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Neil Alphonso on the Science and Art of Level Design
Level design has traditionally been one of the most accessible areas of game development for amateurs, with many shooters offering level editors as part of their SDK. However, while tools have become seemingly easier to use over the past few years, maps and mods are taking increasingly longer to produce. Professional mystery solver Jim Rossignol took it upon himself to find out exactly why that is and recruited Splash Damage's Lead Level Designer Neil 'Exedore' Alphonso to help him.
The resulting article features plenty of insights from Neil, including how he got his start in the industry, what game levels have inspired him over the years, and, of course, the fundamental issue that drove Jim out there in the first place: Why are the tools easier and yet levels take longer to make? Find out that and more in Jim's full write-up over at TechRadar.
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Comments
Modding and development will always be pretty different, the pipeline really isn't all that similar when you're still making the rest of the pieces of the game.
p.s.
and also like NA-made Shadow Ops game. especially Russian levels.
It is like trying to see out of a really dirty window. It wouldn't have bothered me so much if it didn't seem like Neil said a bunch of really cool and informative shi... stuff that just got edited out.
I don't think he really left too much out from what I remember, but if there's more you want to know, maybe just... ask here?
with sound, which resemble somewhat, original birds, sounds
actually this game is more activon-driven, than usual for PC[ie, "game for spinal brain"] and with plenty of scripted AI activity[with some degree of randomness], but storyline help keep you in, like activision tried in their MW1/2 and RS6/7.
some things in level design reveal serious research made by team :-)
and partially resemble real facilities somewhat
Oddly, we redid the look of all the Russian levels to make them more fictional-GoldenEye-ish from what they were originally, as we had people visit the actual site and take lots of source photos. Basically nobody in the US believed that the space centre there looked like a 70s era school, so we had to fiction it up a bit.
Your comparisons are bang-on, as it was intended to be a Medal of Honor type game but in modern times, so essentially the same premise as MW... just by a tiny indie studio.
Not quite the same level in the end!
thats typical 4 commercial games.
no, i mean not space centre itself, thre alot of actually similar[to real-World] facilities
actually [underground]industry/science/intel cities.
game market share/sales/opinions ? i suspect mainly 4 same reasons, 4 which, ETQW miss sales[more than deserves].
so with proper PR it can be more successful[and with less conlose-ish AI, maybe]. only weak contribution made [2 PR]is by ...AMD corp ;)
p.s.
in Russia, game almost banned for same reasons, why MW2 almost.
you shot internal troops[sorta ATF/NSA mix counterpart here. heavily armed and heavily trained. targeted to insurgent supressions and[mainly]counter intel during wartime/peacetime and closed areas sentry]infantrymens in Siberian levels.
hilariously, most [well-made]games get best PR from ... pirated copies, but SO:RM is exclusion, because copies have are so... terrifying quality... maybe this hurts too.
p.p.s.
immerson[not only b-cause movies]is good, IMO.
especially like[aside Siberian]Paris and Chechnya levels
and even "Easy" diff setting make some challenge for spinal brain :-P
Thank you. When I can think of something intelligent (or even semi-intelligent