Why I Failed for Years at Level Design and Game Environments

Looking back over last decade it is easy to see what I did wrong and what I could have done better in learning level design and game environments. It is easy for me to say what I could have avoided and where I should have focused my time on.

The mistakes and failures I went through were extremely valuable, even though during such moments it seemed I wasn't going to pull through. In the end, most if not all experiences were extremely valuable and I wouldn't give them up.

But, I do wish someone could have told me a few things to make level design and game environment art creation a simpler process to go through. Certain principles to keep in mind and goals to aim for. So I didn't have to re-invent the wheel. It would have helped me to avoid my first few years starting a project after project and never finishing a single one.

One of the biggest roadblocks that I felt I needed to focus on was planning. I wanted to know what I was going to create before starting to work on any projects. I believed that if I had the right foundation, the right plan to execute it would help me to finish.

Planning did not make me finish all of my maps and it will not make you finish everything you start. But I realized that planning is a very important part of a larger process.

Planning my level designs and game environments helped me to know exactly what I wanted to create before I opened a level editor or a 3d application. There were still a lot of happy and not-so-happy accidents along the way, but at least now I had a foundation to work with. Something to rely on.

Planning gaive me the confidence to pursue the idea.

Planning process is called Preproduction and what you end up with is Preproduction Blueprint. A document for your game environment or level design. This document details what you are going to create. How it is going to look, how it will play, location where your environment takes place, top down layouts, objectives, purpose, reference, story and visual development.

Unfinished fan based UT3 map. I jumped straight into the editor once I had the idea. This map was never finished.

Unfinished fan based project for L4D. It lacked proper planning and vision, thus never saw a release.

4 Steps to Creation:

1. Planning (Focus of Preproduction Blueprint)

2. Visual/Artistic

3. Gameplay

4. Technical

In my opinion level design and game environment creation comes down to 4 things:

1. Planning or Preproduction: Having a proper plan. The vision of an idea to go after that is concrete and worthwhile to pursue.

2. Visuals/Artistic: Things such as color theory, aesthetic quality, lighting, architecture and landscape. What makes an environment or a level design visually pleasing?

3. Gameplay: This includes pacing, flow, objectives, set pieces/scripting and player progression/experience.

4. Technical: Knowledge of the software. 3d application, level editors etc.

We are going to focus on the planning process. It is what Preproduction Blueprint all about.

Why do I think planning is important?

I believe that a proper plan; a strategy for a game environment or a level design is the foundation of a good map. It is the blueprint that everything else can be built on. It is like a house foundation, if its faulty eventually it will crumble. Game environment that is well planned out has a higher chance of seeing the light of day then a vague idea you have where you jump into the editor without figuring out all the details about the environment.

A lot of questions need to be answered when you create a game environment or a level design.

• Is the idea worth my time?
• Is the idea interesting and unique? Has it been done before and if yes, can I make it better?
• Where does the environment take place? What location?
• How am I going to pull this off? What would I need to learn and improve on?
• What is the story of the environment? Does it make sense for the game and/or game type?
• Is it a single player map? Multiplayer map? Stand alone game environment?
• Do I need to create custom assets? Textures? Does the engine or the level editor come with everything I need?
• Which game engine and level editor will I use?
• What is the time period? Environment setting?
• Have I done my research about the story and location I want to make?
  What is the theme of the environment?
• What is the color palette I want to use that makes sense for the emotional impact I am trying to convey?
• What is the top down layout?
• What do I want the player to experience in this environment?
• What are the objectives for the player to complete if any?
• How will the flow and pacing play out in the map?
• How will I tackle the project? What will I do during the production stages?
  What is the core, the essence of the environment?
• Have I collected photo reference for architecture, lighting, props, location and setting of the environment?
• What is the purpose of this project? Why am I working on this?
• Many more...

There are many more questions and figuring all these out has to be done before opening up the editor. No matter how small or large the idea is, I always spend time in planning.

This is how I used to design game environments and level designs. There was no planning involved. When I had the idea, I would go straight for the editor. Sometimes I would create a top down layout.

I didn't research or collect photo references, I didn't explore various layouts, I didn't have a story, I didn't set up a visual theme or set goals. I didn't know how the environment was going to look or how it was going to come together in the end.

