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.
LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 33
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:
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:
LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 32
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:
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:
LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 31
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:
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:
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
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:
Other:
- Quake Maps – Tumblr image feed
LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:
LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 29
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:
LEVEL-DESIGN.org Portfolios on Spot Vol. 3
Hi fellow designers and artists! Look what awesome and yaw-dropping scenes and portfolios I found!
- Vincent Mayeur – Environment Artist – Showcase scene from “Detached” game prototype [Vincent’s Portfolio]
- Rex Mcnish – Environment Artist – “Environment Art” (Cry Engine 3 Scene) [Rex’s Portfolio]
- Eric Martinella – Environment Artist – “Piano Room” (Unreal Engine 4 Scene) [Eric’s Portfolio]
- Everett Gunther – Environment Artist – “Lighthouse Shore” (Unreal Engine 4 Scene) [Everett’s Portfolio]
- ? – Environment Artist – “Emerald” (Unreal Engine 4 Scene) [Portfolio]
- Liam Tart – Environment Artist – “Sci-Fi Colony Bunk Room” (Unreal Engine 4 Scene) [Liam’s Portfolio]
- Lenz Monath – Environment Artist – “Warrior Scene” (Unreal Engine 4 Scene) [Lenz’s Portfolio]
LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 28
LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 28
Art Dumps:
- Polycount – Infamous: Second Son Art Dump
Artices:
- Quest Design in Witcher 3: Wind Hunt
- Building The Open World of Dead Island 2 With Unreal Engine 4
- Reddit Discussion – What Process Do You Use For Creation of Levels?
- Reddit Discussion – Do Players Naturally Gravitate Toward Higher Ground?
- The Passion of The Checkpoint: Why Gaming’s Most Frustrating Failure Is So Hard To Fix
- Feudal Fingerpainting – Mount&Blade’s 2 Level Editor
- Gamasutra – Thematic Level Design in a Non-Euclidean Space: Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor
- Game Environment Tips from a Halo Artist
- ArtCraft – Level Design: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
Interviews:
- MapCore – Interview with Krzysztof “Tepcio” Teper
Videos:
- Polygon Fragments – Dark Souls 2 “Things Betwixt”
- Polygon Fragments – Dark Souls 2 “Forest of The Fallen Gigants”
- CustomGamer – “Callous Zeitgeist” by FifthElephant (Q1SP)
- CustomGamer – “Vendricks Viaduct” by Sock (Q1SP)
- CustomGamer – “Overflow” by Marnamai (HL2SP)
- CustomGamer – “Einmal Döner mit Shambler und Scharf Bitte” by MFX (Q1SP)
Other:
Tools:
- CryDev – CryEngine 3.6.11 Update
LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:
- Max Payne 3 – Gallery update
- Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare – Gallery update
MapCore’s Quake 3 15th Anniversary Contest
SpronyvanJohnson writes:
On December 2nd Quake 3 will celebrate its 15th anniversary. Many people have a soft spot for this classic so instead of neglecting this anniversary we want to pay tribute to this amazing game. For that reason, we partnered up with Pixologic (Zbrush), Id Software, Hammerwatch and CGTextures to bring you MapCore’s Quake 3 15th Anniversary Contest which will run from October 8th to December 3rd. Check out all the details here and be sure to sign up and spread the word!
More information about the contest can be found on MapCore website. Good luck for all the contestants, it’s gonna be fun!
Vote For The Best Whitebox Level in UE4 at MapCore!
SpronyvanJohnson says:
That’s right guys, the deadline has passed and we’ve got exactly 11 good looking whitebox maps for you all. I must say that I’m very pleased by your efforts and your participation in this challenge. Because 11 maps is a very impressive number for a challenge without prizes. So a big applause for all participants!
As promised, we will now let the community vote on which map they like best. Voting will end on Monday 6 October.
Now check out the contest thread on MapCore and pick your best Whitebox level!