I’ve been trying to design levels for a platform game and it’s seriously not fun… ARGH!!! My Thursday afternoon ranting… [import]uid: 39031 topic_id: 24777 reply_id: 324777[/import]
maybe try to make it random. Then you need no leveldesign;) [import]uid: 86417 topic_id: 24777 reply_id: 100446[/import]
Oh man, level design - it is one of the most tedious aspects of game development, I think. [import]uid: 52491 topic_id: 24777 reply_id: 100521[/import]
At many game companies, level design is a full time position, and possibly multiple designers per game. [import]uid: 19626 topic_id: 24777 reply_id: 100550[/import]
Yeah, I am finding that out slowly… It’s worse than fixing bugs in code! well, almost.
As much as I like the idea of randomization, I can’t use it as my game is somewhat strategic.
Oh, how am I going to fill 60 levels of this… [import]uid: 39031 topic_id: 24777 reply_id: 100575[/import]
To me level design is a individually unique art form. To put this into perspective, think about Steve Jobs. There was only ONE Steve Jobs, and if you read his biography by walter isaacson, you will know what I am talking about. It’s a GREAT read. I highly recommend you read that book, as it has nothing to do with game design but EVERYTHING to do with game design in an abstract way.
He was always fascinated with things like making the “unseen” parts just as good as the outside parts, even though nobody ever saw the inside. That came at a price and he was always at war with people over design, he had 100’s of designers under him and was always telling them it was crap, whatever it was they were doing, except when it wasn’t.
Imagine if he never went back to apple, and imagine the devices we would have now. I bet things would be very different. You can make the argument of “Well people studied under him and can now copy” ok FINE. They can COPY, but that’s only copying PAST work and not innovating.
Now, lets think about game design. YOU and YOU alone can really change things up and make things unique. Don’t undervalue your thoughts, you can really sidetrack yourself that way. Before I started with Corona SDK, I wanted to design games for YEARS. I’m 36 now, and I wish I started doing games when I was teenager back when there was 286’s pc’s out and early macs…grr. I never coded before in any language, and now that I do I realized that I could have done this years ago. I’ve picked up Lua, and C++ and some obj C. I started coding in June 2011, so not even a year and I’m OK with those languages, but I can see the potential.
I just undervalued my brain and figured “oh I’m not good at that”. Well guess what, nobody (I am sure there are exceptions haha) is ever good at anything the first time. I realized that I had a somewhat good thing designing levels, but I also realize my “worlds” are unique in the fact they focus on one shape only. That’s a secret for now.
Also, in my game I am FASCINATED with a certain number. Therefore all the elements in each level can be divided into my favorite number. The number of levels is also the same way, it can divide evenly into my favorite number. This put a lot of “constraints” on me, but if you think about it you can design “rules” for your “world” and adhere to those.
For your platformer game, I’m sure you played a lot of games. I’m sure you played Mario Bros, the GRAND DADDY of all platformers. What makes it fun? What makes it challenging? Sometimes, when you think TOO hard about design, you force it and will be pissed off by the outcome. I find that since nature is at times random, I have a tendency to design the “shell” of the level (walls, ground, etc and such) at random. Then the elements I place strategically, or you could do it reverse.
It may take you large volumes of design and redesign, throwing it all away starting over changing art styles, tossing it out and redoing it over and over again.
Don’t think for a SECOND that is WASTED TIME. In fact, all those things you started over on, trashed, repeated, redesigned over and over again will help you in the long run. It’s getting your brain “ready”. I used to get MAD that I had to redo things…again…and…again…grrrr. Now I look at is “training” it’s an opportunity to get better.
There was some video I saw that REALLY inspired me, and I just spent the last 10 minutes searching for it. It’s something to do with doing large volumes of work,a your early work will most likely suck but it’s not until you really do a LOT of work will things start to shape up better for you.
Holy crap that was long post, but I wanted to get it out there as I know what you are saying, but you can improve and you do have the power to change it. I know, sounds cheesy and something out of some inspirational video but that’s how I see it 
-Ng
ps. WEeeEEEEEeeEEeEeEeeEEeeeeEEEeEEEeeeeEeEEeeEe!
I SAID WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
lol. [import]uid: 61600 topic_id: 24777 reply_id: 100586[/import]
LOL, that was a long post.
I have played a lot of games since the Ultima series started (don’t ask if you don’t know what I am talking about 
That actually is working against me because of my ambition to make something that’s ‘different’ but at the same time I find myself mimicking those games that I played and get frustrated at not being original. [import]uid: 39031 topic_id: 24777 reply_id: 100599[/import]