2. Iterative Level Design
From Concept and Discovery to a finished product

3. Level Design Design level’s geometry layout Design level’s game flow
Design Cinematic Scenes
Play an important role in Gameplay Features Design and Development
Various level design in various games
Level Design is the creation of levels for a video game. This is commonly done using level design tools, special software usually developed just for the purpose of building levels, however some games feature built-in level editing tools.
Level design is a process used in the majority of video games in a variety of genres, such as FPS games, RTS games, Action games, Racing games and even RPG games. Only in the last ten years or so has the actual separation of labor occurred that has allowed the job of level designer to come into being, and in the last three or four years the job of level designer itself has often been subdivided into level artist, level designer and scripter while games trend to lager scale.
Design level’s geometry layout: sculpt the static objects what player can touch and are concerned with gameplay in level, such as rooms, buildings, structures or terrain geometry layout. Decoration objects layout is been in charged of by Level Artist.
Design level’s game flow: set up the dynamic entities what player can experience and are to build level logic, such as level start & exit locations, non-player characters, specific activities & behaviors.
Design Cinematic Scenes: Cinematic Scene, like game intro, interlude scene, is a very important part of Level Design. More and more cinematic scenes are plugged into games.
In Cinematic Scenes, level design includes adding realism by filling in with details such as specific camera view, animation, dialogs, sounds, lighting.
Good level design strives to bring out the best gameplay in a game, provide an immersive experience, and sometimes to advance the storyline with provided gameplay features. As a result, level design, gameplay features design and development interact to form a fun level.
Different game genres may have very different level design requirement, according to the different game features available.
General requirements include:
1. In FPS games: specifying other entities in the map, such as NPC spawn points & behaviors, ladders, resource nodes, ammo and health, weapons, save points, etc.
2. In Action games: specifying player stunt places, dynamic objects, locations of doors, keys/buttons and associated locked doors, teleport spots, and hidden passageways.
3. In Racing games: specifying street size, turns, stunt places, etc.
4. In RTS games: specifying certain regions with specific functions, such as resource harvesting, base building, water regions, etc.

4. Iterative Develop Mode
Focus on the specific objective
Decide the rough acceptance
Work in sprints
Review
Adjust & Evolution
Iterate
Achieve the objective
There is no need to achieve your objective perfectly. Do only the work that answers the right questions in the right order.
Rough acceptance can be decided by experienced developer.
Sprint: a single stage with some deliverable. One iteration can have several sprints.
In sprint planning, schedule all detail tasks and try to find out all dependency. In each sprint, developer shouldn’t be interrupt by other requirements. In sprint review, deliverables will be judged and feedback will be implemented in the next similar sprint.
The acceptance will be detailed.
Repeat and accomplish.
Evolution from lessons learned during the previous iteration to start the next iteration.

5. Iterative Develop Mode
objective
rough acceptance
sprints
review
adjustment & evolution
iterate
accomplish

6. Iteration in Level Design
Why we need iteration in Level Design?
Will iteration slow down the level design?
How can we do the iterative level design?
Video game, as a category of software, can also be developed in iteration. The interaction between game and player is the key. Video game is not mainly designed as a tool. The purpose of video game is to provide fun to player, so player’s requirement on fun is the highest priority.
Fun game is made of fun levels. There is always something missed or incorrect in early level design stage which can be figured out easily only after the level blocked out. It depends not only on the level designer’s experience, but also on the project status. So, iteration is not avoidable.
Level design is start from level design documents which need iteration to finalize a proper format and content. In block out stage, the way to modify level to match requirement is iteration. It can quickly provide a version for people to judge if the level design document is good or the level layout is good. After, level designer can clarify what adjustment is needed. In iteration, level designers needn’t to focus on those uncompleted game features. They can assume pieces will just fit together.

