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.
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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.