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TIGSource ForumsDeveloperArt (Moderator: JWK5)The Art of Level Design
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Moth
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« on: August 27, 2015, 04:17:28 PM »

I think one of my favorite things about working on a game is laying everything out into levels. I like level design a lot in general; I can honestly just go to vgmaps.com and look at level designs for hours, my favorites being large nonlinear ones. I don't see a level design showcase thread lying around here, so I thought I'd start one.

Here's one from a screen-based collectathon project of mine, inspired a lot by Jet Set Willy and N64 Rare games:



Pardon the annotations. This is the introductory level, 4x4 screens large. The black and yellow blocks do not appear until you have the corresponding keys. Also pardon the tile repeating looking pretty bad in this shot right out of the editor, the tiles actually change themselves in-game to have edges, et cetera.

Here's a big chunk of an area from my game Creepy Castle:



And here's what it looks like in-game, to help illustrate a sense of scale:



Anyway, I'd love to see what level designs you guys would have to share!
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ProgramGamer
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« Reply #1 on: August 27, 2015, 04:32:41 PM »

Well, there is a level design thread in the "Design" subforum, but it's mostly links by Gimmy, so this topic is perfectly okay with me!
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Moth
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« Reply #2 on: August 27, 2015, 04:49:06 PM »

Yeah, I saw that one when I looked around. Smiley That topic seems to be more about the actual theory of designing levels rather than showcasing the art of levels themselves.
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gimymblert
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« Reply #3 on: August 27, 2015, 07:41:35 PM »

Quote
Pardon the annotations.
That's teh best part about it, it give direction and flow instead of stupidly wandering the eyes
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7Soul
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« Reply #4 on: August 27, 2015, 09:09:53 PM »

I call this piece "Ugly Pajamas"

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Moth
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« Reply #5 on: August 28, 2015, 09:20:21 AM »

Quote
That's teh best part about it, it give direction and flow instead of stupidly wandering the eyes

Oh, when you put it that way, I can try to put annotations in the images I share.

@7Soul: I love that!! I assume the red bar is a track the camera moves along/snaps to? I love the chains holding together the pieces going in different 90 degree angles. The colors for the tiles are great.
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gimymblert
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« Reply #6 on: August 28, 2015, 09:21:53 AM »

it's also give meaning, ie what level design is, annotation like (all path lead to the same pattern of encounter) is super insightful
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digsource
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« Reply #7 on: August 29, 2015, 06:16:54 AM »

Looking great but I think you should mix it up with whole claustrophobic sections.
What is the main offense in this game? Guns, Melee or Bouncing on enemies?

I'm an avid player of Super Mario hacks and claustrophobic cave sections with environmental hazards are the most enjoyable.
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Muffinhat
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« Reply #8 on: August 29, 2015, 08:28:13 AM »

I find this to be a rather interesting topic, since the 'design' aspect of of game development actually requires a different mindset from that of a game artist, yet designing levels is sort of an art of its own if you have a small team (or one person) building them. I also find level design sketches to be pleasing to look at for some reason.
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Moth
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« Reply #9 on: August 29, 2015, 03:13:18 PM »

@digsource: whose levels are you commenting on? Smiley

I find this to be a rather interesting topic, since the 'design' aspect of of game development actually requires a different mindset from that of a game artist, yet designing levels is sort of an art of its own if you have a small team (or one person) building them. I also find level design sketches to be pleasing to look at for some reason.

Yeah exactly! I'm glad you think it's interesting. Some of the most memorable level design comes from a balance of not only careful mechanic but also visual design.

Annotations on a previous map:



The game type is a turn based RPG. The focus of this particular area and the overarching scenario in which it is present is freedom of exploration. The possible routes through the map are highlighted here in white. Two points of interest:

A: There are two vines leading deeper into the area. Although the player can see both sides, the side opposite to the player isn't immediately accessible and prompts a bit of curiosity, like "how do I get over there". I personally love when level design gives peeks of things you won't see personally until later, like how in the original Dragon Quest you can see the final dungeon across the bay from the very beginning. I think it fosters a sense of large scale and interconnectedness to the area's layout. I believe the more a world references itself like this the more intriguing and alive it feels (not level design related, but this extends to NPCs- I feel like NPCs should be aware of eachother and make references to each other to paint a larger picture.)

B: In this "cave" zone of the map, there are two routes the player can take. They're a bit symmetrical in form and function, both ways offering a roughly equal amount of resource expenditure to make it through but having different enemies. No matter which way you take, you will wind up in roughly the same place below.

