer some fun navigation/KOTH moments.

I'm not an expert on Apex lore, but there's a lot of weird giant machines and dinosaurs. So this is fine, right? 3/7
Read 7 tweets
๐Ÿ”ธ๐–๐š๐ง๐ง๐š ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐œ๐ก ๐ญ๐จ ๐€๐ง๐ญ๐ข-๐œ๐š๐ฆ๐ฉ ๐ฅ๐š๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ? ๐Ÿค”

If YES>>> Follow these 10 steps:

(โš ๏ธNote: most of these tips are fit to #multiplayer games (like COD or CS), not singleplayer ones!)
#leveldesign #gamedev #CallofDuty #CSGO
๐Ÿ”ธ Step 02:
More entrances are always not good!
๐Ÿ”ธ Step 03:
Block unfair lines of sight
Read 11 tweets
Hi! My name is not @the_Norberg, but I have some #leveldesign tips to share in a thread.
Those practices help me to build better levels from the scratch no matter of a genre or a scale. Hope other #gamedev folks will find them useful๐Ÿ™‚
1/10 Image
2/10. Inception.
I start with a few random size boxes/planes and combine them together. Itโ€™s a simple level with the start and the end. Boring, but solid.
For the sake of the demonstration I pick just three boxes, but any number will do. Image
3/10. Rule of Occlusion.
The straight lines are boring. The player will see the whole level from the start and wonโ€™t be surprised by anything.
Keep your content hidden from the eyes and leave some mysteries to discover. Image
Read 10 tweets
Player Paths! there is a lot of them ๐Ÿ˜
This is a thread about #leveldesign primarily, but also #gameart and some #gamedev fundamentals i guess..

1/9 ๐Ÿ˜˜ Image
2/9
yes yes, I have been tweeting about paths before
But this is another deep-dive of sorts..

And I have revisioned it since last time. So that old one is obsolete ๐Ÿ˜…
3/9
Composition.. as much #gameart as it is #leveldesign
Read 9 tweets
Having some thoughts on what the statement "No Idea Guys" actually boils down to in #leveldesign. I'm not talking about everyone having to be able to code, a short thread:
I had an idea for a level I'm working on, a simple ramp that connects a lower path to a higher path, but only in one direction.
Problem number one: this is a Victorian themed level, so I can't just have a random ramp or anything, I need to explain this ramp being here thematically.
Problem number two: it can't be a dirt hill or other smooth shape because it has to clear the railing of the downward steps
Read 12 tweets
#leveldesign tip of the day! STAIRS ๐Ÿชœ
A Long Thread about stairs! Wohoooooo!

1/12
2/12
Yes I have tweeted about stairs a few months ago, but this is more of a deep dive ๐Ÿ˜…

And I love stairs...! ๐Ÿ˜
3/12
Read 13 tweets
Some #leveldesign advice: Donโ€™t worry about always having to be aware of every piece of theory and shoving it all into your work. Sometimes it feels like everyone is holistically balancing flow, metrics, lighting, colour theory, composition, goal signaling etc but theyโ€™re not.
You rarely start with a fully formed idea and implement it. Part of design is discovery. Once you have something fun, you might look at ways to improve composition. You might have an idea that specifically involves lighting and change something or resolve some pacing issues.
Eventually these things come more naturally to you but youโ€™ll never suddenly make all the right calls right at the start. If you want to spend a day focusing on colour theory, go for it. Just remember as a level designer youโ€™re making the experience of PLAYING the level.
Read 6 tweets
Stealth games are really benefiting from the non-linear "From Point A to Point A" mission structure.

Why ?...

#gamedev #leveldesign
You get to see what you did.

If you messed up before, you can't just ignore it, you'll have to face the consequences of your actions even when exiting the map.

