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Trying Your Hand at Level Design?
Utawoutau asks: "As a student nearing graduation with high interest yet no game industry experience I have been taking a serious look at the position of Level Designer. In order to apply for such a position of course, I would need an impressive portfolio. I am aware that a number of games, Neverwinter Nights for example, come packaged with level development tools and that a number of other games have tools (official or not) that are readily available on the Internet. I am interested in hearing opinions from others that have experimented with the level design tools for a number of games as to what they found the easiest, the most fun, the most in depth, and the most impressive to work with. In particular, I am interested in a game whose tools strike a good balance between all four of the above criteria."
But the friends of mine who are do not find the industry all that they expected it to be. The fun and games that you would expect from a game company is actually politics and stress in reality.
You end up working long hours on a game that will be released when you know it's only half done, only to be laid off the week after the game ships.
Do yourself a favor and buy a Vanagon and go on a long road trip instead.
I have been pwned because my
That's the Half-Life editor. It's been tried and tested. Lots of tutorials to be found on the net. Easy to use and learn.
However, being an excellent architect is never easy:)
Maybe this doesnt count, but Civ III has an easy interface and lets you build your favourite countries etc.. Impressive, however, is not the word im looking for.
- Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?
Just play a ton of mods (Half-Life and the forementioned NWN for example). You end up with a pretty good idea what works and what does not.
Whatever you decide to design start with pen and paper and a good idea first. Pointless mods that merely throw a bunch of monsters at you feel pointless.
Check out some classic mods for Half Life like They Hunger for HL.
I'd try bouncing a couple of levels off the fan community first. As far as games to develop go, I'd develop primarily for FPSs, and maybe a few strategy/adventure games. I don't play many of the latter, so here are the FPSs: Q3 and anything that uses it's engine (i.e. has Radiant editing tools) -- very easy to use, allows for lots of creativity. (Other Q3 engine games: JK2, RC Wolfenstein, Call of Duty?) The unreal games also have a nice bundled set of editing tools that would aid your portfolio. Best of luck!
You should get experience with major, common engines. The Unreal engine(s), for one, are very common and have robust level tools bundled with some of the games that use it. Get used to the characteristics of several common engines, esp. how they use lighting. Then put some good examples of yours in a portfolio.
If my answers frighten you, stop asking scary questions.
as to what they found the easiest
:)
The Cube Engine allows you to edit maps right in the game on the fly. There is also a cooperative edit mode, try and beat that
Candle burns its brightest in the dark
Remeber if you work as a level designer in a company making a game. I can not expect to work with tools that are full fledged.
The tools you are going to work with will constantly evolve, your tools availble will be added and removed as the game moves on.
To create an impressive portfolio that will pop eyes where you apply. Design very good levels for a wide area of games. And last but not least, they have to. Absolutly HAVE to be well balansed. Especially with a multi-player game. I have seen some very pretty levels done for counter-strike but that was very poor balanced. So they where never played.
Another big thing when you design a level. Make sure you make your own textures. If you have solid texturework you will have a far better shot at the job.
-L
- To understand recursion, we must first understand recursion -
You might want to try Unreal Tournament.
It meets your criteria. And there are lots of community and resources to help you learn.
I was doing pretty decent mods within hours of learning the level editor.
Most of the mapping tools I have worked with, if you want more in depth features, it will have a harder learning curve. It also depends on what game you are designing levels for. Neverwinter Nights is completely different than Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory (RTCW:ET), so the tools for the respective packages will be just as diverse. I personally like GtkRadiant for RTCW:ET.
A little off topic I would say. Now, if you created a SCO mod which put the SCO exec staff as the monsters in a variant of the UT2003 invasion type, that would be on topic, and amusing to actually play too!
If you've never designed a level before, how did you hit on the idea of designing them for a living?
(I don't mean this as a flame; I'm just curious.)
Cube ( http://wouter.fov120.com/cube/ ) is one of the easiest games to map for. It should give anyone a good idea of what the basics of level design are all about before they try their hand at something more complex and technical like Q3 or UT.
The most important thing to remember is that your first level is going to suck. Don't get discouraged when you find that applies to you just like it does everyone else.
There are lots of forums for developers and mod designers. You should try those message boards, where they hang out even irc.
Its amazing how many people start out making mods, or levels for games can turn that into a job. Lots of people are recruiting for mod help, try to see if you can assist in making a level or 2.
BTW, The havok engine seems to be getting lots of attention, and Havok2 should be on par with the Halflife2 engine. Might check into that, and get a leg up on skill. Seems most games come with or have an SDK to download. Begging people to design levels and mod's.
I know many people waiting for HL2 to get BACK into level design. It will be the defacto engine for quiet some time.
we all want to be level designers or producers (well some of us at least)
;)
neverwinter night's toolset is literally click and drop fun, but don't expect to get a door working. creating enviroments and enemies is easy, doors and other elements are truly illogocal.
unreal editor is a popular choice. beyond the recent contests it seems to be far more appreciated by people (probably because if you've ever tried using it, you've found it isn't as easy as it looks) i hate plugging stuff, but the UT 2004 collectors edition is supposed to come with video training modules to show you how to work with the editor, and if 2004 comes with maya 5 ple it is will be the logical way to build levels and content.
if you're not trying to impress anyone you can always design levels for excitebike. $3.99 will get you the game on a used cart, or on e-reader cards almost anywhere
First of all you have to have lots of experience in how the gameswork, and an artisticside. Good levels are very hard to do and they are done with lots of sweat from their makers, you have to weight in all the diffrent things in the game so that the level is a fun one, and beautiful.
This is not something you will get from getting a couple of tools that are easy to use, but from your own mind. That mind must also be able to adjust itself to the new tools, i.e. going from the worldcraft to new Radiant, and that will only be done if you have the time to do it.
The two biggest are Q3A and UT, check out the dev tools for them, they are equally good, just choose the one that suits you. If you want to dev for linux then you can get a very good start with GtkRadiant (the Q3A tool), but UnrealEd is very good as well alas only with windows support.
I think that Unreal Tournament came with an excellent level builder, and is worth taking a look at. (At least if you're interested in FPS games.) There are also lots of great tutorials and resources available for it, seeing as the game has been around for so long.
Psh, you younin's with your developement tools. Back in my day we didn't even have compliers never mind developement tools. We had to code everything in machine code. And we were happy.
I had a friend who took great joy in making Doom levels chock full of porn :-) He seemed to enjoying making the levels quite a bit!
I recommend that you'd also take your time to learn a little about:
Programming
Scripting
Photoshopping (Sorry! I said GIMP'ing, of course)
3d modelling
Sound editing
I have done level design for a few engines and a number of different games. I do it as a hobby, so I am no professional. The most fun I have had designing maps, though, has been with the Torque Engine.
I say this not because it is the most advanced engine out there, but because I have actually done work on games and not mods. A few of my maps will actually be released in the wrapped version of the independent games I have worked on. That is a cool feeling.
By working with the torque engine on an indie game, I also get to work with the engine developers to add needed features.
As far as the tools used to create the maps, QuArk is used to create buildings (that same site has more information) and an in-game map editor.
--Nycto
What is your personality like? Do you like all games equally? Is there something you wish to make just floating around in your head?
You should be looking something suitable for you not other people. Everyone likes how things work differently. Also go take a look at Gamasutra for some good reading.
Personally, try out Valve Hammer Editor and QuArK. They are standards that can be used for many games.
1: steal decent levels from web sites
2: say there your own
3: get job
4: Stab manager in back, get his job
5: golf with the producers backers
6: back stab producer
7: get backer for YOU game
8: SHip it when it's half done, retire.
I figure about 8 month worth of work.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Schmooze!
I know more people that got there dream job by getting in touch with people who work at the company.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Code up a game and hand it to some kids to play with it. Ask them what they'd like added to it. Ask them what sucks. Make changes. Repeat.
When it's reasonably decent, expand the number of kids testing it out and repeat the above.
Using Generative Programming techniques (read the book Generative Programming -- available at Amazon, Bookpool.com, etc.), autogenerate hundreds of variations of the above-tested game.
Add them all to your portfolio.
I would not categorize counter-strike/half-life as having great level editing tools to work with and the engine is dated, but I would definitely suggest you add some levels and maps to your portfolio, the platform is a standard of sorts and it would be good to show what you can do with it.
Also, definitely take a look at Doom III when it is released. The level editor is built right into the game and allows you to immediately see your results.
...if you really want an impressive portfolio just download a bunch of user created mods from the Internet and claim them as yours. Then spend the time you saved by not exercising your creative abilities to design a kick ass resume. When word gets out, and the real authors complain that you stole their work, hire a lawyer and sue. Hey it worked for me!!!
Darl
UED (Unreal Ed) is only really meets two of his "criteria".
:( ). ;)), but eventually some of it starts to stick. Maybe one day you'll even be half decent, if you keep at it. Funny how a lot of things in life work that way, no? :)
In depth? Extremely.
Impressive? Well, maybe Intimidating is a more appropriate word, but sure.
Fun? Depends on how much of a sadist you are. It can be fun, but it can also be a lot of friggin work.
Easy? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAHAAAaaaaaaaahhhh... good one!
Ok seriously now though. UED is a pretty damned fine level editor if I may say so. Powerful as all hell, but its not exactly idiot proof. Its not impossible either. I managed to learn the ins and outs of UED (and to a lesser extent, the Unreal engine) just by reading tutorials, dissecting other peoples maps, and screwwing around... but it took a while. Months really. Even after three years of occasionally booting up UED, i'm still learning new things. Though to be fair, a lot of it is stuff that changed from UT99 to UT03 (haven't had the urge to map as much for the new game
But hey, if people really want to learn, there isn't much stopping them. Most people just dive right in. You'll probably be frustrated and attempt to quit (repeatedly
Morrowind. Fantastic game, fantastic editing suite, massive detail, massive depth, beautiful scenic effects, great scripting.
Try to familiarize yourself with a variety of editors and game engines from the beginning. I had used only UnrealEd for several years, and when I finally tried the Quake 3 editor, everything felt so different that I gave up on it pretty quickly. Also, make sure you know how to do all that "advanced" stuff I never bothered to learn: make textures, write scripts, import 3D models from other programs like Maya, set up sounds, atmospheric effects like fog, etc.
And if you're new to the Unreal Editor, the Unrealed Reference is a great place to start.
Real designs are crooked.
paintball
I'd like to add that it depends on what game you like to play what level design tools you should use. I like NWN, so I use the Aurora Engine, even if the Quake Mod tools are better or easier to use. Good level design means you have to understand what makes the game fun. I could never design a good Quake mod because I don't like Quake.
So, for level design my advice is: pick a couple of games you like and see how the tools for those games are. If they are not too daunting, jump in. It'll take a couple of weeks to get familiar with ANY tool, but there are usually good forums that'll help you along.
..and I were very into doom/heretic level designing when we were students, and some of my most satisfying moments were when designing levels for those games. However, the level designing tool which I always liked the most was qoole, which was *the* de-facto quake level designer.
;) ((note: I haven't level designed for halflife or q3, or anything newer, so you might want to snoop around to see if there's any newer equivalent, since a cursory google has informed me that qoole doesn't seem to support q3))
I used qoole in quake 1 and quake 2, and I found it extremely easy to put together 3d designs very quickly, and wasted many many hours of my time; qoole, as far as I'm aware, still exists, and is still free, so if you have a copy of quake 1 or 2 lying around, you might want to try it
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you
I created levels for these games somewhere halfway through the 90s on my Mac. One of my PC friends also had great fun creating levels for these games, even though he couldn't play them on his own PC.
I don't think creating levels for games is fun nowadays, it's all become much to complex with those 3d engines, but maybe I shoud try again in he future.
The games can still be seen here(bungie.com):
- Marathon
- Marathon 2
- Marathon Infinity
Marathon Infinity shipped with the official tools used to create the series.
umm, yeah
I see a few posts here as I write this about this level editor for that game... whatever.
I suggest you get down and dirty with the game, and use a hex editor to write your level files!
Really! It's not so hard, (after all, there's only 16 possible combinations in hex, and English has 26 in the alphabet!)
Just open a file or two in a good hex editor, and start tweaking. I'm sure it'll "come to you" after a bit of experience...
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
*Bzzt*, both of you are wrong, sorry.
Havok is the physics engine behind Half-Life 2. And Dues Ex 2, Freelancer, Max Payne 2, Thief 3... you get the picture.
The actual game/rendering engine behind Half-Life 2 is called "Source", and it was made completely in house at Valve. You can't play with it yet though, not until Valve releases the SDK anyways (which is supposed to be "soon", which, knowing Valve, means 6-8 months). Well, that is assuming Valve isn't "hax0rd" again. *Groan*
You may be barking up the wrong tree. Level design, particularly for modern 3D engines, is more of an art than a science. There are many mappers who have been working at it for years, for various games. In particular, you might look at some of the maps released for Quake III and even the original Quake, along with more recent games like Unreal Tournament 2003. The problem with assuming that you can just "jump in" and become immediately skilled is that it completely ignores the skillset which is unique to that position. Quite honestly, almost no programming experience will transfer to the field. If you are still interested--and it is truly a hobby/profession which requires interest--Half-Life is actually a good place to start. Try not to get overwhelmed with concern about newer features at first--learn about brush layout, visibility occlusion, et cetera. These will help you with any engine. Also, I think that these skills are more transferable than something like Neverwinter Nights or other, simpler level editors. Making a level in a 3D game like the FPSes I listed above is very similar to 3D modelling, so you can transfer skills between the two. Func_Msgboard is somewhat dead these days, but you might find things of interest there--and there are some truly great mappers who hang out there. :) Good luck.
First, read anything and everything by Chris Crawford. I hate most new media theorists, but he's an exception. He's a physicist by education and programmer/game designer by experience. I'd especially take a look at "Chris Crawford on Game Design".
You should also take a look at some of his old game design articles in Next Gen magazine. He had one article on level design in Doom that was quite unique.
Secondly, from a tricks/tools perspective, gamedev.net or xgames3d.com are your best bet.
What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean....
having recently tried a number of Q3A mods that really did nothing to balance the game.
Most of the really good things that define a highly playable mod from a 'cool, lets try something else' one are in the basic mechanics of the game.
Where are the weapons and are they appropriate for the playspace? Do they work well for a few players? Lots of players?
What about the playspace itself? Does one side have a clear advantage? How about a particular path? Many of the classic levels avoid dead end ways making it tough for players to just sit and wait for others to show.
For games like capture the flag, where is the balance of power? Is it possible for a team to cover all their bases without being forced to venture off for new weapons/ammo?
Visuals have never been as important as play mechanics are, but they do play an important part. A dark spot or interesting texture placed just so, might allow a player to hide for a bit, or clash horribly with the target, making for either a sneaky element of challenge and tension, or a frustrating experience...