7. Iterative Level Design Process
Translate game design concept
Research and development
Prototype
Iterative design
Macro layout
Micro layout
Detailed gameplay
(From this slide, I will use examples from what I have experienced in previous projects.)
What is game design concept
the genre of the game, the story, game world description, game mode, game features, etc.
How does level design translate that to fun levels
documentation – description, 2D layout, list, checklist, concept art, reference material. The goal is to make people can understand the level completely. The document is a container which contains all items needed for the level. It should be as detail as possible to simplify the level creation. Here, level designers make decision on what the level is.
Start from template creation (iterate and adjust)
Figure out the proper way to create 2D layout (iterate and adjust), it will be filled after the 2D layout is created.
List game features, objects, structures, etc in the level, it can be tweaked in iteration
A basic version of checklist for QA to test the level, it can be tweaked in iteration
Concept art to show the general picture of the level, it will be filled later.
Reference material to show the situation in real world, it should be done at the beginning of the document creation
pass the document to other discipline teams to figure out the dependency and workload
what tools can I use in creating levels for this game. We use World Machine as terrain design tool and Google Sketchup as buildings design tool, because they can match the requirement and easily to use.
not only prototype a fun level for the game, but also figure out what processes are needed and design how those processes work
The processes prototype is more important. Level designers work on their own tasks, review their works together, discuss and make an agreement to improve the prototype. Now, level designers are the worker to build the level according to the document. The more detailed the document, the easier to build the level 3D layout. On prototype, we can figure what the level design should be improved. It will direct the design work in the next iteration.
According the prototype, the real production can start. We do the macro layout design to identify the game flow in the level, the global layout of the level. It comes with the level description and overview pictures. For those important gameplay areas, we have micro design.
Detailed gameplay is something like use case story which explains player’s detail experience in the level. Now, we have 2D layout to fill the document and different design captions.

8. Iterative Level Design Process
(From this slide, I will use examples from what I have experienced in previous projects.)
What is game design concept
the genre of the game, the story, game world description, game mode, game features, etc.
How does level design translate that to fun levels
documentation – description, 2D layout, list, checklist, concept art, reference material. The goal is to make people can understand the level completely. The document is a container which contains all items needed for the level. It should be as detail as possible to simplify the level creation. Here, level designers make decision on what the level is.
Start from template creation (iterate and adjust)
Figure out the proper way to create 2D layout (iterate and adjust), it will be filled after the 2D layout is created.
List game features, objects, structures, etc in the level, it can be tweaked in iteration
A basic version of checklist for QA to test the level, it can be tweaked in iteration
Concept art to show the general picture of the level, it will be filled later.
Reference material to show the situation in real world, it should be done at the beginning of the document creation
2. pass the document to other discipline teams to figure out the dependency and workload
3. block out – 3D layout, game actors, game flow integration.
what tools can I use in creating levels for this game. We use World Machine as terrain design tool and Google Sketchup as buildings design tool, because they can match the requirement and easily to use.
not only prototype a fun level for the game, but also figure out what processes are needed and design how those processes work
The processes prototype is more important. Level designers work on their own tasks, review their works together, discuss and make an agreement to improve the prototype. Now, level designers are the worker to build the level according to the document. The more detailed the document, the easier to build the level 3D layout. On prototype, we can figure what the level design should be improved. It will direct the design work in the next iteration.
According the prototype, the real production can start. We do the macro layout design to identify the game flow in the level, the global layout of the level. It comes with the level description and overview pictures. For those important gameplay areas, we have micro design.
Detailed gameplay is something like use case story which explains player’s detail experience in the level. Now, we have 2D layout to fill the document and different design captions.

9. Iterative Level Design Process
Iterative layout block out - Test and iterate
Polish
Bug fix
Enjoy the completed level
block out – 3D layout, game actors, game flow integration.
Playable Level
Is the pacing and spacing good?
Deliverable: First Playable – layout block out, concept art, placeholders set pieces
Vertical Slice level
This level will be a prototype. All game content will be implemented in this level first. Game design, game features, art work.

10. Iterative Level Design Process

11. Need Attention Focus on main parts first
Level is rarely playable in early iteration
Not all content will stay in game
Unexpected iteration could jump in
Proper cross discipline team communication
Levels rarely playable
difficult to evaluate new game mechanics or creatures
QA testing hindered
late review of content
Cut content
Get answers to critical questions early and only do the work that is required to get those answers
Costly and unplanned iterations
Cross department communication isn’t encouraged
Intractable performance issues

12. Level Designers Synthesize a playable, logical and exciting game
Explore the engine
Be assigned different functions
Connect different develop groups
Resolve problems efficiently

13. Have FUN Design a FUN level Work in a FUN level design process
Synthesize and enjoy the completed level

14. Have FUN
Work in

15. END