Twin Fox Studio

Guiding a player through the world, helping him reach his goals, creating levels that feel good and are fun to play.. This is what level design is all about. From blocking out the first stages to refining a players movement. All of that has to be considered while developing the different parts of your game. In this blog we’re going to show you what level design is and what things you need to look out for.

The Definition of Level Design

Level design is the process that involves creating stages, maps, and missions of the game. It’s purpose is to create interactive situations & events within a game environment to challenge the player and keep them engaged.

It is a vital part of keeping the player immersed in a game. A Level Designer also has to ensure that everything works as intended to provide the best possible gaming experience for your customers. It includes visual storytelling, guiding the player through the levels, implementing items & NPCs and much more.

Blocking out your Level – Defining the Basic Structure

The first an most crucial step in level design is creating a rough block out for your level. You need to define the parameters of the stage and what you want to achieve with it using primitives like cubes, cylinders, spheres etc.

It’s not about decorating the space or make it look pretty, it’s all about form and function:

• Can the player make this jump? Does the character grab onto the edge properly?
• How is the general layout of the level going to look like? Does it make sense?
• What kind of assets do we need and where are they going to be placed?
• If the character has to engage in a battle, does he have enough space to fight?
• Does he have enough opportunities to take cover if enemies shoot at him?
• …

Blockouts are the rough foundation which are used as a base to build everything on top of it later on. Lighting, assets, Npcs, collectibles etc. are going to be implemented bit by bit after the rough has been finalized.

Modular Assets – Carving out your Design

Using modular assets (or kitbash) not only saves time during the game development but it’s also is a nice way to enhance the performance of the game. Modular assets are props that can be assembled to various different looking items that can be placed into the world. For example a modular housing set would contain different windows, walls, doors, pillars, stairs etc. that allow you to create hundreds of various from just a hand full of items.

After the general layout of the level has been established, it’s time to swap out the primitives. Their only purpose is to serve as placeholders for the refined assets that are created later on by 3D Artists.

It works quite similar like building houses in one of “The Sims” games or any other level and map editor. You take an asset from a library and place it into the world. The biggest difference is how those props look like in the beginning. At first a very rough blockout of the prop is going to be created to show the general idea. This could be a simple cube for a house or a roughly build prop. Three spheres stacked on top of each other is more than enough to convey the idea of a snowman.

While the level gets designed by using very rough block outs, the 3D artist can start refining them. Turning the simple cube into a cozy cottage or giving the snowman a hat, hands and face. Most game engines allow you to easily switch the original cube with the newly modeled house without having to replace every copy of it manually. This saves a lot of time and even if they just have to change something minor on the model, they can switch it out in a matter of seconds.

Setting & Storytelling – Immerse the player in your world

A lot of games tend to bombard the player with walls of texts, lengthily narrations and unnecessary cutscenes in order to explain the lore of a game in great detail. Even though in some cases less is more.

Visual storytelling is one of the strongest tools at a level designers disposal. After all, pictures say more than a thousand words. A childs plushy that sits on top of a grave stone, two skeletons hugging each other in a burned down house, a city taken over by nature… They draw a very clear image of what has has happened in the are and for the rest of the lore… leave it to the players imagination. They are going to fill in the voids on their own. It gives them rooms for interpretation & saves you valuable time while also making them more curious about the game itself.

It’s also very important to keep the player immersed in your game. A level designer needs to know the rules of their fictional world and it’s parameters in & out in order to spot and get rid of game breakers. Everything from the flow of the game, to the story and its mechanics has to work like cogs in a machine.They have to perfectly mesh together in order to keep up the cohesiveness and believability of the world.

Visual Clues & Lighting – Secretly guide your player

While your level is slowly taking shape, don’t forget to think about helping the player navigate through the space. We are not talking about a step by step guide where you tell the player exactly where to go and what to do. No. It’s about subtle hints that gently nudge him into the right direction. A trail of coins, a lit window in a dark street, yellow markings on the walls where they can climb onto.. The player tends to naturally walk towards those things.

One of the most important things in level design is being able to guide the player through the level without them actually noticing it. This not only encourages the player to explore the game more thoroughly but also gives them a greater sense of accomplishment. Finding a secret on your own is way more full filling than following a guide.

While a lot of games have features that are supposed to help the players move forward, most of them tend to get pretty annoying over time. Characters that give hints to the players without them even asking for it or forcing the camera to show the player where he has to go after running around for some time tend to break the players concentration and often makes them feel bad about not being able to figure it out themselves or for simply taking the time to explore the level to search for secrets.

If you liked this article and you want to know how you can become a Level Designer, click here:

What is a Level Designer? – Twin Fox Studio