Spawn points should be in areas where players have a fighting chance at actually spawning without being camped too often. Best ones are those where the player forms near the action while campers always are watching their back.
All of this is specific to Q3A --hey, I still play the game because it is well balanced and interactive, but other games have similar issues. The parent is right, you gotta play.
If it were me, fun first, beauty later, but that's just me.
Having played Q3A a lot, I have been thinking about this too. Be sure to check out other mods and play them. You will get a great sense of what you want to do. --Then do it!
Blogging because I can...
I Am Not A Level Designer, but I am quite an accomplished connesiour thereof. Being as such, i've not really touched the tools of the trade. However, being a 30 hour a week consumer of your trade I think a good way to make your levels and maps stand out above everyone else's would be to have a bit of noteriaty attached.
.pk3 download linked on id's website).
Do this by getting your map into the rotation a popular online game server.
I think Desert Combat would be just the game to make a map for.
If you make maps for the top ten games listed on the following website's you should have a fairly impressive portfolio: more to that, get those maps in rotation and a couple endorsements by game dev's and your resume should have good boyancy.
http://www.gamespy.com/stats/
*end advice, begin explanation
Desert combat and BF1942 are unique amoung shooters in that their maps are so immense, yet detailed. The engine developed for this game is called Refractor 2, and while not the prettiest of engines availble it is certainly the best performing large-scale engine. Desert Combat is also wildly popular, and rightly so; it's freaking so much fun.
A Battlefield sized map allows you to show off your ability to think on a large scale: the maps are much bigger than any quake 3 maps; really more of worlds when you think about it.
I recommend hoping on teamspeak with some of the LAG (lake area gamers) guys. They run two very popular servers and are a good natured lot. Now and then you'll even catch a developer hanging out.
Getting the endorsment of developers and server admins has to be worth something (the guys that designed the wolfenstein map Market Garden http://www.splashdamage.com/ got that same map included in the official map pack
Anyhoo, the best way to smooze with this lot is to play the game well and work as a team. If you're lucky they'll offer your map for download and might try it out in rotation.
Of course, this is just my own speculation and easier said than done.
Advice is easy to give, but it's also easy to say good luck! 8D
Of course, follow your own tastes. What games do you enjoy playing the most? What games have been your favorite? This is You.
Never get stuck doing something for the money above your own personal satisfaction.
yeah I know its really old and outdated but it was one of the easyest games to modify. From Simple Dehacked code changes to advanced TC Doom was and still is very fun to mess around with.
I worked in games through test, development and production for three years. When I started (at 18) it was fabulous to work in the industry (cool games, lots of overtime, etc.). But it gets old, fast. I abandoned a decently paying production job for a trip back to college, because most game industry kids (especially developers) average 80-90 hours per work week.
I love games, but I will never, ever go into the industry again. All companies expect full (maddening hours) commitment, with little compensation.
Dont get into games, its quite a bad idea.
Even though it might not come across as a full blown "map editor" or even "mod maker" that you might expect - with plenty of time and creativity you can build somewhat primitive but awesome looking and playing maps in the plain deathmatch environment of Cube.
The project is free and hosted here, screenshots are right on the front page.
http://wouter.fov120.com/cube/
The actual editor works in-game, and while playing the game in single player mode, you can press E to switch to editing mode. The README explains what the keyboard functions are. Basically, you mark things in the map and shrink/grow them, and everything is built out of cubes that can be 'bent' to your liking in various ways.
Leopard cub
Probably any game that uses the quake engine, including things like Half-Life, are easiest to edit for. Thing you have to remember is, anyone can learn the ins and outs of an editor, but having good design flair is the biggest obstacle to cross.
Im eagerly awaiting the HL2 level design tool, with the SDK, in whatever form it takes when it's released. I have to make a ton of levels for our mod (Junkyard Corps, see sig) when it comes out.
Some people say the Unreal engine is better for level making. Rather than build a level inside empty space and have to close everything off (ie, checking for leaks, etc) the unreal world is a block, and you carve stuff OUT of it. This seems a harder way of doing things to me, but according to other people, its the most natural way of doing it. As for non FPS games, I have no idea. I suspect it's horses for courses. Liking a particular genre more will make you want to take more steps to learn out to get good at designing for your chosen game.
TheHustler
http://www.elmarko.org/ - Useless bilge
http://www.asylum-games.co.uk/ - Co-Founder
This fantastic classic from Sierra had an ingame editor; you could stop and look at, even change the scripts at the point of the game you were in. So, no separation between level designer and game player. Also, the game is, I reckon, a better candidate for demonstrating story skills than, say, a first person mindless shooter. Loads of fun!
In my personal opinion, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what tools you use, rather the tale you tell and how you tell it (use game design elements to buttress story elements). I could go and on about how stories have been neglected for eye candy and the gee-whiz factor, but I think that horse has not only been beat, but processed and distributed in school lunches. Before you put your head to the grindstone, it might benefit you to check out some books on the basics of writing fiction. Apply those principles to the game world, and I don't see how you can go wrong. Unless of course, it's a bad story :) Good luck.
I've designed a few mods for Morrowind, i must say the WYSIWYG interface in the editor is VERY VERY nice, but the scripting language is pretty shitty, it wont allow you to do much with variables, but you can compensate for that using the dialogue interface.
Can import NIF objects from 3DS Max (not Gmax unfortunately which was supposed to be the editor of choise for us who chug out Mods), sounds can be scripted and verbals can be thrown in on a character in many different ways.
This is THE best editor i've worked with.
1: Get a job at some faceless corporation with a name like 'Enron'.
2: Design kick-ass games after hours.
3: Get your work stolen by your sneaky co-worker.
4: Beat the Master Control Program for domination of your codez.
5: Become the newest exec (you even get your own helicopter!)
"Greetings Programs!"
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Why waste time hacking a file format? You know, one hex edit and you can screw up an entire file...suppose that particular byte is part of a run-length indicator? Load and crash, as the entire rest of the level is shfted even one byte left or right.
Hex editing is a good skill to have, but don't try to learn level editing with a hex editor unless you're trying to edit Chip's Challenge...
CAn'T CompreHend SARcaSm?
The most important things are a quality filter so we can leave you alone and have you produce good work, ability to come up with a working layout (this is fundamental and oft underestimated), a decent technical understanding and in our case, a love for multiplayer gaming.
Having experience shipping finished maps implies very good things about your ability to manage your own time, and your ability to finish what you start. That's a pretty rare trait. Extra bonus points if youur work gets played. (Probably means it's part of a pack or a mod.)
It also falls into the "nice work if you can get it" category, as mapping careers are relatively tough to find. I don't know of any other companies in Canada who are asking for the same technology experience that Threewave is. Digital Extremes comes close.
It was there, I tried to reply and then it just vanished. What the hell is going on?
Neverwinter Nights has a huge community of custom content creators. The Neverwinter Vault has tons of user made custom content from 3d models to music to character portraits. You can find help from the community for anything you need from dialog management to using 3dstudio. With so much support, you can start with a 'prefab' world and simply populate with your own custom story and ease yourself into the building process as deep as you choose to go.
There are thousands of modules made by fans already, some of them are actually better than the one's shipped by bioware. Theres a lot to be learned about level designed in there, good bad and ugly!
A thing that struck me when reading through the other posts is that a lot of people seem to say "use the newest and most advanced tool available". That is definitely something you will have to do in order to get a good portfolio.
But for learning the basics about the different aspects of level design you might want to try your hand at something simpler. Try finding "old" games like Doom or Warcraft2 (I think there was an editor for that?) and try your skills at designing levels that are only two dimensional. Believe me, there's a lot that can go wrong even without the extra options available in the 3D editors.
I know it may sound like a waste of time, but it will give you a few good experiences, I think. Due to the simplicity of e.g. Doom's level structure you can spend a lot of time working on the small details like how to align two platforms so a player just barely can (or, if you're wicked, can't) move from one to the other. You can experiment with how to let the player use different objects/walls/etc as cover when shooting large monsters and so on.
One of the other posts mentioned that you would undoubtedly be forced to learn to adjust to using new/different tools that what you're used to so another benefit of "working your way up" from the old games is that you will eventually have to move on to new tools. Make sure you focus on learning the fundamental parts of what level editing is rather than memorizing the exact functionalities of a single level editor.
Oh, and after having made levels for 2D games you'll definitely appreciate 3D editors and the freedom they give you.
A last piece of advice is to try and come up with something original instead of "yet another multiplayer map". Some years ago me and a friend designed a series of "Quake Hinderbahn" levels. It's basically an idea we got for a LAN party where we wanted to host a different kind of competition - and we made an obstacle course and had people record demos of their fastest runs.
I learned a LOT about how Quake works from that.
Good luck with it.
It's 19:11:42. Do You Know Where Your Meat Body Is?
It's not just getting a good, interesting and playable level together.. you should be able to make it live to at least to some point and make it look somewhat good as well.
I think pre-made level design tools like in NWN might help you to learn create nicely plotted levels, but dunno about anything else.. :(
-el
and "The Art of Computer Game Design" here
and the related Game Design Wiki
Good luck! -Joel
Where to start...
Well, I guess the easiest, most obvious level editing suite out there (in the realm of FPS games anyway) is Valve's Hammer. It's quite scary just how easy it is to make levels with that util. Upon starting it I was able to figure out pretty much all of the basic features just by looking at the buttons. That's quite an accomplishment, if you ask me. The whole way the editor is layed out, and the process you use to design a level in the editor are both painless and relatively easy. If you're looking for a place to start, and games like TFC, CS, and NS are your forte, might as well start here. I think the only problems you may run into are in the setup options, and true to its oldschool roots, getting down and compiling a map, then tweaking that, can get pretty gritty.
The only other editor I've logged any sort of time on was the unrealed that shipped with UT2003. I missed the whole UT generation, so I can't vouch for the older unrealed, I'd assume it's basically the same. However, after coming from Hammer, learning unrealed is a real pain. The interface is kind of counter-intuitive and the whole logic behind building levels is completely the opposite. It's quite weird. Once you get into the unreal mindset though, creating a level isn't hard at all, it's just that initial hill that you need to climb over. Well that, and unrealed is insanely buggy. I cannot tell you how many times I've lost work due to unexpected quits or fatal errors that seem to make no sense. I guess as it is with every program, save early and save often. This is the editor I eventually found most technically impressive. After learning something new about the editor, or pouring after technical docs and taking a stab at it myself, I am still wowed when I get a new effect (be it graphical or gameplay) working.
Now note I have not logged any significant hours with these editors (read: I have not produced any well known or well thought of maps) as to know the individual quirks and the nuances of each editor. However I can offer the complete newbie's look into it, which I guess is better than nothing. If anything, I say that the Half-Life community has more tutorials and help geared toward my audience than the unreal community, as finding good and easily digestible information is hard. Epic seems to be trying to remedy this with their opening of Unreal Uni, or whatever it is they are doing, which offers video tutorials and forums for developers. (A good thing, but I'm fearing the mod potential is going to waste in these days counting closer to HL2, with potential developers looking for the next big thing rather than weighing the assets of what's out there- which is hard to do for something not quite released)
As for most things tech, I guess slogging through it and exploring is probably the best way to learn either of these.
I guess on the RTS front, nothing is easier than Blizzard's warcraft 3 map editor. The thing is incredibly simple to use, though not quite as intuitive to the newbie's eye as hammer. I was able to get up and building levels (after finding I was unable to figure the tools out myself I went to the documentation) in about 10 minutes after reading the rather friendly documentation that comes with the toolset. I guess the thing is that the tools take 10 seconds to learn, but to master them and build a balanced and fun map, will probably take you a life time. (not to mention a keen understanding of the game.) The tools are fun to use, and going from the editor to a game to a multiplayer match you're testing with friends is quite easy and gratifying.
Neverwinter Nights, I found, was rather easy. Scripting seemed to get kind of nightmarish quick, but I quickly lost interest with building with those grossly simplified tools. I guess the real challenge was figuring out a way to make and import your own tilesets, but in the beginning when I had just spent 50 and tax on the game, it was a disappointment for it to have such poor mod support right off the bat.
I have heard good th
Hey, it's my OPINION that dogs have eight legs and make a sound like a car horn every time they take a piss.
First you NEED to play games, lots of different games, to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. Decide what type of games you'd like to design for - FPS, MMORPG maybe RPG.
To make something look pretty is in reality easy, albeit you get lots of recognition for it. More important is function; can you make your maps "work"? Are you able to throw the pretty map you've worked on for months with in the waste basket if it doesn't "work"? Sometimes you will have to do just that...
And maybe the most important thing: Do you like other people? Are you able to share your creativity with them, can you take feedback and are you able to make compromises?
If you want to try something different (and altogether more fun, although I -may- be biased ;), try Jedi Knight. The editor/game is based on sectors as opposed to brushes, so you edit in negative space. You basically have a block of clay and you carve your world out of it. Of course, my site's tutorials section is the best place to learn it :) http://www.massassi.net/
THe most experience I'd have with game editors is the Aurora Toolset for NWN. I think it's one of the more flexable yet easy to use game editors out there.
Back around Feb 2003 I started an online module called Mandrake that went well over 90+ areas when I decided to move on. I had a good base of players too, not near as much as some places but a good base. Since then I've worked on about 4 other module designs of my own including an arena one for the PVP section.
I'd say the scripting language and the flexability to created hundreds of possible paths for a module are it's greatest power over all the other editors out there. It's also relativly easy to use, the only thing is you don't get a nice print bound manual for the scripting though the script editor in there has a nice help reference side bar. It's also really nice to be able to script in counter measures for cheaters.
I'm not sure I'd ever want to do this professionally though. Seems it would make a better hobby then a job but thats my opinion.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Yeah, if you can map, mod, camp, and speak t3h l33t, you'll have a sure winner.
Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
Everyone I know that has made it in the level design field has done so by using the Bard's Tale construction set.
I've done quite a bit of level editing for both Quake II and Quake III (also dabbled in Unreal II). I have to say, I was not happy at all with editing levels for Quake 3. Making a basic level is easy enough, but you have to also know scripting to work with shaders and make events happen (light goes on when you do this, door opens when you do that). On top of that, depending on the mod, you have to optimize the hell out of your level in order for it to function correctly, using things like hint brushes and caulking. Its a big gigantic pain in the ass. It really restricts the creative flow. If I wanted to worry about scripting and optimizations, I would have become a coder. I do level design because I really like architecture and media design. Its kind of like asking an architect to design and control every facet of any type of interaction with their building, such as how light is seen around corners, how the sky moves, what happens to glass when it breaks, how people are able to see but not really see around corners. That, in my opinion, is bad design. Levels would be a lot more interesting and a lot more interactive if game programmers would do their job and take the burden off of the ones that are supposed to be thinking with the creative side of their brain, rather than the logical side.