For a few hours it was fun. Idea would begin to take shape inside the level editor. I would be excited. Then slowly the entire map would begin to collapse. When I encountered my first problem or a decision I had to make, I didn't know what to do.

More and more questions began to pop up during production. I did not have answers for them because I had no foundation to rely on. I was left with making on the fly decisions. I would get more ideas and try to incorporate them into the current environment. As the environment began to grow in scale and complexity, I would become overwhelmed. I would try to change the layout and the foundation. Which often destroyed the project.

Soon after, the entire environment would fall apart, I'd get frustrated, overwhelmed and move on. I would abandon the map.

I would then begin a new idea. New project. Thinking this time it will be different. This time I will push through and finish.

Of course nothing different happened, because I didn't change my process. This continued for couple of years.

I often would get so pissed off at myself that every map and every game environment project I started did not get finished. It came to a point where I stopped creating maps for a while. I gave up.

Fan based UT2k4 map that never saw the light of day. Poor execution of a vague idea. I kept changing the layout, architecture, theme, textures. It failed because I didn't have core vision behind the idea.

So what changed?

I got fed up. I reached a point where I walked away from level design and game environments. I just told myself that I would pursue other things. That level designing and game environment art wasn't for me.

So I went to college to study filmmaking, drawing, painting, architecture, programming, web design, photography, business and management. I ended up getting a B.F.A in Computer Animation.

The thing was, my love for level design and game environments never left. Throughout my entire college career I wanted to design game environments. I would always get more ideas that I would want to create. Environments I wanted to see come to life. I was obsessed about level design and game environments. I just suppressed it and pushed it away.

During my junior year in college for computer animation, everything began to click. For our senior thesis we had to create a 2-minute animation short. But before anything could be modeled, textured or animated, we had to spend an entire semester during junior year in prepro. This is where we had to create a story, design characters, props, visual style and environments not in a 3d app, but on paper. We had to have a plan before Maya was ever opened. I would have to present the story and all the design ideas to faculty for feedback and crit. This continued for an entire semester. No modeling, no lighting, no animation. Just preproduction for a 2-minute story. A full semester!

If this is what I had to do for a 2 minute short, I realized I needed to do the same for my level designs and game environments. Perhaps not a full semester. I decided that I needed to create a planning workflow specifically for level designs and game environments I could use every time I worked on a project.

During my junior year I made plans to take a trip to Switzerland during summer vacation. Right before my final senior year, where I would have to work on my animation thesis. Something happened during that trip that made me realize level design and game environments was something I want to do. I couldn't ignore it anymore.

Successful idea and execution. I spent time on planning and decided how I was going to execute that plan. Result became a map I was proud of.

You see, I never wanted to animate. I thought I did when I first got into learning computer animation during first two years. But more I animated, the less I ever wanted to animate anything ever again. Going through the computer animation program made me realize how much I love level designs and game environments.

After I came back from Switzerland I started and finished a map in only 3 weeks. For me this was huge revelation.

I began to take a closer look at what exactly I would need to do in order to plan out the process workflow for my environments. Next big breakthrough was 11-day level design where I created a map in 11 days. You probably already read "How I Created a Map in 11 Days" ebook.

Preproduction Blueprint

Slowly I began to develop a planning workflow. It gave me a sense of purpose and a clear goal to aim for when I would begin creating game environments. The key thing is I wanted to have something that could work every time I planned out a level or an environment.

The planning workflow is what I call Preproduction Blueprint. It has taken me couple of years to put it in a step-by-step process, and it took me even longer to go through years of failing and making mistakes to figure it all out.

In the end you will have a Preproduction Blueprint, a level design or game environment document that you can always reference back to.

Preproduction Blueprint is something you can comeback to over and over again. It is a system that will set a foundation for your future progress as a level designer or/and game environment artist.

I've spent over 2 years working on this and it is finally here. I am very confident that you will walk away with a new understanding of what it takes to plan your game environments and level designs.

Preproduction Blueprint for Level Design and Game Environment Workshop is a complete system for planning your game environments and level designs.

How to Plan Your Level Designs and Game Environments?

Preproduction Blueprint is a complete system for planning your game environments and level designs.

It is a complete workshop that you can work through at your own pace. The book and the videos are designed to take you from generating an idea for your environment or level design to final Preproduction Bluerpint.

It is the complete planning system.

