World Of Level Design.

I found this great website called World Of Level Design which offer a great variety of resources in which I can investigate from advice on becoming a level designer and environmental artist to Level Design Workflow and research and tutorials such as how to design a level in 11 days which could be beneficial over the summer for say I don't get a job I can boost my portfolio up.

The How To Plan A Game Level was defiantly an interesting read as it comes from someone who failed in the industry for many years, so it talks about the do's and don's and talks about fully planning things, which is the most important thing but to also keep to a timescale. He suggest you have to have lots of enthusiasm about the project as if you don't you tend to skip allot of things, and if your working in a team others may not have the same commitment level, leading them to take shortcuts thats why you have to motivate them. I found this out during our group project, as it was my initial idea and level design I just got the impression others wer'nt motivated enough and shortcuts were taken.

The Level has to have a purpose and features

The question is why.

• Why do you want to create this environment or this map?
• What are your reasons? What is the purpose?

our purpose can be a variety of things. For example:

• to get a job at a specific studio
• to create a portfolio piece
• to learn some new tools inside UDK (post processing, landscape etc)
• to learn new editor or 3d app
• to improve a specific workflow such as modeling foliage or creating textures from scratch
• to create a map for a mod your friends are working on
• etc

Some more questions you should ask yourself are.

• How will you make this environment stand out? Visually or/and technically.
• What elements will you focus on that will make your environment unique and stand out from the rest? What do you want the player or the viewer to experience

After you have set the location of the game and come up with a purpose and features Photo Reference is needed, I have done this many of times before into coming up with potential designs for anything from doors to cactus.

You should focus on the following reference:

• Environment and location reference
• Set design and props
• Lighting and style
• Inspirational reference

The other important aspects are objectives, stories and the way the environment interacts, and anything which can increase the atmosphere such as lighting sound, even music and the way you interact with assets.

The full article can be read here  http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/level_design_tutorials/how-to-plan-level-designs-game-environments-workflow.php

The website homepage http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categories/cat_level_design_tutorials_tips.php