When it comes to MMPORGS, the concept of storytelling is too limited to provide sufficient gameplay. You see game after game fall into the pit of storytelling for a game that is supposed to have thousands of hours of entertainment. They end up being lame and boring because the only way to tell a story for a thousand hours is to be very slow in the telling!
Its many flaws aside, Shadowbane is a good example of an RPG style MMPORG that does not use story as its main device; instead, it uses guild vs guild dynamics to keep gameplay gripping continually.
I think that the future of great games is not in great story telling, but in great themes and player dynamics that can outlast any pre-defined storyline.
CryTek has a video you can download - towards the end, they demo the level design mode! It's sooooo cool!
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
People are answering your question as if the goal is to design the best looking levels, or the easiest way to build them, or other construction related questions. But those are not the right questions you should be asking.
Just as an architect needs to find out what the goal of their building is, a level designer needs to have a goal for a level. An amazing house that doesn't have the rooms a buyer wants is still a failure. An amazing level that doesn't advance a game, or isn't any fun, is also a failure.
Before you start building a level, write it out. Put together a story of how the player will move through the level. Sketch storyboards of interesting challenges that will occur. Start with a rough layout of the rooms you plan to link, and describe whats going to be happening to the player as they move through those areas. Figure out which areas are dull, and either liven them up or cut them out. And once the flow of the level makes sense and seems enjoyable, a level designer passes the documents off to an artist, whose job is to make it look good.
Far too often, the process gets reversed. The levels are designed from an artistic perspective first, without first determining why the levels are there, or where the player will be. Time gets spent fleshing out regions that the player runs through once, hunting for something to do, and never looks at. Those areas may get thrown away in playtesting, or just kept in and bore the players. Not good.
So basically, if you want to be a level designer, design levels. Don't be a CAD designer; that is the artist's job. As a former game developer, I would have appreciated it. As a current game player, I would appreciate it perhaps even more.
I have a number of friends working at well-known game companies, and from what they say, I think it's not my cup of tea (it still could be yours, of course). Their biggest complaints: working 80+ hours a week for what seems forever before the game comes out; dealing with execs; getting stuck working on a lame part of the game for a little while (esp. early levels/concetps); hearing users complain that a certain feature of the game sucks when they worked hard on it and weren't given enough time to do so; and end up wondering if it's really worth it. The biggest joy for them all, though, is when the final version goes out for shipment. There are always parties, and the next few weeks at work sound pretty spectacular (i.e. just playing video games). Like any job, you gotta take the good with the bad. Just know the bad, and you'll probably be fine, but know it.
The computer game industry is tremendously competitive. It's one field where probably for every opening, there are hundreds of applicants that would love such a position. You're on the right track thinking you need to really have a portfolio in order to get your foot in the door.
Unfortunately, the salaries for low and mid-level positions in the gaming industry arent terribly impressive, due in large part to there being no shortage of people who'd love to work in this field. Many companies, like Sony Online Entertainment pay pathetic wages, but unfortunately your best chance of getting a game design job is to start out as a grunt and work your way up. The first few years of which you might find yourself making a fraction of the money you could in other fields. I guess that's the price you pay for a very cool job.
Speaking as a player, I'd encourage you to seek out any competitive communities built around the game(s) you're interested in designing for. While Neverwinter Nights is a cool enough game, I'd also reccomend you check out getting some experience with the "Quake-related" FPS games.
One of the tools that's used to create maps for several game is Radiant (supported on both Linux and Windows) and supports a bunch of games. Mappers familiar with Quake3 were able to transfer that knowledge to RtCW when it came out, and in turn that was transferrable to ET. Plugins for other games (Half Life, Soldier of Fortune, and some others I'm blanking on) is also available.
Couple that with experience working with 3DSmax (or gmax if you're on a budget) creating models, and you should be good to go.
If you're also looking for ideas on what to make maps of, I'd suggest trolling around and seeing if you can find a competitive community for the games you're interested in designing for. Stuff like Half-Life and its mods (most notably Counter Strike), Quake3/RtCW/ET, and the MOHAA/CoD stuff are going to be hot ticket items right now. Organizations like The Team Warfare League or the Cyber Athlete League might be worth a look to get an idea of how people are using the games and what kind of maps and what features they'd benefit from.
Looking to the future, everyone's pointing at stuff like Doom3 and Half-Life2 (obviously). But it might be worth taking a look at games like Far Cry and Painkiller as possible sleeper hits coming up on the horizon.
Good luck in your efforts. :)
the main danger of that kind of job, is you'll end up being bored of it, a few months after you start. It's very repetitive, and probably not as creative as you believe it is.
____
nico
Nico-Live
Starcraft had a decent level editor, but what I really wanted to say was that the single person game had some of the best levels I'd ever seen. Not because the maps were unusually good, but because the builders had a strong story run through them all.
If you do go on to build levels, please don't forget the story. It is one of the reasons I loved Starcraft so much. Warcraft III on the other hand has a horrible and boring story line, and as a result, I haven't the desire to finish the single player campaign.
--
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American Weblog in London
The big trend these days is to make games balanced. Witness games like Asheron's call 2 or Star Wars galaxies: balanced as a bubble level. Boring as hell.
Rather than focus on balance, game designers should focus on the fun factor.
Look at D&D, the longest running RPG of them all: not balanced. Bards are wimps and Clerics are boss. Multiplayer Neverwinter Nights is great anyway, because its not a competition for dominance, its an endeavor for fun.
I've worked in the gaming industry for 12 years. I hate to sound negative but it sucks. Games never turn out as good as you know they could be. Money is often flushed down the toilet on stupid things when it should be going into the software development. I've worked on a number of high profile projects over the years and the companies I've worked for never cease to amaze me. They announce release dates they know they can't possibly meet, show shots of the game that are CGI animation made especially for promos when they know the game will never look that good, ship software they know is faulty, and scores of other things I hate. In all I hate it and I'm getting out. I would advise you to consider focusing your talent in another area and save yourself the trouble. Sorry to sound bitter.
In case no one's mentioned them, I really enjoyed Mark Saltzman's Game Design: Secrets of the Sages. May be a bit dated (1999), but good reading on the genre. I understand he had a new one out in 2003 called Masters of the Game - don't know what it's like though.
I think Quake still has the largest installed gamebase but Unreal is a close second. Take a look at both, firsthand knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses will be good education for you.
The road to level design is a long one. First you have to master the tools, then you have to master the gameplay, the flow of a level. Which is a very difficult thing. You must first understand the flow from a gamer perspective before you can ever even dream of creating a level with a good flow. When you play a level you need to understand WHY it works. Why it has good gameplay.
Over time you will accumulate more and more knowledge which you can incorporate into your own maps, maps which will be original works by you instead of just copies of good levels you've played before.
Join the community and start designing levels. That's the way many people get hired. Some rare exceptions even after the very first level they ever put forth. And many/most people never.
When every map you create gets voted as 9+ then you can talk about having an actual portfolio and start applying for a job, if no offers have this far come your way. Before that, don't waste your time for applying for a job with non-existent/no good credentials.
Of course, getting a position through your own design can happen too. Some freeware mods actually later turn into real published games.
It really is not so much about the actual tools you use but about the community, types of games that you actually like and just plain chance. It's more of an art than just an engineering decision.
Join the community and find your way.
UnrealEd Manual: Interface (includes screenshots)
If you want to try-before-you-buy, get this: UnrealEngine 2 Runtime - small, lightweight, but includes the editor. Also UT03 Demo
The unreal engine is behind many, many games; I believe more than the Quake engine. Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, America's Army, Deus Ex, etc... 10 current games! UnrealPowered
I'm kinda suprised you want to develop games, and yet have never built a level! If I were you, I'd start ASAP - are you really sure you it is something you will like doing for a career? In the stress of a budget-bound company, with tight deadlines???
What experience do you have? If you've ever used CAD, level designing will make more sense. I strongly recommend taking a one-semester or night computer graphics technology (drafting) class. If that isn't an option, google Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG), AKA Set Theoretic Geometry. (Also google svlis, look through the docs. Some of that stuff is not found elsewhere.)
AFAIK, Unreal has everything any other game has, as far as features: mipmapping, particles, smoke, fractal-based textures, heightmap terrain, [many, many things left out]... It also has a lot of features not found elsewhere. Karma Physics engine, for one. UnrealScript, for another. Are you any good at C++? Unrealscript is similar, though it adds many features that are important in a game, such as functions that execute every gametick, time expirations, etc...
The only cool thing I know of that's in another game, and not in Unreal, is Cube's in-game editing. That, it doesn't have.
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If you really want to advance in any sector of the gaming industry you need to learn the art of fellatio.
People in the industry with published games under their belts are having problems finding jobs at the moment. There was a sales slump this Christmas and a bunch of really good games completely failed to sell (eg: the critically acclaimed Prince Of Persia). A lot of game studios are hurting - meaning that there are a lot of talented people who've already shipped games going to be competing with you for jobs.
And even if you did find somewhere - prepare for misery as you get pushed 150% because they can't afford to do otherwise - and you'll end up hating everything to do with games.
My advice (and what I now wish my priorities had been at your age): Find a long-term girlfriend, build a life, find a job that's tollerable - and use level design as a creative outlet in your spare time.
I've got to agree, I've played alot of CounterStrike.
No trees were harmed in the posting of this message. However, a great number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.
Level editors? Pah! You n00bs have it so easy these days...
phozz
Unreal Tournament 2003 ships with the Maya Personal Learning Edition (high end 2D package, used by ILM f.e.) and the Unreal Editor which is a high end industry strength IDE for gaming enviroments.
Not that UT runs on Linux and Windows alike, the editors though only on Windows.
If you want to get into FPS level editing this is absolutely the first choice.
Note that there are other games and other genres using the same engine.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Remember that level design, texture design, and even texture application are often three different jobs done by three different people (or, more often, teams). Level design is architecture. Texture design is a very specialized form of 2-D drawing. And texture application is basically interior decorating.
Assuming that you want to lay out levels, then study architecture. You want to be able to make things that look real, atmospheric, and cool. A good exercise is to find a dynamic and interesting space in real life and model it as precisely as you can in a game engine. This will give you a feel for the level of detail needed to build a truly immersive level.
Also, don't limit yourself to one tool or even one game. Some of the more full-featured and late-generation editors have a huge amount of crutches that you can easily get dependent on. Make an RPG dungeon and an RPG city. Make several RTS maps (these are great for gaining a macro-level understanding of balance and flow) for single-player and multi-player games. And, of course, make a lot of FPS maps. Even a dippy little fragfest map can show off your talents if you put a lot of work into it.
Finally, be aware of industry trends. For instance, single-player FPS campaigns are starting to veer away from the strictly-linear style of the genre's forerunners (look at MOHAA for an example of why... the levels are very stale and scripted). Play, play, play. And take lots of notes.
Be absolutely sure to include plenty of sewer maps and crate puzzles in your levels. Make them as tedious as humanly possible.
I hear developers love that.
Download the tools, experiment with various games, Halflife, Quake3 and Unreal Tournement are key ones for the FPS design, look at other peoples work and such forth.
:)
Games like neverwinter nights are a whole diferent kettle of fish, but it does require one thing in common.
You need to have a decent artistic and creatave ability, you need to decide what looks good, what doesn't look good, and you also may need for many games a passion for the mind-numbingly boring.... once youve aligned one texture, the next one is just dull
If you want a game with an impressive level editor, I suggest Freespace 2. Old as heck, but still fun, and the source code has been released by the programmer of the game.
The guy that created the dreamcatcher modules (among others) was offered a job at bioware. He turned it down though. Therefore, it stands to reason -- you could get a job this way. Good luck
On that note... if you actually like to play video games consider a different industry. I used to enjoy games on my own time, but working with them ruined that for me. Now, when I play a game, I can hardly have fun... I just see bugs and bad design.
You see, you haven't really beaten a game until you can crash it reproducibly.
As you say, NWN does have a very powerful toolset and increases its flexibility with each expansion (Gawd I hope they make more expansions, but Wizards might not let 'em) - http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931 88613X/002-3859184-1971242?v=glance
is the world builder's guide and a good resource for starting out (like me)
Eat recycled food - it's good for the environment, and OK for you.
Build levels for DNF, if you can build levels for a game that far in development, you're sure to shine up your resume.
Learn something new.
Two game companies where friends of mine work have switched from level editors to 3D Studio MAX for level editing.
try and find Abuse by crack.com - I used to love making levels for this game, and spent endless hours making the levels do more and more insane things, and pose more and more puzzling problems... its only a side-scroller, but very interesting and easy to use :)
you'll need the full version to use the level editor I believe...
Handyboard Hackers' Resource Guide
A friend and I just 'finished' an UnrealEd project recently. www.netscene.org/BC3D/
This was our first experience with level 'design'. We were simply modelling a section of our school; it was a challenge to keep things acurate. We barely scratched the surface of UnrealEd and it was a humbling experience. UnrealEd has it's fair share of bugs, hopefully most will be gone in UT2K4. I have a newfound respect for level designers. The tools have come a long way since I played with level design in Duke Nuke'm 3D.
It's not the tools that matter. Find a tool that you can use. It's all there is too it. It's the game that's important. Decide which sort of game you really love playing, and really want to produce a level for. If possible find several games. Flexibility is a good thing, so is the ability to focus on something else.
Then just get a game level working. Try things out. See what works. Find a playtester. Do not give the playtester any advice at all. Just observe. They should be able to work things out themselves. It helps to make them visually attractive if you're using them as marketting tools, so see what you can do about lighting.
Level design as we know it these days is a tricky thing.
To most people, success in level design is creating places with killer gameplay and great looks and ambience.
To me, real level design is the best way to script your own movies - be your own hollywood director. This of course is valid when trying to create gameplay experiences akin to the first time you played through the amazing Half-Life. But it is most definately what needs to go on when designing your multiplayer level, and balancing it to make it as fun as can be. You are always scripting a movie, and I'm sure that the hard work pays off the most when you get to see that movie come to life in the game, whether you are a player, or just a spectator.
Thats why I believe you can never accept anything but your own personal level of perfection in your work. As the game 'director', if its not as great as you can make it, if you can see the gaping anus, then you owe it to yourself to make it perfect. And always your own level of perfection, not someone elses.
If you follow this way of thinking, then I can't see how the overwhelming level of detail and work required for modern level design can ever be out of reach.
Not quite level design, but I did audio for quite a lot of games. "How fun" everyone says. Here's a game a worked on - an extreme example, but not that much.
It was a flying/shooting game where you ran missions. In the studio with an actor, who says
"Alpha base to captain, over"
"Beta base to captain, over"
"Delta base to captain, over"
etc
Then..
