Welcome to: What is Level Design

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Welcome toWhat is Level Design?

• a GameOn talk by Gaute Rasmussen

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Gaute RasmussenSenior Level Designer

• Games
• Anarchy Online
• Citizen Zero (cancelled)
• Splinter Cell Chaos Theory
• Splinter Cell Double Agent
• Prince of Persia The Two Thrones
• Surfs Up
• Hellboy The Science of Evil
• Star Wars Clone Wars The Lightsaber Duels

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Topics

• What is a Level Designer?
• What does a Level Designer do?
• How do I become a Level Designer?
• QA

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Art Competition Winners!
Judges Morgan Jaffit Gaute Rasmussen

• Honorable mentions

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Merged Fantasies by solloby
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The Trespassers by abe2mir
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Environment concept by Justinhu
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Tree Top Walk by alexmyer
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Second Runner Up

• McCaskie Sky Shanty by dalemackie

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Runner Up

• The Machine by ashims

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And the winner is

• (drumroll)
• Zen Garden by midnightsnack !!!
• (applause)

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What is a Level Designer?
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Game Development Team

• Design
• Programming
• Graphics
• Concept
• Character
• Environment
• Animation
• Sound
• QA

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LEVEL DESIGN

• A funnel for all the other departments
• We take the credit for everyone elses work
• When things go wrong its someone elses fault

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Level Design

• Put together all the game elements
• Make the game work
• Make the game fun

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The most diverse discipline

• From Game to Game
• From Company to Company
• Different Tools

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The most diverse discipline
Lightsaber Duels
Splinter Cell
Surfs Up
Design
Art
Prince of Persia
Citizen Zero
Anarchy Online
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What does a Level Designer do?
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Different genres different jobs

• Shooters (FPS / TPS)
• Action Games
• Strategy Games
• MMOs
• Other

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Development Stages

• Conception
• Pre-production -
• Production
• Alpha -
• Beta

Sit around and wait
Prototyping
Level Building
Polish
Test and Fix
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Examples

• (Shameless self-promotion)

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Example Splinter Cell

• Porting from Xbox to PS2
• BSP
• AI placement
• Level Scripting
• Gameplay objects
• Performance Profiling

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Example Prince of Persia

• Designing the level on paper
• Prototyping levels Acrobatics AI
• Level Building collision, acrobatics
• AI placements
• Gameplay objects
• Exotic levels Chariot Ride
• Tweaking and polishing

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Example - Hellboy

• Cameras
• Thats it

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How do I become a Level Designer?
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What a Level Designer needs

• Knowledge of other disciplines
• Game Design
• Graphics
• Scripting
• Creativity
• Technical skills
• Patience
• Speed
• Ability to adapt

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Many Roads to Rome

• Transfer from other departments
• QA
• Mod Scene
• Schools

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Tips

• Play games
• Analyze games
• Make your own levels
• Learn engines
• Learn about other disciplines

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Q A
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Thanks for coming!

• Please buy my games. ?