Level Design: Processes and Experiences

In this book, veteran game developers, academics, journalists, and others provide their processes and experiences with level design. Each provides a unique perspective representing multiple steps of the process for interacting with and creating game levels – experiencing levels, designing levels, constructing levels, and testing levels. These diverse perspectives offer readers a window into the thought processes that result in memorable open game worlds, chilling horror environments, computer-generated levels, evocative soundscapes, and many other types of gamespaces. This collection invites readers into the minds of professional designers as they work and provides evergreen topics on level design and game criticism to inspire both new and veteran designers.

Key Features

• Learn about the processes of experienced developers and level designers in their own words
• Discover best-practices for creating levels for persuasive play and designing collaboratively
• Offers analysis methods for better understanding game worlds and how they function in response to gameplay
• Find your own preferred method of level design by learning the processes of multiple industry veterans

Table of Contents

SECTION I: Experiencing Levels
CHAPTER 1 Kamuro Nights: A Personal Retrospective of the Yakuza Series
CHAPTER 2 Cracking the Resident Evil Puzzle Box
CHAPTER 3 From Construction to Perception: Three Views of Level Design for Story-Driven Games
CHAPTER 4 Everything I Learned about Level Design at an Orlesian Ball

SECTION II: Designing Levels
CHAPTER 5 Hell, Hyboria, and Disneyland: The Origins and Inspirations of Themed Video Game Level Design
CHAPTER 6 Level Design Practices for Independent Games
CHAPTER 7 Making the Most of Audio in Characterization, Narrative Structure, and Level Design
CHAPTER 8 Procedural Content Generation: An Overview

SECTION III: Constructing Levels
CHAPTER 9 P.T. and the Play of Stillness
CHAPTER 10 The lllusion of Choice: How to Hide the Linearity of Levels from Players
CHAPTER 11 Integrating Procedural and Handmade Level Design
CHAPTEE 12 Level Design Planning for Open-World Games

SECTION IV: Testing Levels
CHAPTER 13 Play-Personas: Mental Tools for Player-Centered Level Design
CHAPTER 14 Evaluating Level Design Using Public Events
CHAPTER 15 The Rule of 27s: A Comparative Analysis of 2D Screenspace and Virtual Reality Environment Design
CHAPTER 16 Expression versus Experience: Balancing Art and Usability Needs in Level Design