"Captain to alpha base, over"
"Captain to beta base, over"
"Captain to delta base, over"
etc.
And a whole bunch of variants. Came to a few 1000 lines from memory. They need to then be chopped into separate files and processed (a batch job fortunately) with the right effects, compression, etc, and then every single one needs to be checked for quality.
Bored yet? Now repeat the whole process in French, German and Portugese.
"How fun".
Read reviews of shopping cart software
Red Faction comes with an easy to use map editor. It's a pretty light hearted game so I think you'll find it easer getting your maps running on servers. You want to go to Levels4You - its a great community for mappers. Not just Red Faction.
We have a Red Faction map that models our office so at lunchtimes we can shoot the hell out of each other with out damaging the real walls.
There are a lot of fun home designed fun maps for counter strike - but most of the server activity is with old established maps and modifications of these maps. It's hard to get a good team balanced map.
Whatever map you design, for whatever game you'll have to play it a lot with other people before it's really well tuned. Probably best of to start with a small map.
Wouldn't worry too much about all that CV, job adverts and portfollio stuff, just get the yellow pages and go knocking on doors. (I've been working 6 years now, did it more traditonally at first, but this is how I got my last job - much more interesting this way.) Your a graduate so the most important thing is that you're smart and enthusiastic. You got nothing to loose and remember your interviewing them as much as the other way round. Pretty big thing to give most of your time to someone for a few years. How about just getting a fishing rod and a tent?
It is really hard to get into the gaming industry, my brother knows a guy who now makes maps for a living. He was involved in American McGee's Alice. He also worked in Ritual, Rogue, and Gearbox. I think he was also working on Counterstrike:CZ, but go canned when they stopped developement, which is another issue all on it's own. This guy who I'm not mentioning names, only got a job in the industry because John Carmack played his map.
Another issue is job security, you have to make your own, but then again pretty much in every job today you have some degree of doing that. However, even if you have made your job security there is nothing that can protect you from being laid off when you finish the game your working on(ie Ritual employees after Elite Force 2). Those people were quickly hired by others but I don't know if you want to be moving around so much.
So to wrap things up, you better be good at what you do, you better have a contact in the industry, or hope someone recognizes you. Lastly, your going to always run the risk of being let go and have to move somewhere else.
What major did this person graduate from? Being a level designer - the career path should be up to the lead designer - which requires some artistic experience - preferably in many fields due to the convergence of technology in games.
Since this isn't the path that everyone can go to, I would like to suggest best to plan for an alternative career - maybe pursuing level design as a part-time/contract job or do it as a hobby while building up your port to the point it is well recognized in at least the mod circles.
Seriously without any experience, I don't think any game development studios/companies will hire this person unless they have extensive personnel development programs - something which is odd in the industry - or either need some cheap labor. Talking about cheap labor this brings back to the point why not hiring someone active in the mod community?
Talking about job security, I don't think level designers are very secure - unless you land a job with one of the MMOG companies that require level designers all around the year. Most of the cases, most game companies will hire level designers/designers on the duration of the project mostly on contractual basis before releasing when they don't need your services any longer.
All in all, just a few observations that I think should be vital if you are planning a career in this industry. If you don't really love it, don't join it because it ain't pretty as it seems and it ain't pays as good as it seems (unless you are those celebraty designers/programmers/developers).
You shouldn't be asking what editor's are easy, intuitive, etc. In fact, you shouldn't be asking about the editor program at all. What you should be asking is "What games do I want to make?" and proceed from there.
If you like FPS games, try a few of the editors like UED. Find the style of FPS you feel is the best suited to how you think games should work. If you like RPGs get some experience with the NWN editor or Siege editor in Dungeon Siege.
Get a feel for how things work in a LOT of editors and you'll probably decide which ones you feel most comfortable with.
After awhile, perhaps you'll land that job, but then, you'll have to ditch all the skills you taught yourself since a great number of companies still rely on proprietary in-house tools for designing levels.
In the end it's not what you know about the programs, but what you know about what makes a good level, map, game, that will get you in the door. That and a pure passion to make games that are fun and people want to play. If you don't have the passion, the industry will surely disappoint you. It's full of politics like any other industry, bad names like any other, faceless PR, and because it's the most successful entertainment business now, a lot of broken dreams and bottom-line hunting goes on. Keep passionate, you'll succeed.
Paul K.
I've done level design for a ton of games, starting with Doom. I've probably done about a hundred levels, not counting the trials and the many I never finished. Here's my not-so-nice summary:
Doom/Doom2, etc. level editors all sucked. This was partly compensated for by those games essentially being 2D, so the editors didn't have to be very complicated, and they weren't.
Duke Nukem 3D had the best editor for an FPS, hands down. It had its quirks, but editing was easy and you had immediate feedback.
Quake3: I have a very strong love/hate relationship with radiant. On the one hand, it does its job pretty well. On the other, it has bugs and quirks that have driven me insane at times.
Age of Wonders had a pretty good editor, though editing all the parameters got tedious and there were way too many dialogs and windows.
Vampire. This has got to be the worst editor. Ever. You can essentially do nothing with it except put down props into levels you built with some external tools, then load scripts that you had to write somewhere else, tie them to characters you had to build externally - you get the idea.
Savage. I haven't yet used it very much, but from what I've seen it looks very, very nice.
Tribes and Tribes II - very good editors, though you had to build the structures externally, and some manual editing of script files was necessary if you wanted special effects.
Civ2 - quite a nice editor, but missing functionality to do repetitive tasks automatically.
Combat Mission - this is a very good editor, one of the best I have seen. It is very easy to handle and you can set up very complex and interesting missions easily.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
I'll agree with another poster, game companies can be a lot less fun to work for than you'd think.... HOWEVER, my current job is by far the most enjoyable and rewarding I've ever had, in or out of the game industry.
I highly recommend looking at the Unreal level editor. Pick up a copy of UT2003 and start messing with it. There are a *ton* of companies using this engine for games, and will give you the best chance of actually getting into the industry with what you've learned.
Hell, Epic even sponsored Unreal University for the purpose of letting people come learn their tools from pros.
http://cde.ncsu.edu/uu/
If you're serious about becoming an LD, you want to use a common engine with tools you're likely to see used for a number of different games.
What has puzzled me since the days of Wolfenstein (1) was why they are called textures, and why it's called texture mapping. They aren't textures at all - they are wallpaper, and it's wallpaper mapping. Go up to a "texture mapped" object in a game, and you'll find the texture is completely smooth wallpaper over the underlying object.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
There's also the "magic word" on level design:
Never, ever, ever publish your first level. It will suck, no matter what you think about it.
This repeats when you switch games and start making levels for a new game. And yes, it will still be true if you've made levels for Doom, Doom II, Quake, Quake 2 and Quake 3 and are starting on Doom III. Your first level will be crap.
And no, building a small one to throw it away doesn't work, either. You can't cheat this law any more than you can cheat gravity.
I remember my own first levels. As I used to be a #1 level maker for a Q3 mod for a while, I've also seen the first levels of many other people. People who are hailed and worshipped today. Their first levels sucked so badly, it made me cringe.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
If you really have no experience you might find it easier to start by building some Doom levels. There are plenty of level editors, node builders etc. available. It seems a good place to start because you only have to worry about 2-and-a-bit dimensions for the actual structure of the level, allowing you to concentrate on placement of enemies, create good secret areas, place keys to make an interesting mission etc. You can arrange for different placement of items depending on multi/single player and learn about the differences between good single-player levels and good deathmatch levels. There's also a pretty large community of Doom players who could give you feedback on your levels. (I will, if you have anything ready before 24 February.)
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
See...this just proves my theory...these kids graduating nowadays, all they know how to do is play games!
"Get Moose and Squirrel!"
1st, realize that making games is not the rockstar job that lots of people make it out to be. The game industry keeps itself alive on the blood and sweat of people who love making games. You will work 10-14 hour days for weeks at a time (or years, as some cases may be). You probably won't get a bonus when the game is done. You probably won't be paid very well. You'll have to work with people who think they are god's gift to the world, and they will probably be your boss.
But, you will also work with really cool, creative people. You will get to do something you (hopefully) love to do. You will get to create games. If this small paragraph sounds better than the larger, first paragraph, then by all means, pursue a career in the game industry.
So... the nutshell I can come up with at 4:45 in the morning (yes, I've been working since yesterday morning).
Get a day job first. It's a different path for everyone, but odds are you won't break into the industry anytime soon (it took me a couple years). You might be able to get in as a tester or intern, but it's almost as hard to make the jump to the dev side as it is to just break in.
Grab the whatever latest version of Unreal2KX XMP Super Mega Championship Edition is out. Epic has done a good job of marketing their engine and tools to devs, and a lot of places have picked up the Unreal engine and it's editor, UnrealEd. This can give you a slight advantage just because being familiar with the tools can be a big selling point to some companies.
Next, learn how to use it. Not just part of it, all of it. How to make and import textures. How to make and import meshes. How to make and import sounds. Even learn the basics of unreal script. You may not be actually creating art assets/code in the position, but as level designer you are where 'the tires hit the road'. Everything has to come through you at some point to go into the level so you have to understand everything that is going on behind the scenes.
Make a few multiplayer maps of whatever flavor you want. Focus on a few key areas:
1. Look and feel. No BSP holes. No meshes intersecting each other at weird angles. Everything lines up. There is a good sense of 'space'. Lighting is good and reflects the mood appropriately but isn't overboard. Textures are aligned properly.
2. Wiring. Doors open and close when they are supposed to. Switches work the 'right' way. Events happen when they are supposed to. Areas are zoned or antiportaled correctly.
3. Gameplay. For learning, I put this last at this point. These maps your learning how to use the editor and trying to make them look as good as possible. In general, in gameplay the player shouldn't get lost or stuck anywhere. The next area to explore should be obvious. Paths are clearly marked. Framerate is good at all places in the level.
Now, you need to make some single player experiences. You probably won't get a job making multiplayer maps (I've never made one professionally) so you need to be able to create good single player experiences. This is the hard part (learning the tech just enables you, this is the actual work!). Even moreso than understanding the technology, you have to understand the game you are making and understand the game design.
To learn how to create good single player experiences, don't just play other games, analyze them. Watch how they create tempo and how the flow of the level works. When is the player challenged? How often? When is the player rewarded? How often? What types of challenges are present? How difficult is the game? Why were certain game and level design decisions made for that game? How would the level design be different if the character could jump twice as far? Shoot twice as fast? Once you start playing games with these sorts of questions in mind, you'll start to have a better understanding of what it takes to create a level. It will take awhile, as long or longer than it takes to learn all the tools. I'm still learning and I've been making levels since Q2 days.
Good luck.
There is no such word as "alot"
Would you like fries with that?
Go get a job, don't fancy something that very few people have and likely aren't even their full time job.
If you want to be a game developer, whatever else you do...DON'T GET MARRIED.
assert(birth_date<time-86400)
There are a lot simpler ways to go...
One very popular alternative is DarkBasic. The scripting language sucks, but if you want experience at game development it may be worth your while.
An even better alternative is 3D GameStudio. This is a complete development environment as well, and it uses a proprietary C-script that looks pretty easy to pick up. Actually, if you look at the future plans for this game authoring environment, you'd be pretty impressed. It may be good to use a simpler environment to get your feet wet, then move on when you've outgrown it.
The Death Penalty: Killing people to show others that killing people is wrong.
I did a fair bit of level design with the original descent. The level editors for this one were, well, quite simple. The entire game consisted of cubes, which could be sized and bent almost any way you wanted. This was very simple, and provided me months worth of fun.
This kind of thing really gets your mind going. Very easy to start out with, and still able to use your creativity.
I tried the one that came with Descent3. This was very much harder to use. I never did get the hang of it, past building a few rooms. Maybe i'll take another shot at it. Seeing as how i have a little time on my hands now.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
The lev-ed for bf1942 is pretty good, nice n easy, stable, well supported. Avoid UTx like the plague, the ed is a buggy bucket of shite. also look into blender/gameblender
This perpetual motion machine Lisa made is a joke, it just keeps getting faster and faster. - Homer
If you are serious about learning how to use UnrealED, take a look at what 3dbuzz.com has to offer: free video training modules (VTMs) on how to use the thing. Some of the modules are pretty hefty -- weighing in at 100+MB on some lessons. These can be found here.
On a somewhat related note, if you pre-order the special edition of UT2K4 you'll get the VTMs on a DVD.
I did a lot of levels for this in it's time. It was easy and fun. Are my wrinkles showing?
Some people are like slinkys. They're useless, but it puts a smile on your face to push them down the stairs.
Here's an idea....get a real job with a decent paycheck and some job security.
Then do level design on weekends for fun and give 'em out for the whole world to enjoy!
I suspect you'll be much more fulfilled that way.
After all, aren't you interested because you want people to see your work? You want to create something for people to enjoy? I've had more fun downloading NWN mods and playing Natural Selection, Team Fortress, operation flashpoint, and desert combat than buying new games.
"You cannot find out which view is the right one by science in the ordinary sense." - C.S. Lewis on Intelligent Design
The most brilliant developer I know works in game development, and he is frequently between jobs and looking for work. This is a guy who's got the answer to any question I've ever seen asked of him off the top of his head. I wish I could give you examples of his over-the-top brilliance, but I'll have to just say that his screen name has become a synonym for "wisdom" and leave it at that. If this guy can't hold a steady job in game development, I don't know how anyone can expect to.
--- 11 meters/second, or 24 miles per hour - the airspeed velocity of an unladen European swallow. Really.
Having used this to make a map or two, I can say that it is extremely easy to use the basics, yet there is also plenty of depth to it for writing your own campaigns.
It is also pretty close to the NWN top down RPG type of game, rather than a first-person shooter.
--"You can lead a man to knowledge, but you can't make him think."
Here's one of my forays into architectural design using Moray and POVRay. It took about a half day to do working off of graph paper blueprint sketches. Though it's not interactive, the visual quality (architectural composition aside :P ) is much cleaner than anything currently available in a game. VRML is a lot like the POV format, for the most part, so some tools should be able to convert from one to the other, allowing you to use VRML to make your designs interactive. Search around on Freshmeat and the like for tools that might be able to handle both formats...
Good luck, and have fun!
I think that if you are looking for a very balanced mod, you should check out CPMA for Quake3. These guys have been tweaking the gameplay for absolutely years and the demos from the competitions are absolutely mindblowing as far as speed, tactics and pure skill are concerned. The downside is that it has a scarily steep learning curve.
Of particular interest for an aspiring mapper is their mapping forum where they playtest and discuss the latest maps. Some extremely talented mappers there, who aren't only interested in looks, but carefully consider every aspect of gameplay for a map. If you're interested in level design, you should certainly read through that forum and test the maps discussed there to get a feel for what is important and how to improve your mapping!
