Game Level Design (Game Development Series)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 368 pages
• Published by: Charles River Media
• Edition: 1st Edition December 21, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 1584503696
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-1584503699
• Book Dimensions: 11 x 8.4 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 1.1 pounds

Product Description
As a level designer in the game industry you can determine exactly what the player sees, hears, and feels in the game. The reward of seeing your game on a store shelf or hearing people talk about one of your levels is an incredibly fulfilling experience. If this is a path you want to take, Game Level Design will show you the way.This book is about the basics of level design: it teaches you common procedures for designing, drafting, and creating interactive environments for games. It explains what level design is, where it came from, and, most important, how to plan, design, and construct levels professionally for modern-day computer and video games. Throughout the book, practical explanations and demonstrations use the basic, advanced, and real-world techniques needed to create game levels for hit titles. It also uses historical examples, interviews with outstanding level designers, and a focus on professional level design, to teach game developers of all levels, from amateur "mod" mappers to seasoned multi-title veterans, how to implement these techniques into your own projects. Although the content in the book uses many examples from popular genres, such as first-person shooters (FPS), action adventures, and real-time strategy (RTS) games, the approach is designed to teach level design as a genre- and platform-independent craft. All games need to take place in environments, and by extension, the rules of level design apply to all games to some degree, so with the skills and techniques you learn here, you'll be ready for any level challenge.

From the Author
Ed Byrne (Kirkland, WA) is currently lead designer at Zipper Interactive in Redmond, WA. He has also worked as a level designer for Amaze Entertainment and for prominent games such as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, and Ubisofts Splinter Cell.

Reader Reviews
This book offers a solid foundation for the planning stages and a good overview of the implementation stages of level design. Good for those who are looking for general strategies for level creation and wanting to get up to speed on terminology/workflow for this type of work. It's all fairly theoretical with only one chapter on actual nuts and bolts level design, where you make a single room in the Unreal editor. If you're wanting something covering more specifics for a given level editor (like 'how do you create water?' or 'how do you make displacements') you should probably look for something more in a technical bible or a video tutorial series for the tool in question.