The Architecture of Level Design

Organization

In an architecture studio you are asked what the concept for your design is. They are asking what the big organizing idea or 'parti'/ spatial idea behind your project is. Organizing ideas and types are often tied to specific programs like schools or hospitals or structural types like brick arches or gothic vaults. In games the player isn't going to get a chance to ask you that question so you better make it clear what you concept or idea is. When designing game levels you might want to be think about some these types to reinforce the idea of feeling of space that game narrative might involve. If you have a story idea about some huge corrupt corporation trying to take over the world with cyborgs (an often used and hackneyed story line) then it might help to go look at what some of the great corporate headquarter buildings look like; how does a corporation express it's power in the world by building architecture?

	How does a corporation express it's power in the world by building architecture?

Type
The term 'type' or 'typology' in architecture refers to the idea that there are fundamental groups of building layouts that can be characterized by a particular functional use. More specifically, if you were shown a plan or a drawing of a building and you could identify it as a church, hospital or an office building without knowing much more about it, that's the basic idea behind the notion of 'type'. Granted, there are different types for each program, but you can generally understand what a building's use is. This idea can be a pretty powerful one when you are designing a level. If you start with and idea about a game and then pick an appropriate type to express that idea you avoid having to re-invent the wheel when it comes to organizing and developing your thoughts and you can make use of this information to build up a scheme. Type is a framework for you to elaborate your game events around. Because a level often combines a number of types, that is why we put circulation first as it ties them all together. For example let's say you have an idea about a level that takes place in a hospital sort of like the final scenes in the movie Hard Boiled. All hospitals share certain characteristics that identify them. These characteristics make up the hospital 'type', lots of corridors with small rooms, lots of elevators near the center of the building, each floor usually has a central hub, there are usually some very specific rooms for very specific functions like the O.R. or emergency room. Using the idea of the type, you might start developing all sorts of gameplay ideas about how a character gets around the level and what sorts of gameplay might happen in each situation or room.

Organizing Systems
Architects and level designers love to organize stuff into manageable chunks of architecture and gameplay. According to Ching, in architecture, the five most basic devices used to organize any scheme are Centralized, Linear, Radial, Cluster, and Grid.

Centralized organizations are schemes oriented around a major hierarchically important space. That space is often but doesn't have to be very large. Churches and sports arenas for example tend to be centrally organized buildings. The most important thing happening occurs in the central space. This sort of organization tends to work well with ideas about multiplayer deathmatch levels.

Linear organizations describe schemes that tend to collect themselves around or on some sort of a major axis. For example, a major street in a city or pedestrian paths in a park are types of linear organizations. The most successful example I can think of in games is the train level, AS-HiSpeed, in Unreal Tournament. The entire level is a set of train cabins and the gameplay is all oriented along this line. It provides a great deal of focus and tension to the gameplay, alternatively I think this level could also have worked as a tower for instance. The point is not to think of these as just rigid plan fixated devices but also as three dimensional principles.

	AS-HiSpeed in Unreal Tournament is a set of train cabins, and the gameplay is all oriented along this line.

Radial organizations are often similar to centralized ones except that the most important things happening occur in the spokes or arms that radiate out from a central hub. The center is more of an organizing node than it is a major space. Lots of housing subdivisions tend to be radially organized, as well as some prisons. Some centralized pattern multiplayer and CTF levels work well as radial organizations.

Clustered organizations occur when spaces are grouped together close to each other. They can be clustered by function, size or perhaps even materials. In clustered organizations there may be any number of equally important things going on simultaneously or perhaps any number of individually important functions cluster up to describe a single much more important function. You can think of neighborhoods in cities as a type of cluster organization. Buildings and functions of similar types are gathered together and mutually support one another. Levels in games are quite often organized as clusters of spaces. When you look at plans of game spaces, this is the type you most often see. It's also the most difficult to achieve successfully.

Grid organizations are when identical units are distributed evenly, and can be used effectively for mazes. Grid organizations tend to work well with ideas about making efficient systems of infrastructure, a street grid for getting cars around, or a structural grid for supporting floors, or a cubicle grid that can expand and contract with different functional needs. In games, the grid is most prevalent, interestingly enough, in our creation tools. All creation tools from Radiant to Maya use some form of grid to divide Cartesian space into an addressable point or reference. 3D real-time games In a way are all the result of grid organizations.

These descriptions might seem sort of obvious or simplistic and they are, but you really can boil any spatial design project down into some combination of these devices. Most of the time, you probably organize your design using these devices without even thinking about it, but it helps to be aware of these as discrete ideas when you're analyzing and editing what you do. They can help to clarify an idea you have and expose ideas that aren't really working. There is a lot of published work on the subject of how organizational systems affect design ideas perhaps the best known of these is The Ten Books of Architecture written by a Leon Battista Alberti in the 14th century. Who went far beyond these basic systems in the belief that these systems of organization were the keys to harmony and balance in the world. Much of the Renaissance owes it theoretical background to him. More recent investigations into this have been centered around organizational ideas and cities; Colin Rowe's Collage City is an excellent reference for the combination of different types of ordering system.

Spatial Relationships
In his study for a district in Milan, Steven Holl developed a table of links and correlations of four conditions of architecture; on, over, in, and under the ground. Part of evaluating a design would be to consider whether you had introduced a variety of these conditions. Rather than have all the spaces relate directly on a single level, elevate one part of the design and sink another below the ground. Then work to create connections between the two, try to generate spaces that overlap and interlock rather than sit discreetly adjacent to one another.