All of the areas of this game I try to separate into "zones"- as there's no built-in map function, to help keep the player from feeling totally lost I try to split up an area into having differing styles of design. For this particular planet, the zones are the aforementioned "cave" in the bottom left (the drifting petals in the background are mostly not visible through the opaque cave, except through some "windows"), to the bottom right you can see an area that I wanted to give off the feeling of a winding ravine suspended in the air. Further right of that ravine there is an "artificial structure" zone with different tiles (you can see a few of them to the right there) and the top right leads to a treetop area where you're walking on top of the trees.
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DXimenes
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« Reply #10 on: August 29, 2015, 04:12:14 PM »

These look great Smiley
I'm a fan of more metroidvania/colectathon style maps, with backtracking and exploring stuff from other angles. When I'm doing level design, I usually spend a lot of time thinking about the place's personality and bits of contextual storytelling I can put into them.

@Moth, @7Soul, which softwares are those you're using?
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Moth
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« Reply #11 on: August 29, 2015, 04:24:23 PM »

Thank you DXimenes! I too am a big fan of those kinds of level designs. I love to look up maps of the Jet Set Willy games and metroidvanias like Legacy of the Wizard (links to big map from said game) for inspiration.

I'd love to see some of your own level design work DXimenes!

The software I use is Game Maker: Studio.
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DXimenes
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« Reply #12 on: August 29, 2015, 11:16:11 PM »

I've spent the last years working solely on Satellite Rush, which does not have so much wriggle room on the contextual storytelling department, so most of the stuff I have here is pretty outdated (seriously, 8~9 years outdated).


(Tiles are not mine)

I'm spending some time learning Game Maker though, so I can mess around with it and make some experiments on my own after all this time, see what all the study added up to.
I expect to have something to show for myself soon instead of just words Smiley
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Moth
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« Reply #13 on: August 30, 2015, 07:28:22 AM »

Hey, Treasure of the Rudras tiles! I used those quite a bit back in my RPG Maker days myself Smiley

I like that little canyon you've made and I look forward to seeing what you're capable of now! If you ever have any questions regarding Game Maker you can always feel free to hit me up by the way, I've been using it for 14 years now.
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« Reply #14 on: August 30, 2015, 02:09:03 PM »

@Moth, @7Soul, which softwares are those you're using?
That's just Construct 2. I make each screen of a level in Tiled and import to Construct's tilemap object, then I put all objects and triggers on top of that
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« Reply #15 on: September 01, 2015, 11:58:15 PM »

I have noticed regarding level paths, I am obsessed with "H" shapes - I used them everywhere in the level design of Watch Dogs.

A pretty neat trick when dealing with a linear level layout is to add an overhead or underground "H" path that has high visibility to or from the critical path - you just need to converge before your linear route ends. It gives a good open feeling and can allow for a bunch of different opportunities from both an enemy and player perspective. In fact if you ever need to build a linear layout, always try to add in a converging overlaying (or underlying) path, whether a player uses it or not, it helps make an area feel larger and gives an illusion of choice.

I'll try and find some top downs to show some shape/flow examples, but for now here's a video that demonstrates a level I made with an elevated "H": https://youtu.be/k3Ied379_AI?t=18m9s
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Zorg
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« Reply #16 on: September 02, 2015, 12:40:30 AM »

Interesting thread. Please post more pictures with paths/annotations!

@SeanNoonan: Thanks for pointing out that H-shape. I created a gif to illustrate it because i prefer images over videos. Smiley



Edit: Obviously 'inspired' by Pitfall.
« Last Edit: September 02, 2015, 07:29:43 AM by zorg » Logged
Mariofan0
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« Reply #17 on: September 02, 2015, 05:29:49 AM »

@Moth I like the level design of your game, judging by the GIF this is the way the colors look in game? You keeping it that way? Ether way for the moment it looks rather bizarre, and I like that.

I'm fairly good at 2D level design myself assuming I've got the right tools, sadly I've never worked with anything outside Video Games that have a built in Stage Editor, a bit of ROM Hacking, and some work in Gamemaker. In the end I honestly just come up with a theme, and sort of freeform it from there, and then make any adjustments as necessary.
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« Reply #18 on: September 02, 2015, 05:42:48 AM »



Is that pitfall @zorg. Shocked

Also, @moth your art never ceases to impress.  Those bright colors are amazing, as well as that level.
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gimymblert
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« Reply #19 on: September 02, 2015, 07:08:13 AM »

http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=38959.msg997584#msg997584

added this thread to the level design reference

BTW if you have link to article or level design pattern to discuss, please post their reference in the thread, it's really not currently very balanced!
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