Game Level Design

Hi guys,

I'm doing a research project on game design and specifically level design.

I need to gather information on people's perception and opinions of levels within videos games and their good points/bad points.

So if you would like to help me out please just make a quick post and tell me;

Your age,
Your favourite 2 (or 3) levels from any computer game
What game the level(s) are from

Eventually this will culminate in me finishing writing my own guide to creating a level within coh/coh2 which I will gladly post on here once it is completed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks guys,

Dave

Hey Dave,

Im 25, been playing since Im 3(loooots of games, old and new).

Some of the most memorable ones, ill mention recent ones because im assuming your guide fouses on 3D level design:

-The Silent Cartographer from Halo:CE. It really showed what Halo was all about back then. Big level, vehicles, etc.

-The Forbidden Land in Shadow of the Cossus. Its amazingly diverse, and you get a sense that even though you have no idea where you are going(even with the guiding light), you are always heading and reaching exactly where you need to be.The Colossi themselves are levels too. Genius.

Those are some of the ones that come to mind, theres many more, and classic ones(de_dust, Dota map, metal gear).

Thanks for your reply man,
my research focuses primarily on how the role of designer has changed through the course of (modern) gaming. going from not being a specific job in itself to becoming a fully fledged profession.
The research also goes on to look at how game design has become more of a storytelling vehicle rather than just simply providing the player with increased level of difficulty as they progress.
as a side note, I also have begun to put some emphasis on how in game tutorials have almost killed off the user manual that used to accompany most games (although that is a personal annoyance on my behalf so i'll leave that there xD)

Your replies are good. SC on Halo I remember well. the active camo elite at the end was a ballache on legendary haha.
I never had the chance to play SotC on the ps2 but I have a feeling it is similar to some of the large-monster God of War levels.
So, player immersion and a sense of freedom are important to you in level design?

If anybody else has any views I'd love to get a discussion going. need data! xD

nice one

I'm 20, been playing since I was 3-4 I think.

The 3 maps I come to think of (hard to remember them all, but I guess the best remembered are probably the best. )

-Tsavo Highway, Halo 3
It's always fun to feel like you're making progress, and this map almost made the game feel open world. You had to get to Voi and get, here's a warthog and gl! Was pretty much all you got. Beautiful and very intense map.

-The Mace, Call of Duty 3

- Last stands are always awesome and this is one of my favorites. You fight a desperate, retreat up a hill as a small force of polish soldiers try to hold off the Germans. Very exciting and since there are actual characters I liked it made it all the more tense.

Helms Deep, Battle for Middle earth

-It's Helms deep, I don't know what more to say. It's a last stand as well as a castle defense vs a huge army of Uruks in a fantasy setting, I'm so sold. ^w^

To be fair I tried to fill it out with different games, but could've easily put almost every Halo map in there. The Pillar of Autumn, Halo, The Truth and Reconciliation, The silent cartographer, Assault on the Control Room, 343 Guilty Spark, The Covenant, The Ark, Crows nest, Floodgate and Halo the 2th.

Actually I just wanna play Halo now.

The research also goes on to look at how game design has become more of a storytelling vehicle rather than just simply providing the player with increased level of difficulty as they progress.
as a side note, I also have begun to put some emphasis on how in game tutorials have almost killed off the user manual that used to accompany most games (although that is a personal annoyance on my behalf so i'll leave that there xD)

Just a sidenot, as to not derail the original topic, but that is an EXTREMELY good point. I once read, I believe it was Cliff Bleszinski, talking about creating a game where no instruction manual is needed at all (that game was Gears of War, btw).

To me, instruction manuals were always an extension of the product, particularly in the 80's-90's where memory was so limited in gaming systems, that they placed the intro storylines in the manuals themselves. Heck, a lot of story info was exclusively found in there (Mortal Kombat profiles, Zelda profiles, maps, etc). Speaking of Halo, I still keep the original Halo: CE manual, simply because it said Spartans were designed and engineered specifically to capture enemy Coventant ships and weaponry and finding their homeworld before they found ours. That was it. No super soldier program, no army of Spartans. Oh, and it explicitly state dthat Master Chief was the very last one of them after Reach. This was all retconned after Halo 2

Good luck, and let me know if you have more requests. I didn't play God of War, although I did see some videos, this was before GoW, and it is not "exactly" the same, the feel and flow of the gameplay is less arcadish: