We can learn about individual principles (like "form follows function") all day long, but there's something that's different when you see it all applied in practice. Maybe it's a mindset or attitude thing, or just how to balance the ideas together, but something just clicks together when I watch these videos where you walk through your whole process like this that I don't get from other types of videos.
This is so great to see and validate some intuitions I have when I approach my level design and sketching. This helps amazingly with confidence, thank you very much!
LOL! I've been watching a few of your videos over the past few days because I've been making some Doom 2 levels over the past few weeks in an exercise to teach myself the Doom Builder tools. I had not realised you posted a video five days ago actually designing a level yourself! This video's going to be extremely useful!!!
Thank you so much, Steve! It's such a pleasant and invaluable thing, watching a legend like you going into the level of details about your thinking and designing your levels, and for such a classic game, no less. Thank you so much, again! I made notes and screenshots of your principles as I watched you work. I'm your avid student from Russia, very grateful, with a dream and a goal of making a side-scroller Doom-like retro shooter game :)
@@stevelee_gamedevAwesome! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. Learning from you gives me hope that I will be able to create a nice game that will captivate players, one day.
I love these videos. Are there any resources regarding design fundamentals like shape design and flow of player movement for map design? We’d always hear about Romero’s love of ‘U’ shaped rooms, but is there a broader theory and education beyond the mapping community just trying to figure it out by themselves each time?
Hello Steve, good video. I have a question that I believe you have yet to address, and one which you might want to consider for a short video. - My question is: - How does level design relate to story telling? The way I see it, a level can be great to play (mechanically), but if the story isn't immersive, then the player will get bored. All the games you've talked about and that we know you've worked on, have good story lines. HL2, the game about the little girl adventure game, Dishonored, etc, all great stories. So, how does does a level designer actually design a level without a story behind it? How does a level designer even know what to do, or what to design at all, if there isn't a story for which to design? - Do you see my point? I believe that being a good level designer is being able to take a story and create the mechanics and environment to immerse the player into that story. Like what you did for your first job, you created a short story about Alex having been captured and you had to rescue her. You were able to create entire level with gameplay, because you had a story. - So, the major question is -- how does the story relate to the level design process? Thank you for your comments, they help a lot.
I know what the word means, but I'm not really sure what to say about it in the context of level design. Have you seen my video / GDC talk about Holistic Level Design in Dishonored 2 though? That might be relevent to what you have in mind: th-cam.com/video/NO1lvc3ikXE/w-d-xo.html
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 86 | คู่เอก "คมเพชร vs ชาติพยัคฆ์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/m3q_dRYDuU8/mqdefault.jpg)
Nice, the first "Here's how I design a level in HL2" series was one of the most helpful videos I think I ever found on TH-cam, can't wait to see more!
Great to hear - hope you enjoy this one (and Part 2, when it comes) :)
We can learn about individual principles (like "form follows function") all day long, but there's something that's different when you see it all applied in practice. Maybe it's a mindset or attitude thing, or just how to balance the ideas together, but something just clicks together when I watch these videos where you walk through your whole process like this that I don't get from other types of videos.
Great to hear Carl, thanks :)
I'm not even a level designer, I'm a musician, but I love these.
Haha, great to hear :)
thank you so much for this!!! You're providing the best level design content on youtube!
Aww, thanks :)
Thank you for reminding everybody what TRUE "level design" means. I enjoyed your Half-Life series a lot so this was will be a banger for sure also
Precious precious content, thank you for sharing your reasonings
This is so great to see and validate some intuitions I have when I approach my level design and sketching. This helps amazingly with confidence, thank you very much!
Great to hear :)
Nice depiction of your process.
Can't wait for part 2
LOL! I've been watching a few of your videos over the past few days because I've been making some Doom 2 levels over the past few weeks in an exercise to teach myself the Doom Builder tools. I had not realised you posted a video five days ago actually designing a level yourself! This video's going to be extremely useful!!!
Good to hear / hope so - cheers :)
Thank you so much, Steve! It's such a pleasant and invaluable thing, watching a legend like you going into the level of details about your thinking and designing your levels, and for such a classic game, no less.
Thank you so much, again! I made notes and screenshots of your principles as I watched you work. I'm your avid student from Russia, very grateful, with a dream and a goal of making a side-scroller Doom-like retro shooter game :)
Cheers Alexander, glad you like the videos - parts 2 and 3 coming soon(ish) :)
@@stevelee_gamedevAwesome! Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and experience. Learning from you gives me hope that I will be able to create a nice game that will captivate players, one day.
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
need this great content
Looking forward to the building videos and how the design will change (if at all?).
Narrator: It does.
amazing, thanks!
I love these videos. Are there any resources regarding design fundamentals like shape design and flow of player movement for map design? We’d always hear about Romero’s love of ‘U’ shaped rooms, but is there a broader theory and education beyond the mapping community just trying to figure it out by themselves each time?
Hello Steve, good video. I have a question that I believe you have yet to address, and one which you might want to consider for a short video. - My question is: - How does level design relate to story telling? The way I see it, a level can be great to play (mechanically), but if the story isn't immersive, then the player will get bored. All the games you've talked about and that we know you've worked on, have good story lines. HL2, the game about the little girl adventure game, Dishonored, etc, all great stories. So, how does does a level designer actually design a level without a story behind it? How does a level designer even know what to do, or what to design at all, if there isn't a story for which to design? - Do you see my point? I believe that being a good level designer is being able to take a story and create the mechanics and environment to immerse the player into that story. Like what you did for your first job, you created a short story about Alex having been captured and you had to rescue her. You were able to create entire level with gameplay, because you had a story. - So, the major question is -- how does the story relate to the level design process? Thank you for your comments, they help a lot.
Hey Steve, can you talk a little about Gestalt for level design?
I know what the word means, but I'm not really sure what to say about it in the context of level design. Have you seen my video / GDC talk about Holistic Level Design in Dishonored 2 though? That might be relevent to what you have in mind: th-cam.com/video/NO1lvc3ikXE/w-d-xo.html
Hi Steve, do you have any release schedule for the other parts?
There'll only be one more part, and it's the video I'm working on at the moment :) Hope to be done within the next couple of weeks 👍