These are the same steps that I use to design environments and levels. This took me years to figure out and get it down to a science. The best part is, you don't have to figure this out for yourself. I have laid everything out for you to use in a step-by-step process.

Preproduction Blueprint:

Ebook (235+ pages) PDF format

18 Videos (.mov Quicktime) (2+ hours)

Instant Digital Download (1.26 gig zip file with bonus 493 mb zip as separate download)

Additional Resource Files including 2 Finished Preproduction Blueprints for reference (50+ pages)

Bonus - .m4v for ipod/ipad/iphone movie files. Same 18 videos but made available for mobile apple device (493 mb zip file).

Preproduction Blueprint is not game or engine dependent. It is a stand-alone system that can be used for any level design and game environment project.

INSTANT DIGITAL DOWNLOAD:

Limited Time Price  

Please Note: This is a downloadable e-book/video workshop. You will NOT receive a physical package shipped to you in the mail. The entire package will be immediately available for you to download and get started right away after ordering. You will receive access to bonuses on the Download page. This program is NOT available in stores, so you can only access it through this website.

Planning game environments and level designs should never be ignored. It is a crucial part of the entire production process. Preproduction becomes your foundation for the environment. Decisions become easier, you know exactly what you want to create.

Preproduction Blueprint goes through the entire process of planning for level designs and game environments. Process could be for playable game level, environment exploration or simply a beautiful world to admire and show off in a portfolio.

The process is extremely flexible; with a few tweaks you can even apply this to a game design project. What ever it may be, the steps in this blueprint will help you plan everything to detail and get ready for the production process of your environment.

I wanted to create a system that I could use over and over again for any project and any game environment. Something that could easily be modified to fit anything I was working on.

Preproduction Blueprint is an entire workshop that you can work through at your own pace. The book and the videos are designed to take you from generating an idea for your environment or level design to a complete plan to begin creating.

These are the same steps that I use to design environments and levels. This took me years to figure out and get it down to a science. The best part is, you don't have to figure this out for yourself. I have laid everything out for you to use in a step-by-step process.

It contains 11 steps/modules. They include and you will learn the following:

How to generate ideas on daily basis

How to pick your best ideas

How to see the world around as playable space

Three most overlooked and important aspects of environment and level design

How to define the game environment setting, location and theme

How to identify project purpose

How to define a set of features that will make the environment different and unique

Five categories of reference you need to collect

Importance of research for a game environment

Two types of environment story

Two ways to communicate a story of your world

How to create a story for your game environment

Simple formula for playable levels and player's participation in it

How to create objectives and set pieces for a playable game level

How to create objectives and set pieces for a stand-alone game environment

Explicit vs Implicit storytelling

Gameplay theory for multiplayer and single player maps

How to create objective progression chart and mind map decision trees

How to set up focal points within your environment

Should you have one focal point or multiple focal points

Visual development for stand-alone game environments and established playable levels

How to create a visual style for your environment

Collecting visual development

Light vs. dark contrast and color theory

Color harmonies of your environment

3 things to focus on during visual development stage

How to create a top down for multiplayer, single-player or stand-alone game environment

What should you focus on and establish during top down layout creation

3 key gameplay aspects that every level design for single player and multiplayer should have

How to design top down layouts on paper

How to create top down layouts from photo reference (video)

How to get ideas for top down layouts using GoogleMaps™ (video)

How to design unique layouts with Photoshop® (video)

How to create visual progression guide

How to create various lists of what you would need in order to create a playable map or stand-alone game environment

How to put together final Preproduction Blueprint for your environment

Resource files with blank Preproduction Blueprint template and checklist

Themes and Styles List

Environment Settings List

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Limited Time Price

Just click Add to Cart and follow the rest of the checkout process. Once done, check your email for instant download links for Preproduction Blueprint.

Please Note: This is a downloadable e-book/video workshop. You will NOT receive a physical package shipped to you in the mail. The entire package will be immediately available for you to download and get started right away after ordering. You will receive access to bonuses on the Download page. This program is NOT available in stores, so you can only access it through this website.

30 Day 100% Money Back Guarantee.

I know you will find Preproduction Blueprint extremely helpful and you'll begin planning your own game environments and level designs.

But, if for any reason you don't like it, I am offering 30 days, 100% money-back guarantee.

No questions asked.

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