What's behind you will eventually be in front.
It's an invitation to play within a sandbox that you usually can perceive even if the boundaries are not always obvious.
Read 5 tweets
A new year and a new Mapcore challenge thread! This time the challenge is to recreate a scene or a part from a Counter-Strike map in a futuristic style. The first thing that came to mind to reference was Another World... #gamedev Image
I feel that taking an iconic level like Dust 2 and doing a completely different take on it would be good fun. I don't want to spend too long on it though, so I've picked one specific area to work on; Site B tunnels/car. #gamedev Image
First thing is to refamiliarise myself with the reference material and grab some shots that speak to me. So I put together a small collage/ref sheet with some of the areas I'd like to riff off. #gamedev Image
Read 80 tweets
Gonna talk a bit about non-linear #LevelDesign in #WorldOfWarcraft because I've obviously been thinking a lot about it recently. To catch people up, WoW has gone back to a linear progression through zones from a "go where you want" mentality during the levelling experience.
It's played with these concepts on and off for years. Once you hit max level obviously you go back to free roaming but levelling is where the majority of the story is experienced and its here that these concepts of worldbuilding matter most.
You'd think in an open world RPG/MMO, this would be a backwards step in design due to a loss of agency. However, WoW has a unique problem in being a massive (old) MMO where player's don't really have much agency over the world. It's a theme park.
Read 11 tweets
Better late than never! Iโ€™ve got a couple of #Blocktober (#Blockvember?? #Blocksgiving??) videos from #JediFallenOrder to share on its one year anniversary, including some insight into one of our easter eggs and an appearance from #OggdoBlockdo. #leveldesign 1/9
The initial idea for Bogano was to start with a flat plane for long sightlines across the planet and then dig trenches and caves into it for gameplay. This led us to add some memorable landmarks like the Vault and the giant Binog creature 2/9
Retraversing back to the Vault after acquiring wallrun was a delicate moment to pull off and went through a lot of iteration. We ended up solving it by adding some memorable statues and making the player path more straightforward as well as using it as a map teaching moment. 3/9
Read 9 tweets
A #leveldesign project of mine that is slowly taking shape. Water is scares. This is the home of one of the water barons. They are pumping water from deep underground lakes. The statues are the 7 ancient protectors that bless and cleanse the water โ˜บ๏ธ๐Ÿšฐ
made with @UnrealEngine
Here are 4 progression shots showing some of the iterations.
It is still october where I live, so I'm gonna tag #blocktober ๐Ÿ˜… ImageImageImageImage
Continuing this thread with 4 images in my #leveldesign process. ๐Ÿ˜…
It kind of goes like this:
- Ideation
- Reference gathering
- Rough Blockout
- Rough Overview
- Blockout
- Overview
This is where I'm at.. then follows;
- Rough Whitebox
- Whitebox ๐Ÿ‘ˆFeature complete ImageImageImageImage
Read 3 tweets
Hey #Blocktober! I am thrilled to be able to share some behind-the-scenes looks at the Level Design in Hades.

To kick this off, check out this Elysium chamber timelapse showing my design pass through @_joannetran's art pass. 1/19

#HadesGame #leveldesign #gamedev
You'll notice that the design kit included:
- Walls: full cover (projectiles & movement), half cover (only movement)
- Gameplay: traps, pillars, tables, urns, exits.

Temp art/lighting in the greybox was minimized to keep it clear what is a critical gameplay object. 2/19
Here is a behind-the-scenes look at our Editor View, where we place all of the spawn points, script targets, etc.
Foes are categorized and prefer to spawn on spawn points of their type, though anything can spawn anywhere when needed. 3/19
Read 19 tweets
#gamedev tip of the day! ๐Ÿค“
PROBLEMS!! ๐Ÿ˜ฑ
This one is slightly different from my other once. But important nevertheless!
A long list of different problems that might stand before you and/or your team! (it's a lot.. But I drew pretty pictures!!)
Thread 1/17
2/17
3/17
Oh, forgot to state in the top tweet.. there is of cause #leveldesign insights in these as well! ๐Ÿ˜Šโค๏ธ
Read 18 tweets
I felt like I wanted to share how much love I put in the final sequence of my #Dishonored DotO Level.

So let me show you all the different supported outcomes (each ๐—ช๐—›๐—”๐—ง ๐—œ๐—™ having a specific one) you can try out yourself! #leveldesign #gamedev #immersivesim
๐— ๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป ๐Ÿฐ: ๐—ง๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—ฆ๐˜๐—ผ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ป ๐—”๐—ฟ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ. Two villains: ๐™๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฃ and ๐˜พ๐™–๐™ง๐™™๐™ค๐™ฏ๐™–. ๐™๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฃ has a slide to give to ๐˜พ๐™–๐™ง๐™™๐™ค๐™ฏ๐™–. You need to get it.

๐™๐™ค๐™จ๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™ฃ is protected by two "sisters" and is in meditation with some oblivious ones. Image
Obviously, you could sneak-up on the ceremony, take out the meditating and guarding sisters then get your archive and put it into the projector ! That's the "easy" way. Image
Read 12 tweets
#leveldesign tip of the day!! ๐Ÿคช๐Ÿ˜…
BAIT AND SWITCH PART 2!!!
An in-game example with a real roller coaster of awesome leveldesign and environment storytelling by @Naughty_Dog in #Uncharted4

(7 walkthrough screens in thread)
1/7
Arriving to the scene by sliding down a one-way
2/7
leveldesigner chanting:
"Don't look left! Don't look left!"
Read 8 tweets

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