That's exactly how we did it.
I remember back in the day, going through the Ultima games, redesigning the maps, redrawing the cities, changing all the dialogue... all with a hex editor. It took us a while to figure out a key for what the hex values corresponded to in the game, but once we had that down, the rest was pure coding joy.
Heh... we had some fun doing that... you wouldn't have recognized the games by the time we were done with them. Unfortunately, this was in the BBS days, so there was no "net" on which to post our mods... lost to history.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
From experience: A game designer is a complex and unmolded beast that must shapeshift and be the type of person that convince just about anybody of anything and can take criticism from just about anybody. The thing with this job is that everybody in the conpany thinks they can do it. The artists, the programmers, the management, everybody, down to the secretary think they are great game design ideas and will constantly engage you into discussions about THEIR ideas. Technically, a good game designer should be specialised in some particular genre and different skill sets come with each genre. For FPS/3rd person games, you will definitely need to know how to work in a 3d modeling software like 3DSMAX. You will have to create rough architecture layout that you will be able to model. With the architecture flow designed, artists will work upon the foundations you provided. Photo references can be used to give an idea of the texturing to be used and such. Some programming skills are also required as you will need to script some game logic and some AI. In RTS games, you will need to be able to design maps and environnements using a map editor that has been created in house, or script some parameter-based script for generating random maps out of templates you will have designed too. Then comes the balancing of units. You will need some maths skills and endless patience. For sports games, you will need to know the sport in question to so much detail, that people will think you have a doctorate degree in it. Ai is very complex in a good sport game as the computer opponent has to have great strategic depth, but since most sports are team-played, your own AI controled players will need to know where to be so you can play the game without controlling all of your team at once. For RPGs, you need to be a dungeons and dragons freak. Then you need to be good at writing novels or movies because of the sheer amount of dialogue, intrigue and character design/development involved. There's a lot more involved but that's a start. Of course, you need an infinite imagination, regardless of genre and great versatility. Communication skills are important in the sense that you really need to be good at it to make an artist with is own vision of things be able to see your vision, on convincing a programmer that the feature you really need has to be coded, even tho the engine is not built to support such features. So, great tools are available and make some nice demo (you WILL need a demo). For fps, unrealEd and Vavle editor are perfect. Script and model with them a lot. For sports game I dont know any. For rpgs, neverwinter nights also has great toolset. For rts, use the map editors and modify the units data where you can. All great new RTS comes with this now (warcraft 3, age of mythology, etc) Have hope and good luck! D
We should have been
So much more by now
Too dead inside
To even know the guilt
Find a copy of something running on a good engine.... Quake 3 is still used by tons of best-sellers and is tried and tested. Most recently Call of Duty. Half Life is an incredible engine as well. These two make up the majority of FPS gaming platforms. Write something for these games that no one else has done. An incredible mod would be to add bots to Call of Duty as it hasnt been done yet. But not just nay bots, smart bots. Bots that can kick any ass they want. Or make a mod that allows the bots to learn your movements and behaviors, the same way you learn a computers. I can predict bot actions and most players when I play now so I know how they play and whast they do. Make something like that, post it for free, then send out some resumes to some gaming companies that shows you did something they couldn't. You'll get a job. Gaming companies don't want level designers or level programmers, they have tons and tons of applications for those. You'll be luckey to eat pB&J for supper on those salaries. They want something that will give them an option to sell much mo' betta' games. Make something they can't and they will want you too.
I also wanted to get into level design and I used hammer for about a year. I was already a designer(graphic) for 5 years so I made some good maps. After a year I sumbitted my level to a game company in Montreal. They called me in for an interview. Now here's the point of my little story - the position was for a level designer and the salary they offered was 26k cdn (about 12/hour). That is the reality - if you want to get in at a game company you better be ready for a student salary for the first 5 years. I ended up getting a job with the Canadain Gov't working with SQL and access. Apart from working with access it was a much better decission for my life to go to gov't.
You should really have something made with the quake 3 editor. It's pretty good, and the id engines tend to make it into a lot of other games, so I'm guessing it's a good skill to know. Since it's a pretty high-profile game, people will actually be able to use your work, too.
Try 3D RAD ...
http://www.3drad.com
A lot more than a "Level Editor".
I've always been a fan of pornography, and I think its a great career. I mean, who wouldn't like fscking young, supple women? I don't have any experience fscking for a living, but i think i'd really find it rewarding. anyone know how to get in on the porn business?
Reason, free market capitalism, and individualism
This person looks like they're just trying to get into the field because "games are where the money's at!". If this is true, do everyone a favor and pike off. The game industry is already headed the same way as other fields that were "where the money's at!". Look at the IT industry, it recieved a crapflood of mass produced wannabes who only saw the salary. Already there's college courses churning out "level designers" and "game artists" and whatever else. Mind you, there are some courses out there that are actually quite good for this. However, the majority of these courses are like the ones that produced so called MCSEs who didn't know shit all. In short, don't bother with this endeavour unless you genuinely have a love for it.
My patience is infinite, my time is not.
trying to be one of the few people on topic here. .
as an amateur level editor with > 10 years experience I can say a couple things about it. one I don't know what it's like working in the gaming industry but I understand most designers have cots next to they're desk. two, most people have no idea what goes into a production game level. it can take MONTHS just to get some decent geometry layed out. if your doing your own textures there's another month. then there's bringing it all together. the refining process (texture alignment, light tweaking, ambient effects) usually takes another month. so for a 1 man level design team it can be 3-4 months for a PRODUCTION quality level. it's a painstakingly long process thats not for everyone.
So many people think "oh hey, I wanna make a game!" without realizing the amount of knowledge and experience that goes into it. sure tutorials will get you building boxes with monsters and textures but that hardly constitutes a quality game level. Especially now with HL2/UT2k3/Doom3 where most of the level is no longer geometry but static mesh's. now you have to be proficient in Maya and 3dsmax to produce anything that makes people go "wow!".
as far as my favorites to work with, I'd have to say the build editor for Duke3D was one of my favorites. it had no docs and less support but once you actually spent the 30+ days to figure it out it was an amazing tool to work with. WorldCraft/Hammer is also another nice editor. I didn't like it much for Quake2/3 (did it support Q3? I forget) but for Q1/HL it rocked! the vertex manipulation tools were a wonderfull addition back in v1.6. but I'd have to say my all time favorite editor is UnrealEd for UT2k3. that is by far and away the most powerfull piece of gaming software I've ever seen in my life! full game-rendered sound and graphics right within the editor! support for static mesh editing, scripting, everything! it's a total Unreal IDE.
anyone who has had to put up with the tools over the past decade can back me up on that one. it's the first one that has a professional quality feel to it (and it's no where near as buggy as QuakeEd).
In closing I would say if your interested in level design go for it! it can't hurt. but be prepared for a 90 degreee learning curve for about a year (especially if you haven't been exposed to 3D modeling). Learn programming early, save your self the frustration. and stick with it, it takes a while for a design to come out of your head and into a game. it can seem like you'll never get it finished, just tack ur balls to the walls and finish it. you will be beyond proud of your self the first time you hear "wow that kicks ass!"
Oh and for pete's sake, _PLEASE_ check out the video tutorials on http://www.3dbuzz.com . those guys really kick ass!
In my studio, out of the 6 level designers we have 5 of them started work in our quality assurance department. I also have 2 programmers from QA, 2 artists and 2 of the 5 designers started in our QA department (two of the others have QA experience at other games developers). I too started work, a long time ago, as a games tester and am now a producer.
When I am looking for staff I always start internally. I talk to my team and ask if they would reccomend anyone in the company that is looking to move into the position I have available. If this does not turn anything up I ask for recommndations for people outside the company. This is a really small industry, we all have many friends at other developers and friends who are out of work, the bonus that my staff recieve for recruiting experinced people is a decent insentive to tell their friends about available positions.
As a last resort I go to HR and look through the stacks of CV's that they recieve. HR filter these pretty well and remove all the children / idiots / freaks but going through the pile is usually very dull and unproductive. 99% of the CV's are the same; people with degrees in art or design who want to work in the games industry because they played a bit of GTA 3 or Fifa and enjoyed it.
Heres what I would want to see in an application for a level design job if you dont have industry experience...
A covering letter containing a brief review of your career in gaming (favourite moments in gaming is a great way to do it), Experience in creating games (Modding, Level editing, tools, etc..), and an explaination of why you want to work in the games industry.
A hardcopy portfolio. Artists always have these but its rare for a level designer to have one. For everything you create spend a bit of time going around the level taking screenshots. The screenshots dont need to be pretty but they should emphasise the good level design, when possible use empty levels (ie. no players) with the HUD disabled. Pick five or ten of the best screenshots and take them down to the local printer / photocopy shop to get them printed in color good quality paper (unless you can do it at home). Write a couple of sentences for each of the pictures to explain whats going on. Also include at least one hand drawn concept sketch.
A CD portfolio. Include both the actual levels as well as screenshots or a powerpoint presentation of the level. Diversity is the key here. Get level design tools for as many different types of games as you can. Start with Half-Life (counterstike) and Quake 3, both of these are played during lunchtime at many game developers. Make sure you have at least one example of level design for the following genres, try to build a level for the most popular game in each... 2D platform, 3D platform, Driving / Racing, RPG, RTS, Extreme Sports.
Its going to be hard to break into any kind of design job from outside the industry but if you can do all of the above then it will at least get you an interview, the rest is up to you.
I have made maps based on the Q3 engine for different games. Gradient is the program of choice for my level development. It does have some draw backs. Though it does have it's pluses: 1) it's free 2) different view panes 3) allows full 360 degree movement in the environment 4) allows for lighting also 5) allows for spawn points of players and equipment 6) can import custom textures I dislike the fact that I have trouble judging some heights within the model, so whenever I make stairs, I end up not having made the ceiling high enough. I also dislike the fact that there is no .pak editor supplied with it.
The tool does a wonderful job considering it's free.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
1) Learn to program. Much of the day-to-day stuff designers do is scripting events, AI behavior, and tools for use by the player and/or other designers. A solid technical background will take you much further than a fancy-ass Quake map. Technical chops are a strong selling point. Show us a mini-game you wrote in Java or flash. Design a cool AI encounter with the Neverwinter Nights or Dungeon Siege engine. Learn C++, or at least Visual Basic. Download a scripting language and prove that you can write clean, commented, debuggable scripts that do what they are supposed to.
2) Create a 3D model. Even if it isn't pretty, learn enough about the process of modeling, texturing, rigging and animating that you can talk intelligently to the artists about what the animations do, why you can't have a higher texture resolution, why the building you placed down isn't getting lit right, etc.
The more you know about the limitations of the engine and the tools you use the more effective you are going to be. A designer with breadth of experience and knowledge is more hireable than some lone-wolf who can sit in a basement churning out maps.
-nordee
still no sig
...don't listen to the whiners talking about how hard and boring it is. You'll know whether you like it long before you have a decent portfolio put together.
Take your favorite game with level-editing tools available for it: NWN and Starcraft or Warcraft spring immediately to mind, but remember it should be a game you know and understand. You have to know the game well enough to have a good feel for what makes a good level.
Another thing to consider is to contact your local IDGA chapter. Their website has a page which lists all the local chapters. I found a very active group in my local area, which turned out to have monthly meetings which are very useful.
Another thing to look for is groups working on mods. Most of the top mods were created by a bunch of "guys like you" who got together on the Internet and need lots of help and are willing to teach you what you need to know.
Eternal vigilance only works if you look in every direction.
Considering the constant loss of liberties and the general violence in the US, I'd consider being assigned abroad a bonus on my working conditions!
You're not old until regret takes the place of your dreams.
While I like following the gaming industry, I've never been an expert on the intricacies of individual games. So I learned the following interesting fact about level design from reading an article on the history of id software.
Apparently John Romero was well renowned for his elegant level design, but he was primarily self taught and designed more from internal inspiration and instinct. Later, as the company developed, they needed to hire another level designer and Romero was in charge of interviews.
One of the guys they interviewed came with a very long gaming resume (sorry, don't remember his name though he's well known now) that earned him an interview. Romero was skeptical about this guy's skills, but in the interview it became apparent that his depth of knowledge about the theory of level design far outstripped Romero's. Years of experience in designing games, discussing and reading about game design, had given the guy a very deep grasp of how the game interacted with the player.
When Romero and id sat him down in front of an editor, he was quickly able to show how that knowledge came into play, even though his levels were considered rather ugly. He got the job but he and Romero largely designed their levels separate from each other, rather than collaborating.
When their individual work showed up in later id games, people apparently generally agreed that Romero's levels were prettier and more awe-inspiring, but the other guy's were more 'fun'.
Romero was the artist. The other guy was the theorist. Both were quite talented. The perfect level designer would carry both qualities.
I'd think that if you wanted to compete in todays mature game industry, you at least need the solid theoretical knowledge. Then hope you have the artistic chops.
I don't think, that anyone can really help you. An artist / creative must constantly find new ways for his artwork to express itself. It's just like in the music business. Did Jimmi Hendrix ask someone which guitar he shall use?
dude levls are easy u just have to make sure that games get the good fps cause my gforcefx is ovrclocked and then some levls are stil too low on fps to play them right then youll make a good levl
One of the things that I think is getting missed in this thread is the Level Designer's knowledge of the game community and game itself. For example, the people who concistently write great modules for NWN are people who've played the game its based on (D&D) for years. One of the things you may want to take into consideration is how much you know about the game itself and the community that plays it. If you've played D&D since 1st Edition (and especially if you've been a DM), then NWN would be a natural extension of your existing knowledge and skills. For example, some of the best NWN levels I've played have been those that take the "standards" of the game and turn them completely upside down. If you didn't know what the "standards" for the underlying game are, you'd have no way of doing this.
buying the game comes with an extremely sophisticated level designer, on which there are LOADS of tutorials, plus many great mods to map for besides just the original game.
i've heard you can pick it up for as little as $10 now, plus it comes with a free (though slightly crippled) version of Maya to give you a taste of making your own models as well (you can import them into the level designer but nowhere else i think).
just my recommendation.
Being a Level Designer in the industry, there are a few key tools that many companies look for. Compentency in a 3D Model Editor, such as 3D Studio Max or Maya, is almost a must these days. If you are trying to do some level design in some key games to build up your portfolio, I highly suggest Unreal Tournament 2003, any Quake based game, and/or NWN. The Level Design tools for UT2k3 are very similar to Maya, so if you would like to learn Maya and build your portfolio, UT2k3 is definately a wise choice. Besides, a lot of companies are using the Unreal engine anyway, so it'd make you that much more valuable in the industry.
