[Portfolio] - Tyler Lovemark, Level Designer
Hey there. Been updating my portfolio both with new content and with a new layout. I'm trying to get as many eyes to go over this as I can, as I'm graduating this term and wanna get the site as presentable as possible before I start sending out job inquiries. I'm looking for critiques both on the work itself and on the site, so let me know what you think.
http://tylerlovemark.com/
Thanks!
http://tylerlovemark.com/
Thanks!
Replies
Visually it looks awesome I'd say
It says that Secret Temple was made for the Cube Challenge, soo...how did you map place in the cube challenge? I guess it was some kind of competition?
on Overgrowth you wrote that you modeled some of the assets yourself but you need to show of the models then, wires and textures.
I do like the presentation and the way you show off the maps in a simplified top-view format. There really isn't anything telling us that your maps are great, like lots of people downloaded it or it was on some kind of leaderboard of most downloaded maps. So you created some of these maps, doing the whole map-builder thing, did you do the lighting for the games as well? Maybe you should mention that as well, how the lighting effects how the players visually interpretes the map etc, leads them to key-points of the maps.
In my opinion, good level design also deal with optimization, it's important to have that in mind for the creation of all maps. I mean, is there a point in your map where you can see the whole level? How will that affect gameplay?
You seem to have some professional experience as well, maybe you should have a page on your site showing off the games you've been working on.
The final question you should ask yourself is: What seperates you ; a level designer from an environment artist? That can both build, create his own art from scratch and design worlds?
Good work so far! Hope you find work in the future man!
A bunch of your environments are gorgeous whilst others, like Crash Site, are a bit lack luster. It seems to me that the art style should be of secondary importance to you since you want to highlight what a great designer you are.
You need to work more on your visual theory. Reseearch how spaces lead the player, how lighting affects where the player looks, things like that. Some areas of your levels are a morass of darkness that quickly become disorienting. Why don't your try to do a functional, attractive, almost grey-boxed level. This would show of you ability with shape, form, lighting, visual theory and, of course, the actual gameplay without art distracting and cluttering things up. And if you think that that will make your levels look ugly, watch this:
http://youtu.be/Jo2NAQ7-DFc
It's tricky applying as a level designer as the job can be radically different from company to company. Some companies use level designers almost like junior artists while others will restrict and discourage any kind of "artyness" on their levels and make them create pure game play spaces only (like the vr missions in MGS). And in other games companies its worth noting that they just have "designers" who do levels and core game play design as well. Oh and there are companies that want level designers when what they really want is game play scripters who can do basic coding.
Most level design portfolios ive seen only seem to be a gallery of pretty pictures and look more like artist portfolios, so i think it's good that you are also demonstrating that you have a broader range of skills and that you demonstrate an understanding on the "design" part of level creation.
My only advice is consider very carefully what interests you the most. Is it making things look pretty or making things play fun? Of course the answer can also be both! but its worth researching each company you apply to to try and get an idea of what sort of level designer they want. You could also consider changing some of the main page banners to show design documents rather then just pretty pictures but again it depends on who you are applying too
Some of the more consistent comments I've been hearing is that it's often hard to look past the art in the levels and see the design work. I guess that may be a leftover thing on my end since I started out doing more environment art type work and then moved over into level design. I almost think it might be worth to start up a blog where I can post my work on levels on a week-by-week basis, then link that to my portfolio if anyone wants to see more of the design process. Then again, that just makes more links for people to click on, which isn't always a great thing. Eh, I'm exploring some possibilities with this one.
I've also started work on a TF2 map, and it's a little easier to show off the raw design of those type of maps since they tend to be not as populated with art assets when compared to other map styles (especially anything single-player). I won't be able to get it up on the site for at least a few weeks, but it's good to know what people want to see.