Level Design Tutorials, Advice, Workflow and Tips

Tutorial Topics

Level Design and Workflow Tutorials

Level Design and Game Environment Design tutorials that are non-game specific. Following tutorials cover important timeless principles of gameplay, design, theory and workflow. These tutorials can be used for most games.

Topics include:

Becoming a Level Designer and Environment Artist
Level Design Workflows
Preproduction: How to Plan Your Game Environments and Level Designs
Production: Level Design Tutorials
Survival Horror Level Design
Game Industry/Getting a Job
Misc

BECOMING A LEVEL DESIGNER AND ENVIRONMENT ARTIST

	What Level Editor and Game Engine Should You Use - (How to Choose) Tutorial will help ou to decide which level editor and game engine should you choose for your project.
	Recommended Level Design Editors A list of 12 recommended level design editors.
	Recommended 3D Game Engines A list of 15 3d game engines.
	How to Have the Best Level Design and Game Environment Year In this blog post I share what has been working for me and what I would recommend you do to have the best year in level design and game environment art.
	Why I Failed for Years at Level Design and Game Env. My personal story of why I failed for years at level design and game environments. Focused on planning and preproduction.
	How to Reverse Engineer Level Design and Game Environment Art How to use the principles of reverse engineering to become better level designer and game environment artist.
	Becoming a Level Designer and Environment Artist Pt. 1 Get started with navigation in the editor, interface overview and various viewport options.
	Becoming a Level Designer and Environment Artist Pt. 2 Various tips on how to keep your map to proper scale, proportions and dimensions.
	Game World Creation with Inception Movie Inception is full of references to level design and game environment creation. Inspiring movie to watch for any level designer and game environment arist.

LEVEL DESIGN WORKFLOWS

	How to Plan Game Environments and Level Designs Workflow tutorial on how to plan out your game environments and level designs.
	Single Player Level Design Workflow by Magnar Jenssen Workflow tutorial by Magnar Jenssen.
	Level Design Workflow: Making of HL2DM DM_Zest by Thiago Klafke Workflow tutorial by Thiago Klafke.
	Level Design Worklfow Tutorial Level design workflow of IcyApex.
	11 Day Level Design Process Overview Process overview video shows level design workflow day by day hHow to create a map in 11 Days.
	How to Create a Playable Level in 11 Days Want to create your own map in 11 days? Follow this workflow process.

PREPRODUCTION: PLANNING AND BEGINNING

	How to Start Your Own Level Design or Game Environment Challenge (8 Ways) Focus on how to start your own self-imposed level design and game environment challenge to improve your work and process.
	Level Design Creation Guidelines Creation guideline that will help you to make sure you know your level design and game environment inside out. Really helpful guide to creating your maps.
	How To Add Depth To Your Level Design Adding depth to your level design and game environments.
	How To Plan Your Next Map Planning your next map. What to do, where to look for inspiration and how to make sure that your next project is successful.
	100 Level Design Ideas and Locations 100 ideas for game environments and level designs.
	Damnation's Concept Art to Level Design Damnation may not have been a good game, but the art process applying concept art to level design is a great study to apply to your own work.
	Guide to Collecting Level Design Reference Guide to collecting level design and game environment reference.

PRODUCTION: LEVEL DESIGN TUTORIALS

	How to Use Cover Object Placement for Level Design Tutorial covers proper cover placement that encourages map flow, control pacing, provide choices and encourage strategy.
	13 Level Design Tips from L4D1/2: The Sacrifice The following tutorial features a video where you will learn 13 Level Design Tips from "The Sacrifice". Many of these tips can be applied to other game level designs.
	Visual Reference Guide to Level Design Tutorial contains 61 ways you can better design your custom maps. L4D2 is used as an example, but these principles apply to many FPS games.
	L4D2 Level Design Tips Part 1 Part 1/2 Left 4 Dead 2 Level Design tips. Principles apply to most FPS games.
	L4D2 Level Design Tips Part 2 Part 2/2 Left 4 Dead 2 Level Design tips. Principles apply to most FPS games.
	Art of Blocking In Your Map Tutorial covering how to block in and shell out your map with BSP. Also knows as "white-boxing".
	Creating Unique Level Design Overviews: Photoshop Filter Couple ways of creating top-down layouts using Photoshop Filter.
	Level Design Originality and Innovation Innovation refers to creating something new, better or improving upon another idea in a way that is significantly different then where it originally came from.

LIGHTING

Functional Lighting

Article is aimed more towards how lighting affects the gameplay of a level and how big of a role it plays in player guidance and the playability of a level.

SURVIVAL HORROR LEVEL DESIGN

	Horror/Survival Level Design: Part 1 - Cliches Survival horror level design tutorial focuses on cliches and their use.
	Horror/Survival Level Design: Part 2 - Anticipation and Pacing Survival horror level design tutorial focuses on creating anticipation and pacing.
	Horror/Survival Level Design: Part 3 - Story and Environment Survival horror level design tutorial focuses on story of the character and environment.
	Horror/Survival Level Design: Part 4 - Relationship Survival horror level design tutorial focuses on character and environment relationships.
	Horror/Survival Level Design: Part 5 - Moral Decision Survival horror level design tutorial focuses on moral decisions of the player.

GAME INDUSTRY INSIGHTS AND MISC ARTICLES

	GDC Level Design in a Day - Q/A Session Transcript of the Q&A session from the Level Design in a Day tutorial at GDC. Broad range of topics are discussed; from portfolio and getting your foot at the door, to balancing and branching issues.
	GDC Level Design Notes Part 1 Level Design in a Day, best practices from the best in the business.
	GDC Level Design Notes Part 2 The following is a talk from Matthias Worch, a Senior Level Designer at Viceral Games and has worked Dead Space 2. Matthias's lecture is about Digital Ditch Digging, the core space creation of a level and its flow.
	GDC Level Design Notes Part 3 Jim Brown's lecture about level design tools and how they can save your life, called "Tools of the trade : Making a better game through the tools".
	GDC Level Design Notes Part 4 Niel Alphonso talk is about maximizing the effectiveness of cover placement, and overall multiplayer level balancing. This talk is aimed at FPSes and Third Person Shooters.
	GDC Level Design Notes Part 5 The last conference of the day was led by Joel Burgess. Entitled "Level Design as Storytelling", it was about the tools we have at our disposal to tell stories, regardless of their size or depth, directly into our levels.
	How to Get a Job With Epic Games The following notes are from a presentation by Andrew Baines, a Senior Level Designer at Epic Games.