Another program that I found extremely usefull was a simple CAAD editor. While it may not seem obvious at first, it can really help you plan out what you're going to make, layout wise, and help you develop a level with good gameplay. One tool that mixes in CAAD with practical level design is Valve Software's Valve Hammer Editor. It is an editor for Half-Life, and I must say that it has kept me going for the past five years. I landed a few level design positions based purely on my work from VHE alone, so it's definately something to check into. Also, with Valve's upcoming Half-Life 2 game, it'll give you a notch up on those who want to just start HL2 design, as VHE is the Level Design tool of choice for HL2.
Another good skill to have is some basic programming. Most scripting languages are done in forms of C or C++. Unreal Editor, for example, has its own scripting language called "Uscript," but the similiarities between UScript and C++ are endless. When it comes to development, scripting is a very VERY good skill to have, especially if the company you're working for is making a single player title.
Lemmie see... Oh yeah, be good at drawing. Sometimes if the developer doesn't have concept artists, you'll have to do your own to design levels. Developers like to see the entire process of how you construct your levels, and drawing conception art for your level helps demonstrate that you have a development system going and think things through rather than just do it all on the fly. This will also make the actual level design easier, because you somewhat already know what you want that particular area to look like.
One last thing you may want to do when developing levels is to jot down notes of what you want in it, what sort of theme, textures to be used, lighting themes, key areas, etc. Jotting down such things will help you maintain a consistant design throughout the entire level. On that note, drawing a top down layout of the level is almost a must, because it'll help you design your level and show you where you are, what you are doing, and what you have left to do.
All in all, level design is great. I wouldn't give it up for my left nut, but it takes some time and practice to get good at it. I started close to eight years ago with Doom and the Quake games, and only landed jobs about a year and a half ago, so keep at it and always ask your friends for feedback on your work. Honest feedback helps you critique your own work. Me, for example... all my work sucks.
If you'd like to talk more about this, or see some samples of my work, visit thezazi.net and/or email me at zazi@thezazi.net.
I've tried my hand at sex a few times, but never level design.
There is no catchall solution to get in the game business. Most LD's I work with have started in QA and while there showed that they were dedicated to the game development process and learned the LD tools while there. Honestly that's your best bet.
There are a few good LD's who have done their own levels and have gotten hired based on their level portfolio. You have a couple of things to improve your odds there. 1) Pick an engine that is licensed, this will open up as many jobs as possible to you. i.e. Unreal or Quake. Game companies will likely not hire you unless you already know some of the tools they use.
2) Build levels in as many different games as possible. Again, this is so you can learn the various tools and open up more job opportunities.
3) Oh yea and the levels better all kick ass.
4) There was a suggestion that you do your own texture work. You can if you want to but level art is typically done by level artist not level designers.
Good luck!!!
Design quality levels for popular games like Unreal and Q3 and submit them to community sites and mods. I knew a guy that used to live here in Atlanta that designed some really nice levels that appeared in mods like Rocket Arena and was noticed by people at EA and he got a job in California as a level designer
Do *not* try to get into the game industry because you think the job would be fun.
That's like say, oh, it would be fun to be a writer, because they travel and drink whiskey.
Making games is damn hard work, and frequently frustrating, and frequently physically damaging, a frequently made unpleasant by dinks in suits.
If you want a job in the game industry, make sure it's because you damn-well *love* making games.
If you don't, then it will end up being "Office Space" with nerf-guns.
We do this job because the only thing that sucks worse than making games is not making games.
What were you expecting?
Honestly, it depends on who you will be applying to. Digital Extreme for example, (makers of Unreal) hire almost all their staff from the mod / custom levels community. So if you were to apply to them, I'd say make some Unreal levels.
If you're applying elsewhere, it would always be a smart move to create custom levels in something that can be easily demo'd. For example, almost every developer will have a copy of Half-Life installed on at least a couple computers, and view a mod or custom levels in Half-Life is very easy to do. (On the down side, the engine is very dated). So pick a recent but common/popular game. If the company's staff has to jump through hoops just to see your work, chances are they won't even bother cuz too many people send out crap anyways.
And make it as easy for them to check out as possible. I guess you can always do movie-captures and burn them to DVD for them to view... If they like what they see there they'll ask for the actual data and then take the time to check it out in closer detail.
i've been axed my times about programming for the game industry. the prestiege, glamor, the public notority. i tell these people that in order to be good a programming games one must, "marry rich".
can some of this software be applied to movie making?
The gun is good - Zardoz
Aside from the original Descent's DEVIL and DMB2 (which was based on the idea of cubes/rectangular solids attached on one or more sides), I've also picked up Descent 3's D3Edit (manipulate vertices and faces), Unreal Tournament's UnrealEd (brush-based), FreeSpace's FRED (ship placement, scripting events), and Red Faction's RED (sort of a cross between D3Edit and UnrealEd). All of these games, except FreeSpace, can be arguably classified as first-person shooters. FreeSpace, on the other hand, was an arcade space simulation. I'll speak briefly about each, neglected DEVIL/DMB2 since they are much too old.
D3Edit, as I said, is based on the premise of vertices and faces. Essentially, you insert the vertices, select a bunch of them, and then create a face in between them. Additionally, there are tools like extrude, lathe, and bend available. With D3Edit, you also have the chance to import terrain heightmaps (since Descent 3 had indoor and outdoor areas). It also has an extremely robust scripting tool called DALLAS that allows you to do all sorts of neat things in single-player maps - everything from cutscenes to shattering glass to weather effects. And because you manipulate the vertices/faces directly, you are afforded much more control over the whole level (contrasted against UnrealEd). For that reason, Descent 3 is really my single-player game of choice. However, there are a few downsides. One is that the community is very small and shrinking. Not only is it bad for longevity, but it's also bad for receiving feedback which is vital to any serious map designer. The second con is that by its very nature, Descent 3 has no need for elevators or stairways. Because it is such a unique game, you miss out on "practical" devices such as these since the player can fly anywhere. The third is that the lighting effects in Descent 3 are somewhat inflexible, especially compared to Unreal. I spent most of last summer learning the ins and outs of the tremendously world of UnrealEd. Although it is certainly not without its quirks (most notably the evil BSP holes from hell), it is by far one of the more intuitive editors to pick up and understand. This is reinforced by the Unreal community's superb mapping resources such as the UnrealWiki. UnrealEd is a brush-based editor. What this means is that unlike D3Edit where you manipulate vertices and faces, in UnrealEd you manipulate primitives like rectangular solids, cones, spheres, stairs, etc. After you position combinations of these, you build the level and UnrealEd takes care of chopping up the geometry so it works. It's a double-edged sword. While the whole notion of using primitives is fast, as well as easier to comprehend and understand, your hands are rather tied when it comes to preventing BSP holes and the like. So, your architecture has to strike a balance between simplicity and complexity. Complex enough to not be an uninteresting box, but simple enough so that the editor doesn't mess up.
But because Unreal maps are comparatively faster to make, and because there is such a large community, the chances are good of getting valuable feedback you can use to improve your next map.
Feedback is really important because, as a map designer, it can be difficult to disconnect yourself from your work and see things as a player would see them. What makes logical sense to you need not be as lucid for the player to understand. It is mandatory that you seek feedback from peers on your work.
So the first thing I would do is get a good editor like UnrealEd (probably from Unreal Tournament, since Unreal Tournament 2003 is considerably more time-consuming), read the tutorials, and get to work on constructing a solid multiplayer level with all of the necessities - convincing shadows, bot path
Ill bite, but no doubt this will remain hidden in obscurity at 0 so good luck finding it.
I have been a level designer for almost 7 years now.
I started with Quake (qbsp) and then moved onto Halflife (worldcraft) and eventually to Unreal (Ued). I have turned out over 50 maps and worked on 2 mods using several different engines.
Level design is fascinating, the skills that you need are diverse. 2D skills with Gimp and Photoshop are essential to create custom signs, textures, intro screens and so forth. Then you need to become profficient at a 3D package. Ultimately 3D Max and Maya are the tools you should aim for expertise in, but this in itself can take 1 to 3 years to fully master. Then you should learn animation skills, how to make and articulate skeletons, kinematics, skinning, uvw wrapping and so on. An ability with sound would also help, basic waveform editing, normalisation, converting between formats. Lastly you should gather some decent coding skills, you need to master at least one language, Java or C++ is probably useful.
OK - now you have all these skills - what does it actually take to be a GOOD level designer?
Tp be a good level designer you have to
1) Play the game. Some people who never actually play the games they design levels for think they are level designers, they are not, no more so than a deaf guy who never listens to any tracks is a music producer. It is essential you actually play the game.
2) Through (1) you learn that a level is like a program. It is a finely balanced collection of attributes involving geometry, timing, lighting, and often a complex array of game logic such as pathnodes and triggers which all interconnect in space and time.
3) Games level coding is actually HARD, its usually implemented with polymorphic asynchonous stateful objects which have a complex emergent behaviour, but sometimes we like to look at single player levels as a pure state machines - whatever way you will see that large levels with many variables and objects become huge programs in their own right with complex issues such as network replication to solve. All of this is without getting grubby with the 'engine' and doing actual physics or rendering code.
4) Level design is also an artistic (thats why _I_ do it, for relaxation) endeavour. You can work from photos or just your pure imagination. However because it is 'artistic' you have to be prepared that audiences and critics will hold unquantifiable, subjective views, they may well think the level you spent weeks making is shit because they don't like the lighting color or the theme offends them.
5) Culture. By playing games you will understand specific knowlege like why you never place spawn points which are visible to each other, why you never use dynamic lighting with fast moving objects, why you have to check chains of causality in instigator traces, why you have to make bots not too greedy or they will get stuck on a tasty cookie. Games specific stuff.
Recommendations:
UnrealScript by Tim Sweeny and Mark Rein is a beautiful way to start , I wish it had been around when I started games design.
For real open architecture to work on at a _low_level_ then Crystal Space is probably a good engine.
Making money: I have only ever made levels for pleasure, although I may be so bold as to say many are superior to official levels I have seen in commercial games. I think the industry is growing and there should be plenty of paid work.
However - I would also say that given the _range_ of skills you need to be a good level designer you would expect them to be paid very well, this is not the case, from what I see level designers are considered a lowly position in games companies despite the fact they understand more about the software as a working whole than any other person in the company (including the engine coders)
And good luck, I find level design very rewarding hobby, and you will enjoy it as a job too.
Advice from a game programmer who faced many of the same problems:
Breaking into a first "games job" is the toughest part. Experience with a level editor such as NWN's won't help your resume as much as it will help you/yourself. It will realistically give you a good idea of how a game works and what to expect as a level designer, under the most *perfect* circumstances (i.e. a fully-featured design tool implemented by a top-notch studio with the end user in mind).
If you're looking for a job, however, the absolute best thing you can do is acquire a copy of 3ds max or Maya, find a group of programmers and artists who would be interested in working with you (read: providing the art and tools a level designer needs to do his job) and be able to emphasize that experience on your resume.
On top of that, here are some other excellent ideas that help you break into the games industry, without any exterior help such as a friend who works at a studio who can get you in the door:
1) attend a 1 or 2 year MS program at school that emphasizes game development. These are much more common in the UK and Canada than they are in the USA. A degree like "MS in Game Development, University of Abertay, Dundee" looks great on paper, and also will give you some legitimate time to work with other students on your own game projects.
2) Using your student status as a pass, go to game industry trade events. GDC/GDCE are good for "education" and E3/ECTS are useful for finding a job. I highly recommend going to London in August for GDCE and ECTS, because not only do they occur at the same time and place, but GDCE is far cheaper than the American GDC, and is more manageable as a single student looking for a job.
3) Join IGDA.
4) When applying to jobs, emphasize your work in games far more than any undergraduate work. The games industry is VERY cliquish, and you're essentially trying to project that you're already an industry insider, even if you don't have any formal work experience.
Good luck!
There has a planet-sized virtual world, which the staff and users are slowly filling in. The system works fine, but they need more interesting places in their world. Lots more. There is hiring.
My level design experience usually goes like this:
1. Get excited about trying to design a level for *insert game title here*.
2. Download and install the editor.
3. Create a cube-shaped level. (Usually I forget to put a player start thingy and the level won't load)
4. Muck around with the editor for a little longer.
5. Realize once again that I have no artistic ability
6. Delete the editor.
-prator
It can also be quite rewarding. I started in the game industry about 10 years ago and left due to the stress. Since then most of the jobs I've had have only been slightly less stressful, but not nearly as enjoyable. I've recently come back to games and I'm happier than I've been in a long time. It's all a matter of doing what you love.
A note to our original poster: You need to take a closer look at how the game industry actually works. Trying to get in based on your skill with designing levels for a particular game is probably not going to pay off as well as you hope. A lot of companies frown on hiring people from what they call the "mod community". Also your first job will almost certainly not be doing what you want to do. Check out the career advice from professional game developer organizations like GDC (www.gamasutra.com) and IGDA (www.igda.org).
If you're looking for something entry level check out my current employeer (www.globalvr.com) We're hiring for a few positions, mostly in QA.
Some people made some great level designs for marathon that beat the pants off any other level design going on. Marathon: Evl, Rubicon, etc etc?
I dont think making new marathon maps would help you get a job tho.
- Per Pixel Lighting
- Bump Mapping
- Specular Lighting
- Stencil Shadowing
The engine is very easy to use, and there is a great support community available to aide anyone with their questions.I am currenly developing a 3d game based off of D&D 3.0 rules. Turns out that creating levels is pretty fun, but you definitely need the right tools. Try making your own game with 3D GameStudios' A6. My favorite level design software, very easy to use and still very powerful. They have tutorials, tools, and premade crap that come with it; you can easily biuld a crappy game and use it to experiment with level design.
I've heard that UT2k3 came with it or something like it for map editing, but I'm too lazy to check it out for myself. Anyone know?
"73% of quotes on the Internet are made up" -Ben Franklin
I got an interview at Bungie by submitting a full level design document. I also submitted a couple of my Marathon levels, which they admitted they didn't bother to look at. (If they had, I might have gotten the job :-)
Every level should have a context and a purpose. If you can convey that in your designs, it doesn't matter what level editor/engine you are using.
The first thing you should do is hop on over to 3D Buzz. They have video tutorials that you can download for free. Thats how I learned to use Unreal Ed. Unreal Ed is easy to use compared to any of the other editors that I tried. I tried the Valve Editor for Half Life. It is also very good but a little more difficult to learn than Unreal Ed I found. Maybe it was because I didn't have the easy video tutorials though.
I also used the Neverwinter Nights Editor which was pretty easy to learn just using my previous knowledge and experience with other editors. You might want to start with something REALLY basic if you don't have any experience at all. Try making some levels with the Starcraft Editor. It is very very basic. If you know C++(or any language like it) that will be a big asset too because any of the really cool stuff that you can do to create dynamic events is done with script in any editor that you pick.
