The Roles of a Level Designer?

LightUrple

Hey guys,

I have a serious question that I need answering. So I'm a 3rd year student in a Game Development program and I am looking to be a level designer once I'm out of school. I am currently brainstorming for my final BIG project, and am getting a little lost. I thought it would be best if I just came here and asked the professionals.

I have a bunch of ideas floating around, but when ever I look up how I would go about doing these things I keep finding people that say I would need to program it and then another group will claim I can use kismet. I need to a solid definition of what needs programming and what needs kismet. For my final project I was thinking of making a custom vehicle in UDK and then designing a really cool race track for it (like F-Zero). After some research I can safely say that the custom vehicle will need to be programmed. Another one of my ideas was to make some slightly more intelligent AI, that would take cover when taken to much damage and what not. Once again I'm getting mixed reviews.

I watched a video that made it seem like I could kismet the AI to do that, but then other people say that you have to program it.

I am not the best programmer in the world.....

In fact I know very little about the subject, which leads me to my next question. I would really like to know where the line is drawn. How much do level designers script in kismet, and how much do they actually code? My definition of a level designer from what iv seen on job postings and what not, is someone that can lay out creative and fun levels for the player to move through. The designer must also have scripting skills (not sure if that's programming or kismet), in order to create fun situations (encounters, puzzles, ext) for the player to enjoy.

I really need help and would love is a level designer could reply to this and give me a solid definition as to what they do during day to day work (and as a whole).

Thanks guys, I look forward to hearing from you.

hobodactyl

It really depends on where you're trying to find a job and everything. You're talking about designing an F-Zero track, then talking about AI taking cover, so I'm assuming FPS or 3rd person. If you're trying to get your foot in the door, focus on something to be good at, because most companies are looking for a cog to fit into their machine, not a jack of all trades. Kismet is usually considered visual scripting, but UnrealScript is considered scripting, not programming (generally).

I would recommend making a strong portfolio showing FPS level design and focusing on that, since it's pretty flexible for showing off what you're capable of. If you can make a level for a popular multiplayer game that is fun to play that can be a really good start. Don't try creating a new game just to show your level design skills

Hopefully that's not too scatter-brained, and good luck!

Habboi

Well if I were asked to make a level design portfolio I would probably have it filled with paper sketches, level layouts, paper models / prototypes, a non-textured blocked out level and a video of a scripted scene like "enemies kicking down a door after player picks up key and shooting up the place".

But it doesn't hurt to have a few pretty levels either. You may find yourself working for a smaller company that needs you to not only block out a level but pretty it up.

Tulkamir

IMO - if you want to be a level designer, definitely learn to script.

Even Kismet is a visual scripting language, which still requires an aptitude for scripting to be proficient in.

For a definition of my daily work and the like... It depends a bit of the project, studio and point in production. But generally it involves designing and planning encounters, events, missions, or gameplay systems and then implementing those designs through a combination of scripting and in-editor work.

As you seem to be interested in the scripting bit, the amount has varied a bit for me. At R* I was almost exclusively a scripter (as were most level designers on that project). At Relic, I still script more than anything else, but it is interspersed with a lot of layout work and such. There are also some designers here who spend more time doing layouts than anything else, so like I said, it varies.

Though in all cases, a level designer should be a good scripter IMO. It helps with all kinds of things, even if it's just so you can communicate better with programmers and have a better idea of the work involved in a design.

Oh, just to be clear - Programming is more low-level coding and deals with the source code and functionality of the game and it's engine. It uses languages like C++ and requires a more in depth knowledge. Scripting is higher level and usually uses simplified languages that are interpreted by the code. Basically, scripting defines how the functionality that has been coded in will be used in the game. So a scripting language may be a visual language like Kismet, or a more traditional text-based language like unrealscript or lua. What you described would mostly be able to be done with scripting (combo of kismet and unrealscript) in unreal I believe.

LightUrple

That made me feel so much better XD. Alright so kismet is considered to be scripting then. That is awesome news. I'm going to try and focus more on the level designs and in game events then, and scrap the car idea. BTW, the bots and the car I was talking about were to separate ideas for the same project, just in case I confused anyone.

Thanks guys for your comments, it REALLY helped me get things together

passerby

ya kismet is just a visual scripting language, unless you need to write some custom functions it should do the job for you.

though kismet does have a lot of restrictions on how it can interact with other systems of UDK, like it isnt possible to manipulate a vector para mater of a material with kismet but you can get around that by making a scirpt to do so than calling hte script with kismet, or change the parameter in maniatnee and calling the animation with kismet.