Videogame level design is a field uniquely influenced by many different contextual factors. These encompass existing game designs, intended game experiences, and the platforms and tools in which a game is developed and levels constructed (Totten 2014). As such, level design has been particularly affected by platformisation (Nicoll and Keogh 2019), for example, a lack of ubiquity or standardisation in tools (Storm 2016). This has led designers to find multidisciplinary solutions that include repurposing software platforms, creating new design tools to replicate older methods and techniques (Rossen 2020), and use of iteratively developed features gradually integrated into major platforms over update cycles.
Because of these contextual factors what can be considered ‘best’ practices or even level design methods are in themselves a contested space. For educators teaching videogame level design these developments and questions present significant challenges; what can be considered appropriate or suitable when teaching level design concepts and techniques within a practically-oriented context? Challenges include questions of platform viability, tool accessibility, assumed technical knowledge, game context, and cultural relevance (Yang 2017). Responses may include eschewing digital environments to adopt paper-prototyping methods (Fullerton 2014), however within videogame level design these questions remain ever present.
As a lens into these questions I will describe a class in videogame Level Design offered at RMIT University, aimed towards students both accustomed to and unfamiliar with game design and development. Discussion will focus on how these challenges were negotiated to deliver a practically-oriented level design syllabus, and highlight insights found in an alternative framing of level design, oriented towards player experiences and multiple intermingled historic and contemporary contexts.
References:
Fullerton, Tracy. 2014. Game Design Workshop: A Playcentric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, Third Edition. 3 edition. Boca Raton, Florida, United States: A K Peters/CRC Press.
Nicoll, Benjamin, and Brendan Keogh. 2019. The Unity Game Engine and the Circuits of Cultural Software. Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-25012-6.
Rossen, Sander van. 2020. Tools Summit: Geometry in Milliseconds: Real-Time Constructive Solid Geometry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqmg4gblreo.
Storm, Robin-Yann. 2016. ‘Keeping Level Designers in the Zone Through Level Editor Design’. Presented at the Game Developers Conference, Game Developers Conference 2016. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brByJ5EVBn4.
Totten, Christopher W. 2014. An Architectural Approach to Level Design. Boca Raton: A K Peters/CRC Press. Yang, Robert. 2017. ‘Postcards from Unreal, Pt 2’. Blog. Radiator Design Blog (blog). 30 December 2017.