I'm also interested in getting into game design. One of the things you can do is to get a group of people together and create a mod. That is one way of getting in the door. I think you'll find it hard to get into a game company without a resume with some actual experience with a published game. Otherwise they won't even look at you.
You can also search on google for free 3D engines, or inexpensive ones like Torque. I've also entered the Make Something Unreal Contest. The first round is over but I think you can still enter the second two rounds. I could be wrong on that though.
Read my short stories - You won't regret it.
Since the layout is tile based, where I run into problems is getting something to look 'just right', because you need to cycle thru the tiles it places randomly; perhaps this is just being anal on my part, because 99% of players probably wont care, or even notice. Whatever; sometimes its nice to have the quality come across on a sub-consious level (or at least thats what I tell myself, haha).
Now there have also recently been a lot of changes since I started working with it, like they added a plot wizard, more script commands, etc. Also, when I was working with it, secret doors werent supported (you had to work it out with a script, which I thought was lame; how is the door 'hidden' if you have a dialogue box spoiling the fact that something is there to be found?
I recently purchased the third expansion, Hordes of the Underdark; Ive played it a bit, and its very impressive. There is a lot of support for in-game, non-interactive 'movies' (so you can make your own cutscenes), as well as more monsters and tilesets.
Im sure there is more, but I really need to get back into using the tileset and creating modules. Just check nwvault.ign.com, they have a lot of very good user-created modules.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
About three years ago (mostly because of Project Greenlight), I got involved with a group of people that also wanted to make short movies. So we did. Through the course of our first project, we became known as Lime Wrangler Productions. I've been a Prop Master, Script Supervisor, Best Boy, Editor, Gaffer and on two occasions, Director. My second directing job was for Caribou Moving Pictures and we premiere it here in Phoenix, AZ on February 13th.
I had twenty-three years worth of kindling under my ass before I found the match to start it. But now that it's going, I've been running at top speed, 'cause it's burning hot! I haven't made any money at it yet, but that's not really what's important to me at this point.
It doesn't matter when you start, just that you go for it when you're ready. Level designing does take knowledge in a huge variety of subjects, and so does directing. I personally feel fortunate that I was able to learn a lot of that stuff before I ended up in the big chair. Who's to say that our Question Asker hasn't been studying or even merely interested in the kind of stuff he needs to be a good designer?
There's skill and then there's talent. Skill, you can learn, but talent? That's what you're born with. If you've got both of those and determination, you can do anything you set your mind to. If you've got a good attitude it just makes things easier.
Moekandu
Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius. -- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Before you start, you might want to read an article we published earlier this month about game careers in which Scot Brew (LucasArts), Josh Druckman (Brainbox / Digital Extremes) and Nathan Sorenson (independent / university student with two games published by Take-Two) all give advice about how to get into the games industry and how it is changing.
Another relevant feature we did last year is about games industry trends with insights and advice from the technology director for Electronic Arts, a vice president at CGI company CORE Digital and a high level specialist at 3D tools maker Side Effects.
Everyone seems to want to get into games and it's a more and more competitive field with better-qualified people than just a few years ago. The job growth opportunities are also shifting so you may find that your skills are suited to a different part of the industry that you may not have considered.
It's surprisingly easy to get noticed by the industry as a level designer. For the past few years I have made custom levels for Quake III: Arena (see my website above), and after having created only a few successful levels, I started gettings job offers. I've been using GTKRadiant for all my work, and I think its been fantastic. As far as what the next big "editing" game will be, look to Doom 3. id software has ALWAYS been in the business of developing game engines due to Carmack, so once you learn how to use the editor in D3, you will be set for a NUMBER of games which will trickle in after D3 using its engine.
Nothing disturbs me more than blind loyalism towards some unrealistic and over-idealistic notion of one's nationality.
If you have access to a Mac, you might consider giving Marathon/Aleph One map-making a try. Marathon uses a "2.5D" engine, somewhat like Doom or Duke Nukem, and is absurdly easy to design for. There's a fairly extensive library of maps available at bungie.org, including some really impressive "total conversion" projects (all maps, graphics, and sounds replaced). The only caveat is that the best tools for Marathon are available only for Macs, and work best on OS 9 at that. There are some projects to get tools going for OS X, and there is a map editor called Obed for Windows, but I have no idea if it's any good.
Media that can be recorded and distributed can be recorded and distributed.
-kfg
I'm a Level Designer working on an Xbox title using the Unreal Tournament 2003 engine. I got my job by doing just what you seem interested in; I went online, grabbed the free Quake3 editor, read some tutorials, and learned how to make game levels. All employers want to see is great work, and a decent work ethic, degrees are seldom necessary in the artistic fields.
But as others have mentioned, making videogames is a JOB, not playtime. Its like any software development, hard work, often long hours, stress, etc. That's not a bad thing, that's just the JOB.
The Unreeal Tournament 2003 game is $30 or so now, and comes with the editor and a working version of Maya, which gives you access to ALL of the tools and levels and art that went into the game. Go online to www.PlanetUnreal.com and you can find plenty of links for mod communities, art tutorials, other people's work, etc. I'm 33 years old, but I'm quite sure that most of the tutorials that got me my dream job were written by 14 year olds. Unreal's a good engine to use, its the prettiest right now, easy to pick up, lots of other people are using it. And its a lot cheaper than a $3000 copy of 3DMax, yet you could totally get a job based on your work in that free tool.
This year, it gets even more fun. Whenever Half Life 2 and Doom3 come out, they're releasing the editors along with the games, so anyone can play with the absolute cuttingest edge.
I'm not saying school is useless, just [opinion alert] schools tailored for videogames. Go to school, study architecture, art history, 3d design, psychology, general stuff that will be useful to you for you whole life. If you want to make videogames, tho, go online and read what the 14 year olds wrote today.
Thas' all
Being a level designer. Now, what your talking about is insanely specialized. The people that design levels currently are mixtures of a few fields..Computer art? no, infact computer art or the love of computers is not enough...
Level Designers during these times, and most likely in the future, requires someone with avid math skills, drafting abilities, and programming skills. Unfortunately i saw a few friends run off to borders, pick up the "Super cool F/X and Game designers hand book", learn now to use world builder and then apply for jobs....let me just say i laughed in their faces..
A whim is just what it sounds like, a whispy fart of a dream, people can NOT specialize like this. Just like Howard Dean is SHITTING away millions of dollars he will NEVER become president. You have to decide what makes you like level design. When you find out "why" you have found your love not your whim. Continue to specialize in your "field" not your hopefully specific job.
Also, go to their forums page, enter the "General Tools" forum- There is a great "which engine" debate as well as a comprehensive list of game engines buried in the threads. As far as Conitec's product goes, 3DGS is more or less self-contained with a level editor & (weak) model editor, and uses c-script behind the scenes. It has a solid, active following. Prices range from about $100 to $900, with no royalties.
From reading the debate, a lot of other people that code in C++ like to use the Torque engine...you'll find details on the board.
For modeling, Google for a product by the name of MilkShape. Weird interface, costs $30, does the job, however. It also converts a bunch of formats.
to just learning and mastering level design? While level design is an art form in and of itself, you will be much more marketable if you have skills in other areas of game development. Get one of the cheap engines, like Torque - $100(http://www.garagegames.com) or even a free one like Crystal Space 3D (http://crystal.sourceforge.net) and learn as much as you can about the overall process of making games. There's TONS of them available (3D Engine List) and you'll be one step up on everyone else. Soon you'll be on your way to making the real money in the game industry... which is being a producer. Just my 2 cents...
Quake 3 comes with the same editor that the id team used (and designed) and it's free.
Quake 3... Use it... Love it...
(Plus, your levels will look much prettier then other games, and there's gobs of free textures and objects on the net begging for you to use them)
And remember, game play and flow are as important as aesthetics.
My first Slash Dot post. Heh. If you want to look at the NWN Bioware toolset, check out my NWN community: http://www.howardslotr.com/ I run and develop a LOTR themed module and use the Bioware toolset on a daily basis. Of course I don't get paid for it. Oh well. I can tell you that: A) Getting into the industry will be hard. B) Lots of long hours using very buggy software. I mean, having to redo 4 hours worth of work due to a toolset crash wouldn't make anyone happy. Thats happened to me twice in the past 40 days. C) The user community will never be happy with what you have done. It doesn't matter how good, how creative, or what new features you have added. If you want to see thousands of teens bitching about the Bioware games, look at their forums: http://nwn.bioware.com/ The list goes on and on. I'm sure you could do it for a while and be happy, but you'll burn out. Pretty fast too I'd guess. Just my 2 cents worth. --Howard the DM! http://www.howardslotr.com/
X Pilot doesn't really come with a level editor but I think with a little searching you could find a utility to make changes to the map files. Once you can find something to do that you're able to go hog wild with your level designs...
Direct away from face when opening.
... is that the levels in today's games are not made out of blocks and spheres anymore. Today's game level designers have to be 3D artists first, and have to be responsible for modelling subtle level details as much as building architectually believable buildings. Look at HL2 or UT2k3's level design. THere are hundreds of well modeled objects that make up the level. A level designer that made blocky levels for HalfLife or UT1 would be at a loss in the age where most levels are carefully modeled in Maya or Max and then exported into the game's format.
1) lots of dots
2) at least one tunnel
3) pop up some fruit, or keys from time to time
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The Sims "level designer" (i.e. the architectural tools for editing your house, buying and placing objects) are built into the game, which makes it possible for 8-year-old kids to easily "design levels".
But there's a lot more to customizing and creating you own game than "level design". The Sims also lets you design your own characters and objects, plug them together to tell stories, and even publish the stories online.
The Sims' storytelling ability hinges on the player's ability to add their own characters (skins) and scenery (objects) into the set, to illustrate whatever stories they want to tell.
Thanks to player created content, The Sims becomes more like the open-ended Perky Pat layouts in Philip K Dick's book, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch.
Tools like Transmogrifier and RugOMatic not only make it possible for characters to customize the game to tell their own stories, but also share their creations with other players, and download objects from the web to play in their own games.
High quality subscription web sites like SimFreaks actually pay talented artists to create beautiful sets of themed objects, like the Christmas Gingerbread House set.
Some experienced artists are generous enough to freely teach other Sims players how to create their own objects, by publishing step-by-step tutorials in the principles of object making for the complete novice, at sites like The Bunny Wuffles School of Sims Transmogrification.
The celebrated designers at the Cultural Heritage Foundation have made names for themselves by using Transmogrifier and other tools to create all the necessary scenery to build amazing historical recreations, like The Palm House, Kew Gardens, London England, the Isambard Kingdom Brunel Theme, and the Turkish Baths.
Maxis has created a wide range of objects for The Sims, which are included with the original game, the seven expansion packs, and numerous free downloads. But the player created object outnumber the Maxis created objects by an order of magnitude.
The Sims also opens up opportunities for programmers as well as artists: third party software developers like SimPrograms and SimsTools have created a market for tools that enable players to manage their Sims objects, and artists to make even more of them.
I'm developing some easy-to-use tools that automate the Transmogrification process, and open up Sims object creation to wide range of people. RugOMatic enables anyone, even without artistic talent or technical skills, to quickly create their own rugs for The Sim by dragging and dropping pictures and text.
RugOMatic
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
I'd recommend Blizzard's Starcraft and Warcraft 3. They came with good quality editors when you buy them. Both games have a ton of fan made maps that you can play to see what works and what doesn't. Starcraft has fan made editors that allow more flexability than the Blizzard made one. You can find out more information at http://www.infoceptor.com/ http://www.battle.net/ http://www.blizzard.com/ http://www.warcraftiii.net/ http://www.warcraft.org/ Blizzard is currently looking for level designers. Visit http://www.blizzard.com/jobopp/level-designer.shtm l for more info on that.
Not for nothing, but it's a pretty competitive field out there, and if you're serious about this, just go out there and do it.
If you're a senior and just thinking about maybe starting to build a good portfolio, and your first step includes 3 months of research into the best system to maybe start building a portfolio... maybe think about a less competitive career. (i.e. want fries with that).
You're going to need a couple of DOZEN good solid games of your own in your portfolio, it doesn't matter too much what the first one is written in...
If you want to have fun and kick around with making some levels, then that's a totally different story...
During the development of The Sims, one of the parts I worked on was the in-game editing tools. Originally, the tools could be active while time was running, and it caused all kinds of unplanned problems: You could pick up a burning fire and drop it on a victim, who would start screaming and die a horrible death. You could move the shower out of the way while somebody was getting into it, and watch them bathe naked in the middle of the room.
Instead of telling us programmers to fix the code, Will Wright addressed those problems by coming up with the Live/Buy/Build modes, which froze time while you were buying objects or building architecture. Underneath the hood, the game was perfectly happy to go on simulating while you were in build or buy mode, but the user interface forced it to pause.
But when the time came around to revisit the user interface design for The Sims Online, that solution no longer worked: You CAN'T freeze time, because it's an online game, so you're not the only player who would be frozen.
The Sims Online essentially requires time to go on while anyone's in build or buy mode. So the programmers had to fix the architectural and object placement tools to support that, the object scripters had to reprogram the objects to expect anything to happen, and the testers had to flush out zillions of unexpected bugs and side-effects from that major design change.
The other challenges that needed to be carefully balanced, were the perfect synchronization with the other players (so different people didn't end up with inconsistent views), and the immediate local feedback (so the wysiwyg house editing interface isn't sluggish, and always shows you what you'll get). The necessary compromise is that sometimes editing operations may not take effect, because somebody sat in (and locked) the chair you were about to move, for example.
Since I'm one of the people culpable for how complex and messy that wysiwyg editing code is, I was totally amazed how The Sims Online team at Maxis eventually got the editing tools to work as well as they do now.
The first time during The Sims Online beta that I saw another player editing their lot, building walls, laying out tiles and wallpaper, moving objects around, there were certainly a bunch of weird bugs and inconsistencies. But Maxis got them out eventually and now it works like a charm!
It's really amazing to sit back in Berkeley and watch your housemate in Japan build, landscape, decorate, furnish and feng-shui a home in The Sims Online. Watching a master at work is a great way to learn technique! You can even knock down the walls or move objects around at the same time yourself, if you're both housemates! So you have to be careful who you choose as housemates, because you might come back and find your lot trashed by The Sims Mafia. I'd love to watch one of those operations go down!
I can't wait for the multi player online versions of Photoshop and 3D Studio Max!
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
As to Neverwinter: Well, the community has made HUGE expanses over what Bioware put out.. ask Lisa, (look for "Clothes Horse Pack" on NWVault) who had no experience modelling in 3D. She developed cloaks and dresses, deemed impossible, and now incorporated into the official expansions.
