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hey how's it going everyone two years
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ago I posted a video called level design
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is hard which was mostly me ranting but
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mostly just getting things off of my
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chest my feelings my quarrels that I had
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with level design since then it's been
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two whole years well nearly two whole
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years and I've learned a lot I've gone
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through a lot I've messed up a lot made
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a lot of mistakes uh and since then I
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have become a better level designer/
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environment artist now to point out and
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I know a lot of people probably got
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confused in the last video uh I am kind
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of using level design environment art in
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the entire just process of creating a
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level interchangeably of course you
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could look at level design as just the
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part of blocking it out and focusing on
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the gameplay but in this discussion I'm
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F focusing on the entire process the
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entire pipeline as a whole now I have to
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say level design is still hard but I
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feel like I've grasped it a little
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better I've gotten you know more
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knowledge about what to do and what not
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to do at least specifically for my game
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I do think it is a big process of
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finding level design that works for your
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game that works well meshes well with
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your gameplay mechanics meshes well with
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your player count all these kind of
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things I feel like really go into the
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equation it's one big equation I do have
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to point out that there were some really
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good comments that did kind of look at
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it from a different perspective that I
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think was really great and one of those
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perspectives was yeah while a player
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might spend 2 to 3 minutes playing that
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level something to remember is if that
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level's really enjoyable it's not just
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that one person enjoying that level
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within 2 to 3 minutes it's hundreds upon
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thousands of people enjoying that level
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which I think is a really good outlook
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at it rather than looking at it as
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players finishing a level really quickly
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I can instead look at as thousands of
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people finishing a level and if you were
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to do the math I guess that could be
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like 2,000 minutes if you really you
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know that might not be correct but I'm
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not a mathematician I'm a game developer
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something else that I also learned while
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working on this game is that I should
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have focused on levels that could be
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completed quickly uh levels that could
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be perfected um within a period of time
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as well I don't think levels were
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necessarily 1 minute I think levels
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could have been 30 minutes to hours but
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I think I designed levels in such a way
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where they were too large I think that
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was one of my shortcomings for this
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project is that I started making levels
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that were too big when in reality I
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should have made levels that were small
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bite-sized and could have been
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approached in different ways that could
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you know do time attacks so the players
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can beat levels at much faster with more
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precise accuracy and stuff like that
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which I feel like ex is exactly what
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this game should have been doing in the
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get-go now as of recently I have been
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doing that um but I will say that making
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smaller levels is still very hard
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there's a lot of thought that goes into
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it you have to kind of think how is a
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player going to approach this and how do
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we make it in such a way where the
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player has more space to improve there's
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a lot of thought that goes into it and I
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feel like I've kind of gotten a little
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bit of a formula down which is why
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levels take a lot less time to develop
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for me recently I've been making levels
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within a week which is near and you know
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impossible to think about back then I
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think the reason why it's taking a lot
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less longer is a the levels aren't
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enormous anymore the levels that I was
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developing for some reason uh at the
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beginning of this new kind of Miami
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series which is what we call this this
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latest update that we've been working on
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the whole point was to take inspir from
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Hotline Miami which is the smaller scale
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levels for some reason my brain thought
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hey let's make some really big levels
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and making those large levels and
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thinking about those large levels made
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me very overwhelmed I think there
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there's too many things that I knew that
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I had to do and in the process of me
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knowing that there was so many things
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that I needed to do I think it shut me
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down and slowed down my entire process
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when I could have just focused on
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smaller scale levels smaller bite-sized
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quick levels that players could finish
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but when they finish it they feel the
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wanting to replay it whereas with larger
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levels I feel like they don't want to do
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that because there's a big distance
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between the start to the Finish which I
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think was one of the things that I
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learned while working on this and I can
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understand why a lot of people will see
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level design as being a lot harder when
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they're working on things like open
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world games and I think one thing that
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could help with that is instead of
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focusing on the Big World instead focus
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on very small chunks and work your way
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up now obviously that might seem obvious
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and a lot of the tips and tricks that I
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say on this channel are relatively
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obvious when you think about it but
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sometimes the best advice is the most
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obvious when you really think about it
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so that was one of the things that I
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think I had to go through in these past
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two years is realizing that smaller is
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better in this case because of just how
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well it plays with my game style now
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like I said all games are going to have
