Top 5 Tips for Game Level Design

The success of a game depends on how much players love it. This is linked to various aspects, and one of them is the game levels. If a game has interesting levels tied to the game's storyline, it becomes a hit among audiences. When we talk about game levels, they include gameplay, storyline, and character design. A well-structured game level is a market hit.

Let's look at some of the key principles that can help in video game level development.

Understanding Limitations

When designing a game level, you will encounter various limitations. Therefore, understanding the key limitations can help you avoid potential issues you may face in the future. As a game developer in India, you should understand the possible limitations that stand in your way. These include legal, business, engine, franchise, art and creativity, as well as audience limitations. Regardless of the type of games, these common limitations cut the work in half.

Get Inspired by Ideas

Once you've identified the limitations, start brainstorming. Think about the game's storyline or theme, it will give you an idea because the thought in a designer's mind turns into a playable level. The simplest and easiest way to generate ideas is to change your perception of an everyday location, turning it into a game space. And any idea that naturally draws you to explore is the one you should implement. Other ways to find ideas include comics, concept art, photography magazines and books, paintings, and stock photo websites.

Connect the ideas to the game's storyline or theme and narrow them down to small stages within the level. This will make it easier to manage your work. Remember, the main goal is to engage the audience in the game. Challenge the players, entertain them. How to do this? Simply increase the difficulty level of the game. Gradually increase the challenges, as if raising the game's complexity.

At each level, you should be able to showcase different elements. This can be done by introducing a new enemy or weapon, or character abilities, or bonuses. These are various elements you can incorporate into level design to increase player interest.

Start Rendering

Once the level parameters are ready, the final element will be rendering the level design. Don't forget about the game's vision as well. Because from a results perspective, it can be more beneficial. Use it when developing the game structure. Where will the action take place, consider the environment, location, and game theme? Another effective way is to divide the levels into sections, as this will serve as an outline for the map. After that, just make a simple sketch with simple numbers and shapes to show the level flow.

Use simple arrows to show the character's movement in different parts of the level. When you feel the order of level flow in each section, it's time to detail the map. Let this draft version be on paper, as it is easy to change at any moment.

After completing the draft, illustrate or draw a 2D overview of the layout, because this is the simplest way to convey the game's vision at this stage. When illustrating the draft, be sure to do it in relative size. The relative size of all objects in the section, as well as the relative size of the section itself. Once finished, you can add platforms, enemies, and obstacles. The reason for adding all elements at this stage is that they will be easy to arrange with editing tools. Additionally, at this stage you can continue adding places for bonuses, elevated platforms, or enemy spawn points.

Create a Task List

Creating a task list will help organize a series of completed tasks and those yet to be done, create assets and other things that need to be done. Keeping records will help track progress without rushing. To make the list simple and clear, divide it into different blocks. An asset list where you can record particle effects, textures, materials, 3D models, audio/sound effects. A production list which will sequentially display the pipeline of what to work on. Project management consists of documents or lists of ongoing processes, such as errors/bugs to fix, notes, and what needs to be done next.

Final Stage

So far you've been working on the design, and when you start playing the game, you may discover many areas that need improvement or change. Play, play like you've never played before, and look for all the elements the game should provide. Check how fun, engaging, interesting the game is and whether it contains challenging elements.

By following these steps, you will have a solid foundation for designing game levels. Designing is a very enjoyable job, enjoy it.