Hello people, It’s Emanuel again with a special blog update.

In this post, I want to go over some things about me working as a level designer, and my thoughts of having this role.

I want to talk about how I learned, planned, and designed the levels to become better at level design so it will be like a recap of my work. In addition, I will give a short update on my current work-progress in the end of this blog.

My way of level design

When I first decided to work as a level designer, I was told that I needed to make massive research before beginning in the editor. So, I studied how to create narrative levels, fundamental workflows, and how to make a plan. This effort really has helped me to work smoother and widened my creativity. After I learned the basics, I began to make plans for each level by drawing blueprints, layouts, and collecting images of real places to better understand the visual of the level.

Meanwhile, I had a problem with a flowchart that I made for the group to let them know how the story goes through the levels. There were different opinions about how detailed the flowchart should be, so it made me a bit exhausted after spending much time iterating it. Anna then told me that I should continue working with the levels, while leaving the flowchart as it is for now, and so I did.

Practical techniques(Park level)

After I finished making the plans for the levels, I was then ready to make them in Unity where I was working with the park level using what I learned from my research. While I laid the foundation structure in the level, I felt like I knew exactly what to do, by watching the blueprint of the level and using practical techniques[Gif] that really helped me speed up my workflow. Everything was going great until I realized something I should’ve done before I designed the level, but it was already too late. I was supposed to begin with a basic form of the level, and doing the same thing for the other one so that I can iterate both of them at the same time. Instead I accidentally spent 5 weeks working with the park level and I wasted valuable time in this project because I wasn’t working in parallel.

My Thoughts about level design

“My job is to design a narrative level to convey certain emotions and immersion to the player.”

That’s how I would describe my work. So how does it feel for me to work as a level designer? Well, this role has its ups and downs when it comes to the iteration part, and it was hard for me to change the park I began with because I was too proud of it. But to be honest, I did have much fun working like this(not exactly for the park) and to find many creative ways to make the levels. In addition of learning the mistakes from this was very resourceful and which made me become better at level design. Like Shigeru Miyamoto said who created Super Mario Bros;

“Experience frustration and overcoming it through skill and practice are more rewarding than a well-crafted ending”

Conclusion

So here is the status report of my work with the levels so far; Both the park and Luna’s hideout are 85 percent ready. I am still waiting for Christopher to upload the last remaining 3D models of a street light pole, trash pin and a newsstand so that I can place them in the park. Right now I’ve added music and background sound to the levels, including sound effects for the main character. I’m currently putting the finishing touches on Luna’s hideout and I will tell you more about it, in the next blog which will be my last.

Luna’s hideout

Thank you for reading this and stay tuned.