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different level design kind of
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structures and formulas that fit well
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with that game but I do think there is
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one universal thing which is working on
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bite-sized areas taking taking your
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levels in working on them in chunks I
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think there's some games that do this
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really well because they specifically
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have areas where there's a transition
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going from one level to the next which
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makes it a lot easier to grasp that area
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I think uh one game that I would say is
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maybe like Uncharted for example one of
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the transitions would probably be like
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climbing you would climb an area or you
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could look at God of War where you go
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through like a crevice and that crevice
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could be a level transition like an
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actual physical from a programming
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standpoint level streaming you'd stream
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a level out and in and that's a great
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way of looking at it cuz then now you
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can focus on specific levels you can
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have different developers work on
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different things so looking at a
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gigantic picture was extremely hard for
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me to look at but I still think there is
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a lot that goes into creating a level
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going from start to finish is it's
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really daunting to just start a level
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because you have to focus on the scale
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and then you have to think oh [ __ ] I'm
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going to have to put decals and
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materials everywhere I'm going to have
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to put these different walls I'm going
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to have to figure out uh cover I'm going
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to have to figure out this enemy
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placement all these kind of things and I
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think throughout the last two years I
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think I figured out that there's joy and
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uh a level of pleasure and thrill of
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working on that kind of stuff because I
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think there's I think i' I've gained
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enough experience to make it a little
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bit more enjoyable whereas in the
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beginning it was a lot harder and just
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something that I hated a lot more I
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wouldn't say I hated anymore and I know
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that's a word I used a lot in the last
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video because it was something that was
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very just like dragging the entire
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project down everything else was getting
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done but the levels were taking the
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longest because it was just so daunting
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to look at and I really wanted to
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impress people and stuff like that and
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you know there's a lot of like a lot of
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puzzle pieces involved another thing
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that I would say that I learned
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throughout the last two years is uh tool
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design uh creating tools for your level
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design is massive uh it helps you out so
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much there's so many repetitive actions
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that you're doing while creating a level
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and you got to find those repetitive
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actions and boil them down to something
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that can be a little bit more automated
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or easier to approach and one of those
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things that I kind of expanded upon is I
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had a wall generator modular pieces are
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nothing new they've been around for ages
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but before this I was actually placing
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the modular pieces manually copy pasting
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duplicating moving around snapping it
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and it was absolutely awful and I felt
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like there was a way of automating that
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to be a little bit you know easier
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quicker I ended up creating a spline
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mesh that or like a spline generator
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type mesh that would generate meshes
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along that spline based on its scale and
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it will try to stretch it and if it's
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too stretchy it'll instead just add a
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new piece and fit f it in and stuff like
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that that helped me out a lot and I felt
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like that was just the beginning I felt
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like there was so many more things I
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could have could have done in this game
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and it probably will do uh one thing
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that I added to the wall generator is I
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made it so you can add specific meshes
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in between like doorways and stuff like
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that cuz I felt like I was deleting
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pieces and trying to fit static mesh
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doors in and it was awful I do think
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tooling is a huge part of the process
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the pipeline not just level design but
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obviously Environmental art and and
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whatnot just creating tools that makes
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things a lot easier for you I think is a
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great thing to apply to your development
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yes you're investing time into a tool
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but obviously you got to think about
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like okay if I invest time into a tool
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that I could use for 10 plus levels
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you're basically taking maybe 8 hours 12
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hours of your time working on a tool
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that will then maybe save 50 to 60 down
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the line obviously you have to think
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about these things you have to think
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about you know how many rep repetitive
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actions are you doing that actually
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makes it worthwhile to do that and of
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course you know yeah you might need the
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programming experience to do that but
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maybe that gives you a good reason to
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get into it if you have been kind of
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daunted by the the thought of it one
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thing I definitely did learn throughout
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the process as well is blockout phase is
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extremely important just block your
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stuff out and just get a rough shape of
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how you want something to look and
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obviously it's going to change as you
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add more art and stuff to it there might
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not be necessarily a lock you might
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still be changing some stuff here and
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there the nice thing with blocking at a
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level though which feels really
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satisfying is you have that grid
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material kind of scattered everywhere
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and as you work on your environment and
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start swapping things out and actually
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putting environment art you can see the
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amount of progress that you're actually
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making in that level that you're working
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on and I think there's something really
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satisfying there because you can start
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seeing some of the orange colors and the
