Hi! Welcome to the 38th Volume of the LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup! Before I’ll start with listing the level design goodness I’ve found since the last update, I’d like to make a small announcement. During holidays and new year season, the LEVEL-DESIGN.org website won’t get any updates to the Blog and Reference Database. I’m taking my family back home to Poland for the whole month and I bet that I won’t have time for the updates so that being said, I’d like to wish you a very happy holidays and an awesome new year! Enjoy the latest articles, videos and tutorials that I found for you and I hope that you’ll always pick LEVEL-DESIGN.org as your source of Level Art & Design knowledge to improve in your interests, passions, career or hobby!

Cheers!
Mateusz Piaskiewicz

LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 38

Articles:

• 10 Ways To Improve Your Test Chambers – Portal Level Design
• A Theory of Level Design
• InnerSpace: Level Design – Building a Scenario
• Bad Levels in Gaming History – Volume One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight
• Visual Hierarchy for Game Developers: A Practical Guide to Making Important Stuff Seem Important
• Level design In Mobile Games – How Developers Make Their Games Fun
• Gamasutra – Secret of Sages: Level Design
• Gamasutra – Color In Games: An In-Depth Look At One of Game Design’s Most Useful Tools
• Gamasutra – How We Design a Map For Block Star Party
• Gamasutra – How To Make Games That Last
• Gamasutra – Designing Levels: From Photoshop to Unity

Videos:

• Custom Gamer – Of The Flames In The Stars by Breezeep – Quake Single Player (Map Jam 6), Signati by Adib – Quake Single Player (Map Jam 6)
• GDC 2014 – Meaningful Choice in Game and Level Design
• LawBreakers Dev Diary #1: Map Design Process
• Other Places – Star Wars: Battlefront, Sanctuary Hills (Fallout 4)
• Polygon Fragments – The Witcher III – White Orchard
• Intelligent Design – Castlevaina – Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4
• Memory and Game Level Design Analysis
• Speed Level Design – The Railroad – Unreal Engine 4
• Unreal Tournament Behind-The-Scenes: Making of Titan

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Alice: Madness Returns
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 Zombies
• Mass Effect 2
• Metro 2033 Redux – Complete Single Player Campaign
• Wolfenstein: The Old Blood – Complete Single Player Campaign

LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 37

Hello fellow artists and designers! Welcome to the 37th Volume of the LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup! I wanted to inform you about potential major website changes in the near future. I have a few ideas on how to improve the website.

From other news: Call of Duty: Black Ops 3, the game I was working on for more than a year is finally released! I hope you’ll enjoy our levels as much as we enjoyed working on this game. Have fun!

Cheers and enjoy the latest roundup!

Articles & Tutorials:

• How to Design Levels With the “Super Mario World Method” by Patrick Holleman
• Practicing Good Level Design
• Pros and Cons of Procedural Level Generation by Gregory Schier
• Level Design: Views and Vistas by Mike Stout
• Gamasutra – Four Useful Habits for Level Designers by Geoff Ellenor
• Gamasutra – Great Level Design Tips, Using Super Mario Maker by Catharina Bøhler

Tools:

• Unity 5.2.2 Released
• Unreal Engine 4.10 Released

Videos:

• Top 5 Best Wind Levels in Gaming
• Practical Level Design Lessons by Elad Drory
• Great Levels in Gaming #18 – Dark Souls (Part 2)
• Game Maker’s Toolkit – Why Nathan Drake Doesn’t Need a Compass
• Other Places: Pauli’s Diner (Batman: Arkham Knight), Alien: Isolation
• GDC ’15: Community Level Design for Competitive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Alice: Madness Returns – Updated with a few new levels
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 3 – Complete Single Player Campaign
• Dust: Elysian Tail
• FarCry 3
• Homefront – Complete Single Player Campaign

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.