Level Design: Processes and Experiences

Christopher W. Totten

December 28, 2016

Features

• Learn about the processes of experienced developers and level designers in their own words
• Presents how game professionals of different types think about level design: expert-level players, critics, designers, and tool developers
• Discover best-practices for procedurally generating levels, 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

Summary

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