Category Game Design
All about game design.
Contents
Pages in This Category
Game Design
This section is about designing the overall experience for the player.
Game Pitches repository for video game pitches and design documents - by Jon Jones
Design Techniques and Ideals from The Art of Computer Game Design - by Chris Crawford
Visual Semiotics - from Wikipedia
Environments involve the player more if they have several layers of thinking behind their design.What is a visual metaphor? - from Answers.com
Level Design
This section is about designing game environments, also called "levels".
World of Level Design.com, a website/blog about game environment art and game level design for first person shooters.
GDC 2011 Transcript: Motivating Players in Open World Games by Joel Burgess
GDC 2008: Level Design Challenges in Crysis: The Long Journey to Open Worlds by Sten Huebler, Lead Designer, Crytek
Dave's Mapper, an automatic mapping tool by David Millar
Applying the Elements of Design and Principles of Design in Level Art by Jeremy Price
Gears Of War Multiplayer Map Theory by Lee Perry
GDC 2010: “What Happened Here?” – Environmental Storytelling by Harvey Smith and Matthias Worch
Architecture: Form, Space, and Order ($) by Francis D.K. Ching
Level Design Help Files, a collection of help sites for level design themed files - from the MapCore forums
!Dead Link! Environment Artist: The Story Teller - by Adam "adamBrome" Bromell
How To Develop A Map That Works - from The Valve Developer Community
Map Planning - from the Unreal Wiki
Ben's Small Bible of Realistic Multiplayer Level Design (PDF) by Benjamin Bauer
What Is Level Design? - by Sérgio Duarte
Level Design: Concept, Theory, and Practice ($) - by Rudolf Kremers (free preview: Chapter 7 - Reward Systems)
The Hows and Whys of Level Design ($) - by Sjoerd 'hourences' De Jong (reviewed here)
Unreal Engine 3 tutorials, game industry articles, level design/art/technical tutorials - by Sjoerd 'hourences' De Jong. A ton of tutorials and articles about designing levels with the Unreal Technology.
LEVEL-DESIGN.org - by 'seir'. Information related to level art and design; for mappers, level designers, environment artists, and any kind of world designer.
Maintaining the suspension of disbelief... Polycount forum thread. Discussion about the importance of using imperfection to create believable worlds.
Level Design Video Tutorials - from 3DBuzz. A ton of useful tutorials and design tips about creating levels.
Game Design Blogs
Life of a Design Monkey - a blog by Mark Davies, game designer at Ninja Theory
Random Encounters in Imaginary Realms - a blog by an anonymous game designer
Lost Garden - a blog by Danc, game designer
CliffyB.com - a blog by Cliff Bleszinski, game designer at Epic Games
Level Design - a blog by David Alexander Johnston, freelance game designer