The Art and Science of Level Design

Editor's note: This paper was originally published in the 2000 Game Developer's Conference proceedings

It is becoming increasingly difficult to define the role of the team member known as the "Level Designer." Level design is as much an art as it is a science; it requires artistic skills and know-how as well as an extensive technical knowledge. A designer with tremendous traditional art or architectural experience will not succeed if he cannot grasp issues such as framerate, gameflow and pacing; a designer who understands these elements yet has no architectural or art experience is doomed to fail as well. Art and science are the Yin and the Yang of design and it takes the efforts of very talented and dedicated individuals to produce high quality levels.

Defining the Role

In the earlier years of the gaming industry, there was no such thing as a level designer. Programmers were the "one stop shop" of game creation; they were the ones responsible for designing, producing and finishing products. With the evolving state of 3D technology, the need for digital architects has appeared, and 3D environments are more gorgeous than ever. Above and beyond everything else, the role of the level designer on any given project is defined by two key factors:

What technology will be used for this project? A project administrator can cut down on training costs and time by hiring talent that is experienced with editing tools that are presently available to the community. For instance, if an Unreal Technology licensee were to hire talent they'd benefit from acquiring someone who has previously created content with the editor and released it online, or has worked at another technology licensee. A savvy recruiter will comb map design collection pages as well as closely examining the content produced by peers who are using the same technology for their titles.

What kind of project will we be building with this technology? Taking a master deathmatch level designer and asking him to create sprawling landscapes for an Everquest style massively multiplayer role-playing game would be a big mistake. Even if the designer were able to adapt and create great content, the time and overhead taken to train him in the new design and direction would not be worth the effort. It is possible for a designer who is "trying out" for a job to test his hand at another style in an effort to impress his potential employers, but by the time his content is presentable the job may have passed him by. Although many design elements are universal and will carry over from one style of game to another, it is vital to reduce any extra time or risk that is taken in hiring new talent as budgets are constantly rising.

On Ownership
Until recently, at many development studios, there has been a notion of "ownership" in the realm of level design. A level was "owned" by a designer; no one touched his work and he was the one solely responsible for the content. Level designers would become defensive, even hostile, if another LD suggested modifying his work.

The game industry is about evolution. Designers, programmers, and hardware manufacturers who do not evolve quickly fade out and die. The level designer is not exempt from these rules, much like his peers he must evolve. That said, it is no longer possible for one LD to maintain "ownership" of a level as computers and gaming machines are becoming more and more capable of rendering extremely detailed environments. The talent that is hired must be comfortable with the idea of others modifying and improving their work.

There is a direct correlation between the detail that a technology is capable of and the amount of ownership that one designer has over a particular level. With Moore's law holding true (processor speed doubles every eighteen months) and 3D accelerators constantly raising the bar on the detail that game engines are capable of displaying, it is simply impossible for one driven person to build the necessary amount of detail into level locations in the allocated time. The more detail technology can push, the more people will be required to work on levels.

In addition to having dedicated world texture artists and environment concept designers, the need will soon emerge for dedicated "prop" people -- artists who create content that will fill up previously static and barren environments. Most architecture is relatively simple, much of the detail in the real world comes from the clutter; the chairs, tables, and decorations that fill these places up.

Teams may soon see the addition of scripting people who are responsible for storyboarding in-game events as well as assisting in the design and direction of these events. A person of these abilities would need cinematic experience as well as excellent knowledge of tools such as a scripting language or editor.

It is very likely that the level designer will become a chef, taking various ingredients from other talented people and mixing them into something special while following the recipe of a design document. Right now there are companies that have artists lighting levels, as well as doing custom texture work on a per-surface basis. The level designer will evolve to the role of the glue of a project, the hub at which everything comes together.

The Glue
Jay Wilbur once said, "Level design is where the rubber hits the road." This quote holds true today, and will continue to hold true in the future. Level designers are quickly becoming some of the most important members of a development team. Nine times out of ten one finds that programmers are the bottlenecks on a project. A game is not supposed to ship until it is clear of all "A" class bugs, and this requires much programming gusto to clean up and ship a game. On many projects this bottleneck will eventually slide into the realm of the level designer as they're where the "rubber hits the road." The LD is the one who is taking everyone else's hard work and tying it together into a cohesive package. The designer takes the textures created by the artists and places them on his level geometry, or asks an artist to create custom work for his level. He'll figure out where and when to place hostile AI that was created by programmers and 3D artists while all of it is being rendered by the work of the engine programmer.

A level designer is not just an architecture monkey or a guy who throws cool stuff into the pot of development. Above and beyond everything level designers need the ability to judge what is fun, what gameplay elements work and what do not. They need to judge what content works in a given context while making sure it is cohesive with the rest of the game.

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Commandments for Level Design