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

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:

• Vanishing of Ethan Carter – 8k Screenshots Gallery
• Final Fantasy XIV – Screens and Artworks

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

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!

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!

LEVEL-DESIGN.org News Roundup – Volume 27

Art Dumps:

• Bungie’s “Destiny” Art Dump on Polycount

Articles:

• 13 Ways to Improve Your LD/3D Skill Away From a Computer – Article by Alex Galuzin of World of Level Design
• How to Polish Your Games’ Environments
• The Unusual Excellence Of Halo’s Most Iconic Level
• MP Level Design: Barracks – Article by Bobby Ross
• The Player’s Camera is Everything – Article by Geoff Ellenor
• British Countryside Generator
• Procedural Forestry

Interviews:

• Interview with Paul “PaulH” Haynes – Senior Level Designer at Crytek UK – Paul’s Portfolio Website

Videos:

• Unity 5 Beta – Lighting Workflow
• Official Unity 5 Feature Trailer
• Overflow by Marnamai – HL2 SP level walkthrough with CustomGamer commentary
• I Don’t Mind That Your Hands Are Cold by Skacky – Q1 SP level walkthrough with CustomGamer commentary

Tools:

• CryEngine 3.6.7 Now Available

LEVEL-DESIGN.org Reference Database Updates:

• Bulletstorm – Complete SP Campaign
• Dead Space 2 – First few hours of the game
• Gone Home – First minutes of the game
• Max Payne 3 – First minutes of the game
• Outlast – First half of the game
• Red Orchestra 2 – Few MP levels