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black out colors kind of disappear and
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that kind of gives you a visual
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interpretation of like how far am I in
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working on this now of course one of the
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things that I think makes environment
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art
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that process the hardest thing is just
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trying to make things look good and I
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think there's a few things that really
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helped out in my case for a top down
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game the player is looking at the floor
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a lot of the time and I think focusing
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on the floor helped a lot putting more
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decals floor meshes just things on the
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floor I think really helped out little
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details in the floors kind of really
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pushed the game uh Way Beyond and I
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learned that while working on this Miami
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Club level I was working on this
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entrance which I know a player is going
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to skip they'll see this section of the
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level for a 3 to 4 seconds maybe chances
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are um they'll get past the checkpoint
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and they won't ever see that ever again
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but I was really happy with what I came
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up with here and just mixing vertex
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painting and all this kind of other
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stuff that really I think really pushed
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everything Beyond and I that's when I
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noticed I think the biggest thing about
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this game in terms of graphics and
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visual Fidelity was the floors I think
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focusing on the floors definitely helped
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out a lot of course there was other
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things props you know walls all that
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kind of stuff but for some reason I felt
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like focusing on the floors added a a a
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level of of of detail that I think was
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was really good especially the fact that
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we don't have ceilings so if we don't
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have ceilings you know we can put a
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little bit more time on the floors and
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that's fine uh and the walls of course
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one issue that I had with my wall
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generator is I can't do any vertex
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painting on it so I have to manually put
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in decals or other details wherever I
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can another thing that I noticed that I
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think really made level design a lot
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harder than it needed to be was the fact
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that while I was working on these levels
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and you know adding new things in I was
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basically changing some of the gameplay
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mechanics and some of the movement
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mechanics that made things a little bit
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harder to lock down which is a little
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stupid on my part and I think one thing
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that is really good is to try to lock
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down your movement or lock down how it's
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going to be you know working and stuff
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like that obviously my game is in Early
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Access and I kind of viewed it as a nice
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way to kind of use it as an
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experimentation kind of play around with
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it and get a feel for it but I do feel
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like that kind of hurt the game in in
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some ways
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Midway through the game after working on
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a whole bunch of levels I added in
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diving which is basically almost like
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jumping uh that changed a lot there was
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a lot of things that I had to change and
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adjust and whatnot and a lot of things
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that kind of went wrong so I feel like
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locking down your gameplay locking down
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your movement mechanics and all of that
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before going into like big level design
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kind of stuff I think is really helpful
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if you can and if not at least try to
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plan ahead if you're thinking okay my
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game's going to have crouching stuff
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like that think about like the player
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height think about all these things cuz
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now I've added crouching to my game yeah
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I'm making the mistake again I added
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crouching and I did have to kind of
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around with the player Heights and all
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this kind of stuff to make sure that any
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cover in the game that's like half
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player height will actually work cuz I
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want the player to understand oh this is
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actual cover and I hope they don't get
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like screwed over now of course this is
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still something that I have to
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experiment with and and work on and I
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did adjust some of the code so that it
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works a little better but of course I do
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think that's one of the things that kind
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of really slowed me down is the fact
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that I in the back of my head knew that
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there were things I wanted to change and
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I think if you lock down see
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gameplay I think it allows you to kind
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of take more time to focus on just
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making levels rather than struggling
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with the mechanical side while working
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on your game in the past two years I've
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learned a lot my game has been Early
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Access for about 3 years and I will say
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one thing that does kind of hurt me from
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time to time and it does make the level
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design a little bit harder but it does
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try to push me a little bit to an extent
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it's a little bit of a mental quarrel uh
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is it takes me still a really long time
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to release updates and I did notice that
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people really want to see updates get
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released and uh I think those things in
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the back of my head kind of did make
00:13:16
level design a little bit harder than it
00:13:17
was before but now that I have these
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smaller levels and I'm kind of starting
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to lock down some of the gameplay I feel
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like it did speed things up a little bit
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and it made things a little bit easier
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for me to grasp now I would love to hear
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what you think and uh you know what your
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thoughts are it's been two years since
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my last video anybody that commented on
00:13:33
that one that maybe wants to pitch in
00:13:35
their thoughts what they've maybe if
00:13:36
they if their thoughts changed since
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then if they've adjusted if they've been
00:13:40
doing it extensively and maybe have
00:13:42
something to share feel free to write it
00:13:43
down in the comments of course like And
00:13:45
subscribe I don't really upload that
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often but when I do it's just you know
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fun little things that I feel like
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uploading but uh yeah have a good one
00:13:53
have a fantastic week year who knows
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when the next video is going to come out
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but uh yeah have a good one
00:14:01
[Music]