If you really want to see what can be done, and to talk with some guys who are doing it,and even get involved, go over to http://www.hazepw.tk and ask for Lacero or Firehazard or Nerva .
If you want to get noticed for your level design the secret is in making levels for Popular Mods like for example the Half-life mod, Counter-strike. Millions of people play this game day in and day out and are always looking for the newest and best levels. If you make a good level for Counter-strike it will spread like wild fire and you will get famous faster than you can handle. Along with other Online Multiplayer mods with rabid fan bases this is the way you get people to look at your talent and you get feedback fast especially if you include a readme file or title for that requests such. I would also recommend making a site to showcase levels and so you can recieve feedback faster like a forum or such.
Trix are for kids!
Quake Mods aren't modular, they're monolithic. The level of granularity is so coarse, that designers need to perform a huge amount of tedious work, in order to make a good one. And you can only experience on at a time, so if you have 100 good mods, they don't synergistically add to each other's value.
Sims objects and characters are modular mods, so they plug together into a simulated environment and interact with each other. You can take objects and characters created by many different designers, and compose them together with stuff you created yourself, into your own higher level, monolithic "mod" (a family living in a house).
Sims object and character creators don't have to worry about achieving "balance" -- that's the fun part of the game that the players do for themselves, in Build and Buy mode.
Achieving balance is the hard part of making successful Quake mods. But achieving balance is the fun part of playing The Sims. This approach lifts the burden of achieving balance from the shoulders of mod designers, and repackages it as entertainment for players.
Games that support truly modular mods like Sims objects and characters, enable mod designers to create interesting, expressive, stand-alone objects that players love to plug together (and value enough that they'll pay for downloading), at a more prolific, finer level of granularity than monolithic game mods like Quake.
Modular mods work together at many different levels, and they're open-ended, so there's never any end to what you can do with them.
The Palm House, Kew Gardens is a great example how many different artists, designers, historians and botanists have colaborated together at different levels, to create an accurate representation of the Royal Botanical Garden, Kew.
In order to accurately recreate this historical landscape and architecture in The Sims, the designers incorporated objects from Sims object artists including Persimmon Grove, Kiri's Simthing for Everybody, and cloned and modified other user created objects from the Sims Tattoo Parlor.This exemplary historical recreation is not just the end-product of many people's colaboration, but actually a contributing source in a huge distributed feedback loop:
You can download the Royal Botanic Gardens, plug the lot into your game, move your own family in, furnish it however you like, rearrange the landscape and architecture, deconstruct and reassemble it again with your own collection of objects, direct the drama as it unfolds, take pictures with the built-in camera, write stories in your scrapbook, and publish your family and their story on The Sims Exchange, to share with other players, to download and play with all over again.
-Don
Take a look and feel free: http://www.PieMenu.com
Would you get a job in a restaturant because you like to eat? Maybe, but it is better to get a job that uses your strengths. You may have become a fabulous cook because you like to eat. Did you become a fabulous programmer, graphics, sound, writer, or designer because of video games?
Having the skills does not mean that this is the best place to apply them. That fabulous cook may be able to profit from writing cookbooks or designing frozen dinners more than working in a restaurant. Good programmers probably make more money in the corporate world than as as game writers (and it is easier to find a job since there are more of them.) Graphics and sound skills may be used in other media. Writers are always needed, but there are always too many for any field, so work with what you know. Game designers are more limited, but if you have the skills to be great, you will probably be starting/joining a new company rather than trying to break into one of the gaming powerhouses. (You can join them when they buy your company.)
My second dozen programs were all games. (The first dozen were HelloWorld and exploring the capabilities of the language.) I became a really good programmer. I also had talent for streamlining business processes. I merged the two skills to become a "corporate technology consultant". I analyze businesses and I write software. I would love to be writing games, but I do not believe the income could compare to my current career. And the APIs for games are very different from what I typically use, so my experience would not give me much advantage if I tried to change careers. (Take the advice about how the game industry is hard. My cousin is a game designer for Maxis. I would not want to trade jobs.)
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Today's news includes that Blizzard is hiring level designers. The page defines exactly what they expect from anybody thinking about applying. Yes it starts with Absolute Passion for playing and making computer games, but they expect experience or a demonstration of skills. Good luck
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
UT2k3 comes with a free version of Maya so you can make 3d models (essential to level design) and a great editor.
.ahem . . a couple hours to get the levels to compile.
I have also found the UT2k3 community to be very helpful with questions, and there are tons of tutorials out there.
I didn't start with this, I think the first level I ever made may have been in a wad for doom, but I will say the stuff they have available for UT2k3 has come a long way.
I highly recommend getting this and studying it, its a great way to learn the process without all the hassles of random crashes and compile errors.
With for instance the Quake 3 engine, you would need to wait a few minutes to . .
With UT2k3, the levels compile quickly and effectively, usually in the span of a minute or two.
This is good for learning (I feel anyways) because you can see what your changes did to the level right away, and helps you to get used to the environment and how your tools effect it.
Well, hope this was a useful answer, and to everyone else out there creating levels, understand this was written to recommend something to begin on, and something that has extensibility, and this engine has both.
They'll get the job done (presuming you can figure out how to use it; more on this below), but often there are severe bugs that damage the map, you have to remember to do alternate saves under different names (to recover from this problem), you have to test the map in another program from the one you're designing in, etc.
The method for designing maps usually involve designing an area, then perhaps setting parameters such as size, height above or below 0 of the floor, lighting levels, etc.
The problem begins because they use a graphic-based system to design maps, there is no capability to edit a map in some form in which you could specify parameters as text in order to check. Often the display gives you no information about the area in question except a visual image. You have no way of figuring out what the dimensions of the area are.
Sometimes the game editor will crash for unexplained reasons. Sometimes it will inexplicably damage a map without having any way to reset it back, essentially destroying the work you've done.Then there is the complexity of the tools. Up through Duke Nukem it was reasonable to be able to edit a page, but the new tools for Quake III for example, are impossible to figure out how to use.
Maybe I'm just not very bright, but I don't think I'm all that stupid, I'm 43 years old and I've been doing programming for 27 years, on everything up through and including mainframes.
When you want to enable features in these editors, it usually requires including some kind of flag sprite or other image, perhaps on an image if you want to make it an actor, then setting parameters on that sprite in a different mode.
Often you need to use special textures or color modes to enable certain features, but it's not made clear when this is necessary.
Whether this is intentional to sell people a reference manual on the game editor, or there just isn't much interest in documenting a secondary tool, there is usually no help and no explanations available about how to use these tools, and often no explanation on what to do with them.
Paul Robinson <Postmaster@paul.washington.dc.us>The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
how sad Jeff Bridges is because you were unable to get that joke? It's almost like you were one bit short of a Clu.
Go with a FPS game, like UT engine or something, and build the levels in Maya. Don't bother playing with the kids and their half-ass editors or 3DS bullshit.
I know this issue's been beat practically to death already, but I believe one of the most important issues when deciding on a technology to use, is how well the developer and the community support your efforts. My first foray into level design was using the Jedi Knight engine, with a small but active community, and non-existent support from LucasArts.
Then for awhile I was using the hammer editor, and had a lot of fun with it. Yes, the editor is very simple to use, but coordinating all the tools to compile the map isn't exactly user friendly (not to mention waiting many hours for larger maps to compile.) It was fun for awhile, but when I hit the texture memory limit on the map, the fun factor went down really fast. Not to mention the polygon limits, which really stifle the creativity at times.
My most recent endeavor has been with the unreal technology, and I must say, this rocks. It passes the technology test with flying colors, and the ability to import high-poly meshes from industrial strength 3d editors is a big plus for 3D artists ( which you'd better be if you want to do level design.)
Yes, the editor crashes sometimes(I've never seen a bug-free level editor.) But between the active community, the direct support from Epic through email and contests( check out the million dollar contest they're hosting now) And the promise of even more technology in Ut2004, I've been very happy working with this engine.
In reply to the post about how you can't get into the industry unless you've been doing it since the doom days, that's B.S. Game companies don't scour the internet looking for resumees of people who've been around, they look at what people are doing now, and the quality of work that they can produce.
As far as other skills that you'll find usefull, there are the obvious ones: drawing, 3D modeling, and knowledge of architecture. Might I also suggest cinemetography, drafting, and don't take for granted what a good dose of computer science can do for your understanding of the tools.
I think that if you ask any professional level designer what the most important aspect of level design is, the first answer would be "gameplay." You need to understand, for your particular breed of game, what makes a good level as far as gameplay: how the level flows, scale issues related to the number of players(if it's a multiplayer level,) use of lighting and architecture for mood, issues regarding platform (for instance, console games tend to have narrower corridoors because of the controller limitations) etc. etc. etc.
well, I hope that helped someone.
...noticed is that everyone seems to think level design is all about architecture and all they seem to be talking about is how to produce a drain pipe or a realistic looking building when they are simply missing the one of the most fundemental point in level design..and that is the flow of the level.
consider the maps in the games you've played for the past decade, and think...which were your favourites...and which were the ones YOU HAD FUN PLAYING in.
mappers (in the cs scene) these days tend to focus on the architecture so much that they fail to realize it's the flow of the map that counts. i've played countless eye candy laden maps only to find that they have one too many irrelevant sections or pointless corridoors or imbalanced chokepoints.
sure an exact replica of some foundry or the Grand canyon may be great to look at but most of them were never designed for rocket bearing soldiers or cat suited counter terrorists to run about hunting one another.
when you design your maps, first plan the flow. decide where you think the player should access, at which point of the map do you think a choke point is most likely, or where should the most exciting battles/events occur. think of all the possibilities and uncertainties that human beings can possibly perform with your map.
after you think you've got a killer flow, that's where you start filling the map with the architectural crap that everyone seems to think is what a map is all about. add the walls/gargoyle statues and egyptian pyramids. add the cool light effects and funny banners and easter eggs, making sure that none of the newly added architecture will affect the existing flow of the map.
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good graphics are great to oogle at the first twenty times, gameplay is forever.
I love Hammer (aka Worldcraft). I use it for designing Half-Life 2 levels, and it is incredible. BTW, the NWN level editor is a pain in the ass. Yuk!
I can help here... i'm running a mod project for jk3 called red slushie (ala orange smoothie for q3) http://www.firetrill.com/redslushie.php I have a couple of mappers working under me and as far I know, they use mainly gtkradiant for the mapping and stuff like gmax or 3dstudiomax for their modeling. also, the level design tools for nwn are all about layout and scripting... you probably won't find yourself wanting to write your own shaders (as you can and should do with radiant). it's more of a point and click + drop in some scripts sorta deal as for quake 3 based games, you've got ALOT more freedom. with the addition of the icarus scripting to the engine, you can basically do any sort of event you can think of, not the mention the very mature shader language. Also, you didn't post what kind of degree your getting (i'm assuming it's a CS one). if your not the artisitic type, most popular games (ones based on the GTA/rad engine and quake3 derrivitves have ALOT of things you can do with addition of new modules and modifications to the game engine (i'm told you can probably write applications to run on top of quake). so there ya go.
The Havoc engine is actually just a physics engine - you will find it in a lot of games out and coming out. It has nothing to do with graphics and gameplay engine stuff, excepting the physics parts of course. :D
And for a survival horror game, I would personally maybe use the latest Unreal engine/editor, or perhaps wait for Doom3 if your game would do better with an advanced lighting model like that. Both engines are very flexible. Unreal probably slightly moreso, as the engine is less focused on certain aspects - but the Doom3 engine's limitations may not matter depending on your survival horror design (big, open maps would be the main problem). Lots of info available on how to use both of them (well, there will be for Doom3, as it uses a modified version of the editor that has powered all previous Quake games, AFAIK, and will definitelyu be popular). UT2K4 DVD edition will include apparently a lot of vids on how to use the editor - might be really useful to a newbie!
And I agree with you about game prices - I really think we need to get them down to more DVD-style cost, so they become more of an impulse buy. Budgets will probably have to be shrunk a little, but a lot of that can come from good design (say, going for a more stylized graphics style - realism is expensive) or clever tools (autogeneration of environments that the player never gets close to or interacts with, perhaps). Taking more of a film approach to development might help, with groups of teams working together, and we are starting to see this - iD has been having separate, smaller companies do its recent multiplayer segments, for example. You wouldn't expect for a film that the director, screenwriter, composer, lead actors, and SFX crew were all members of one big company - the same logic makes sense for games. And probably shorter games would help, too. IMO, players wouldn't mind $20 for a game that lasted four or so hours, especially if it included decent multiplayer of some kind. The goal should be to sell more games that are also shorter and cheaper.
There is no excellent beauty that hath not some strangeness in the proportion. -- Francis Bacon
I'm the game design director of a european company and my job includes interviewing propective level designers. And here's the truth: good level designers are rare.
If you want to stand out, you must learn about the tools, the techniques and what makes a level fun. Today, levels are so big and complex that it is rare that level designers are given a whole level to design from start to finish, as it was still the case a few years ago.
So, you don't have to be an expert in every field but you MUST understand how everything fits together. IMO, the highest valued level designer is the one who can use limited resources and some scripting to produce interesting behaviors own his own.
Here are some skills that will come handy in this line of work:
- A basic understanding of architecture: what works and why.
- OOP: even if most scripting langages are not OO, scripts are often linked to types (or "classes") of objects. Knowledge of patterns is a plus.
- Resource memory management, reuse: doing a lot with few things.
Also, play a lot of games critically, old and new, read, watch movies.
Good luck.
Thank you thank you for spelling 'sneak peeks' correctly .... now if only everyone else would.
Corollary to Moore's Law: The IQ of new computer owners is declining.
i'll offer my opinion on this....i've been a gamer for most of my life (starting with the early arcade machines, an atari 2600 and my apple ][) and i have about 10 years of professional development experience in games and related industries (animation programming and 3d special effects).
i'm currently teaching two videogame classes at MCAD - one is a history of videogames, the other is vs3370 : creating 3d virtual experiences / an introduction into 3d videogame design. basically, this class is an introduction to creating 3D game environments -- emphasis is on content creation tools and pipelines. for my class, i wanted a general purpose 3d game engine that would serve as a nice introduction to creating 3d game content and environments.. for this, i focused mostly on first person perspective engines.
you'll need to evaluate what type of game content you'd like to create (FPS, RTS, RPG, etc) and choose an appropriate engine and toolset that will allow to focus on the type of content interested in. increasingly, level design and level creation are becoming two different tasks -- if you are creating a demo yourself, you'll be filling both roles.
after evaluating the games and engines last summer, i chose Unreal Tournament 2003 and the ut2003 engine for my class, for many reasons: