LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 36

Articles & Tutorials:

• On Theft’s Level Design: Maps and Territories
• The 20 Best 2D Mario Levels of All Time
• WoLD – UE4: 27 Step Crash Course to Getting Started with Unreal Engine 4
• InnerSpace: Level Design- Building a Scenario
• The Making of Outpost 23
• Level Design in Procedural Generation
• Gamasutra – The Secret To Designing The Perfect Level?
• Gamasutra – Architecture in Video Games: Designing for Impact
• Gamasutra – Designing Smart, Meaningful SHMUPs
• Gamasutra – Procedural World Generation: The Simulation, Functional and Planning Approaches
• Gamasutra – “Line the Pipes!” or Testing Your Mechanics for Flow
• Gamasutra – How To Train Players Right, So They Don’t Hate Learning To Play
• World Building and Art Direction of Destiny
• Level Design: Trascend
• 5 Common Mistakes Super Mario Makers Make In Level Design
• How A Map For Albion Online Is Designed
• How Can We Prevent VR Sickness with Level Design?
  
• MegaMan X to X2 – How Level Design Changes

Tools:

• Unreal Engine 4.9.2 Hotfix Update
• Unreal Engine 4.10 Preview
• CryEngine 3.8.4 Released

Videos:

• The Making of Titan Pass – Part 1, Part 2
• Other Places: Mad Max, Firelink Shrine (Dark Souls), Pathos II (SOMA), Rain, Hoth (Star Wars: Battlefront), North Yankton (GTA V)
• Polygon Fragments – The Witcher 3: White Orchard
• UE4: Beginner’s Step-by-Step to Creating Your First Level
• Cave Story’s Masterful Game Design – A Longform Analysis

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Borderlands 2
• Castle Crashers
• Crysis
• Far Cry 3
• The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
• Metro 2033 Redux
• Quake

LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 35

Articles & Tutorials:

• Gamasutra – How To Make a Rapture
• Gamasutra – Odorless, Fragrant and Spicy – The Many Flavours of Foreign Culture In Gaming
• GamesRadar – So, How Do You Make a Perfect Call of Duty Map?
• GamesRadar – Why Skyrim’s Most Barren Environment Makes For A Bountiful World
• 80lv – Taking Skyrim Environments To The Next Level
• 80lv – Guide To Open World Environment Design
• 80lv – Creating Macro Environments in Open World Games
• 80lv – Creating Medieval Atmosphere in The Level
• 80lv – Modular Environments With Creators of Spirit Tactic
• How To Design a Town Map
• Want To Create Mario Maker Levels? 7 Game Designers Teach You How
• Siggrapth ’15 – Ready At Dawn’s Art, Animation & Tech Talks from The Order: 1886
• WoLD – Single Player Level Design Pacing and Gameplay Beats – Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3
• MapCore – Working As a Level Designer in The Games Industry – Interview with Will “Vilham” Josephy
• MapCore – The Witcher 3: Designing The Environments (Developer Interviews)

Galleries & Art Dumps:

• Dungeon Defenders II Environments Art Dump
• Flying Carpet Games – More of Castletown’s Level Art

Tools:

• Unreal Engine 4.9 Released

Videos & Podcasts:

• Game Dev Radio – Exploring Design – How Level Design Can Affect Gameplay
• PBS Game/Show – The Genius of BioShock’s Level Design
• Polygon – Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto Explaining World 1-1 Is The Best Game Design Lesson of The Week

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Max Payne 2 – Complete SP Campaign
• Unreal Tournament 3 – Complete
• Ori and The Blind Forest
• Never Alone (Kisima Inŋitchuŋa)
• Far Cry 2

Articles & Tutorials:

• MapCore – Source Lighting Technical Analysis: Part One
• MapCore – Source Lighting Technical Analysis: Part Two
• Gamasutra – Incorporating Level Design in Melee Combat Systems by Bart Vossen
• Gamasutra – Level Design For Melee Combat Systems by Bart Vossen
• Gamasutra – Procedural Level Design in Dungeoning
• RPS – How Do You Make a Professional CS:GO Map?
• Open World in Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• The Way Nintendo Used To Do Mario Levels
• InnerSpace: The Challenges of Open World Design & Player’s Choice
• Instructive Level Design
• Stefan Doestschel: The Principles of Level Design

Galleries & Art Dumps:

• Wolfenstein: Old Blood – Art Dump Part 2

Tools:

• Jackhammer 1.1.700 Released – Changelog
• Unity 5.1
• Unreal Engine 4.8 Released – Unreal Engine 4.9 Preview
• Trenchbroom 1.1.6
• Doom SnapMap

Videos:

• Great Levels In Gaming #15 – Dark Souls (Part 1)
• Wall Worm Level Design Episode 1
• Wall Worm Level Design Episode 2
• Why de_dust2 Is So Good?

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Complete SP Campaign
• Call of Juarez: The Cartel – Complete SP Campaign
• Dying Light
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne
• Quake 4 – Complete SP Campaign
• Shadow Warrior
• Witcher 2: Enchanced Edition

If you’re looking for an opportunity to put your foot in a professional Game Development studios’ doors or you just want to try yourself in a challenging competition, then this will be a good chance for you! RunThinkShootLive.com starts a new Half-Life 2 Single Player Mapping Challenge called “Station60Ville“. To know more go to the RTSL website and have a look. There, you’ll find all the rules, deadlines and prizes. Long story short: Make a resistance station level before August 3rd.

I’ll start with a little announcement related to LD.org Reference Database. The website is no longer on hold, I’m able to continue with maintaining it but make sure to check out new Description and Participation Rules. I’ve also updated the About LD.org page with more details.

Articles:

• Borderlands and Gears of War Artist Explains Quick Landscapes in UE4
• 8 Secrets of Great Multiplayer Maps From Ben Burkart
• 10 Rules of Building Great Games & Levels Hourences
• Battlefield Environment Artist on Creating Nature in UE4
• Optimizing The Scene and Working With Lighting in Unity 5
• Philosophy of Environmental Design: Crafting a Story in 3D
• Exploring Unreal Engine 4 Scripting: Part Two
• Framing and Centering in Game Design
• Series of Unreal Engine 4 Tutorials on World of Level Design
• How (and Why) CS:GO Works
• Opinion: Breaking Down The Success of Witcher 3’s Open World
• Miss-able Collectibles: I Want It But Not So Bad I’ll Start The Game Over Again
• Making Agency, The Popular CS:GO Map
• Local Level Design and History/Future of Level Design

Contests and Challenges:

• Reddit + MapCore CS:GO Mapping Contest

Videos:

• “Fallen From Grance” by Simon “Sock” O’Callaghan – Q1SP Level Commentary by Custom Gamer
• GDC’15 – Making Linear Level Design Feel Non-Linear in Gone Home
• Other Places: Metro 2033 Redux

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Hatred
• Trine: Enhanced Edition
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Hello fellow Designers and Artists! Sorry for the long delay with news. I’m quite busy lately but I haven’t forget about the website. Yep, same excuse as always but it’s true! Here’s what cool Level Art & Design stuff I found in past weeks:

Articles:

• MapCore: Exploring Unreal Engine 4 Scripting – Part One
• Level Design: Building a Scenario
• Designing Great 1vs1 FPS Maps – Part 1: Introduction, Part 2: Examples, Part 3: Conclusions
• How To Design Levels For a Platformer
• Lighting Design Theory For 3D Games – Part 1: Light Sources and Fixtures, Part 2: A Formal Approach Light Design, Light and Depth
• Gamasutra: Balancing Multiplayer Games: Opportunity, Power, Relativity
• Gamasutra: Designing For Exploration and Choice in Firewatch
• Gamasutra: Deathmatch Map Design: Architecture And Flow
• Gamasutra: How To Make a Rapture
• 80.lv: Building Temple of Utu: Blizzard Devs on Great Environment Design
• 80.lv: Everett Gunther: Secrets of Environmental Design in UE4
• 80.lv: Sunday Environmental Design Showcase: Nature in Unity 5 and UE4
• The Making of Outpost 23

Art Dumps:

• Polycount: Far Cry 4 (Updated)
• Evolve DLC Map Environment Models

Tools & Technology:

• Dying Light Developer Tools Released on Steam Workshop – Video Tutorials
• Crytek’s Back To Dinosaur Island VR Demo
• 80.lv: Epic’s Open World is Free To Download

Videos:

• Game Maker’s Toolkit – Super Mario 3D World’s 4-Step Level Design
• Good Game Design – Donkey Kong Country: The “Hidden” Reward Principle
• Custom Gamer: The Hell That’s Coming by Warren Marshal – Quake 1 Single Player Level Commentary By Daz
• Great Levels in Gaming: Destiny’s Vault of Glass
• Medieval Inn – Speed Level Design In Unity
• PolygonFragments: Grand Theft Auto V – Los Santos Beach

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database:

The good news is that we have more that 100 games in the database. The bad news is that I have to put LD.org RDB on hold until I’ll find a person to help me with publishing the screenshots. The last update I was able to upload contains:

• Woolfe: The Red Hood Diaries
• Unreal Tournament 3
• Bastion

LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 31:

Artices:

• Visual Development by Epic Games in UE4 by Mortiz Weller
• Gamasutra – Level Design In a Day: An Expert Roundtable Q&A
• Gamasutra -How To Reduce Visual Confusion In Your Game
• Gamasutra -Making Gameplay More Engaging by Using Animated Cover
• Gamasutra – 2D Art Team – How To Manage Level Background Assets
• Building Levels In Unity – A Three-Part Tutorial by Matthias Zarzecki
• Level Design: Doom’s “Horseshoe”
• Creating a More Dynamic Battlefield
• Familiar and Unfamiliar Space

Art Dumps:

• Evolve Environment Art Dump at Polycount

Videos:

• Speed Level Design in Unity – Winter Road
• How Rayman: Legends is made
• Hellblade Development Diary 4: Creating The World
• Dragon Age: Inquisition – Creating Game World
• Spelunky – Custom Level Editor
• Unreal Engine 4 Speed Tree Environments
• Unreal Engine 4 – Intro to Level Design
• Why Is Dust2 So Popular? Veteran CS:GO Map Makers Answer

Tools:

• Unreal Engine 4.7 Release Notes

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Return To Castle Wolfenstein – Complete SP Campaign
• Vanishing of Ethan Carter
• Transistor

LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 30:

Hello! Sorry for a long delay. I’m still busy and this won’t change soon. I’ve made one big change on the website. All the articles from Wiki version of Knowledge Base has been moved to Articles page on LEVEL-DESIGN.org main page. Wiki was fun but it started to get messy over time so currently LEVEL-DESIGN.org Knowledge Base is in Articles sub-page of the main site.

Articles:

• Guide to Player Scale and World/Architecture Dimensions – World of Level Design
• 16 Recommended 3D Game Engines (Updated) – World of Level Design
• Brilliance in Level Design: Wind Waker’s Dragon Roost Cavern by Theodore Homdrom
• Designing Procedural Dungeons for Torgar’s Quest by Rasmus Rasmussen – Gamasutra
• Modular Building Breakdown – Polycount Thread
• Scary Level Design – Mr. Boss’ Design Lair

Videos:

• Liberation by LifeLost – HL2EP 2 SP – [Part 1, Part 2] – CustomGamer Commentary Video
• Death by a Thousand Cuts by Sock – Q1 SP CustomGamer Commentary Video
• Alien: Isolation – Sevastopol – Polygon Fragments Environment Presentation Video
• Game Maker’s Toolkit – Half-Life 2’s Invisible Tutorial
• Far Cry 4 – Natural Environment
• Greatest Levels in Gaming – Batman: Arkham City

Tools:

• Unity 4.6.2 Released

Other:

• Quake Maps – Tumblr image feed

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare

LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 29

Articles:

• Tobiah Marks Blog – Blast Monkey’s Design Philosophy
• DevMag – How to Design Levels for Platformers
• STRAFE Blog – How We Are Handling Level Generation in STRAFE
• MapCore – Level Design in The Last of Us by Francois Roughol – Part 1, part 2 and part 3
• MakingGames – Designing The World Smallest MMO
• Lambda Generation – CS:GO “Train” Revamped
• CS:GO Website – Reintroducing “Train” Level
• Gamasutra – Defining Boundaries: Creating Credible Obstacles In Games by Gareth Griffiths
• Kill Screen – Want To Learn About Game Design? Go To IKEA
• Grid Paper – Level Layouts and Top-Downs
• Significant Bits – Super Mario Bros 3 – Level Design Lessons – Part 3

Art Dumps: 

• Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag – Polycount Art Dump
• Dishonored – Polycount Asset Art Dump
• Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Panorama Pictures

Contests:

• MapCore’s Quake 3 15th Anniversary Contest – Winners!

Releases:

• Retro Jam 1 – Medieval Theme – Q1SP Level Pack
• LVLWorld – Q3 Level Reviews Update

Tutorials:

• World of Level Design – UDK Bundle – “UDK The Foundation” & “UDK How to Guide to Landscape Creation”

Tools:

• MicroBrush 3 – New brush-based level editor for Source Engine
• CryEngine 3.6.12 Update
• Unreal Engine 4.6 Update
• Eidos Blog – Introducing Dawn Engine

Videos:

• Far Cry 4 – Map Editor Preview
• NEO Tokyo – Level Design
• Custom Gamer – Persia Inversion by Lunaran (Q1SP Level)
• Custom Gamer – Ikwhite Theme by Skacky (Q1SP Level)
• Custom Gamer – The Halls of the Blood God by Scampie (Q1SP Level)
• Valve Channel – Reintroducing “Train” Level

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare