How do you design your level?
You think of a game. You think it's gonna be awesome and everybody's gonna praise for the gameplay, your game art. Then you create your character, your props, your weapons. Then comes the world and you stop. You never thought about the world your character is going to be in. Is he new to the world? Is he familiar with the world? How is your character related to the world? Why is he here? You never researched about that, did you? This is the same problem I'm facing right now. I can't think of how to start with the world.
So, i'm asking this forum filled with experts, how do you come up with a world that is going to relate with the character you created? Do you create your character first and then think of a world or the world first and then think of your character. What steps do you take to make sure you don't hit a "Stop sign"?(Stop sign, right?) Do you take reference of your world from the real world or just start up maya and start with a plane and expand on it.
As for me I am making a game on a driver, who's on a place like san francisco Bullit, Starsky and Hutch, GTA San Andreas, anyone? And that's about it. So where do I go from here?
So, i'm asking this forum filled with experts, how do you come up with a world that is going to relate with the character you created? Do you create your character first and then think of a world or the world first and then think of your character. What steps do you take to make sure you don't hit a "Stop sign"?(Stop sign, right?) Do you take reference of your world from the real world or just start up maya and start with a plane and expand on it.
As for me I am making a game on a driver, who's on a place like san francisco Bullit, Starsky and Hutch, GTA San Andreas, anyone? And that's about it. So where do I go from here?
Replies
Basically, like anything in art, you're going to have to start with the broad strokes and the gradually, gradually work towards more refined. Spend some time defining the main gameplay and aesthetic goals you want to accomplish with your world. For example, for a game like GTA4, they wanted multiple islands, certain landmarks (Time Square, Central Park, etc), bridges they could close off for progression, terrain height changes, etc. Design out the things you eventually want. Then get a street grid and some grey boxes in place of buildings and start tuning layout against your movement and other gameplay mechanics. Gradually introduce new passes letting the desired gameplay goals and the desired aesthetic goals (that you laid out in step 1) drive the decisions you make.
In other words, in my opinion, you have to let the end result (the fun of the game) drive the design of the world and then start simple and gradually work towards complexity.
The things you have to keep in mind is the setting, the key elements of the city that pertain to style and the gameplay, and how you're going to handle it once it's in game.
What I've done with my project is started designing the city in 'districts'. I started drawing up a very basic map of how the completed city should look, then broke it up into these districts. At that point, I started drawing somewhat detailed maps of how these districts will look, starting from the outside on how it will connect to other districts, and then working on details from the outside - in.
After that, I started prioritizing buildings and designing them individually. Once they are complete, they go into Unity and I place them according to my map I drew earlier. A very key thing to remember for me is to keep as many pieces as I can modular.
It might also do you some good to make a grid of sorts when designing your map, so you can position things appropriately once inside your editor of choice.
Good luck!
Is it good thing to design certain part of the map to a detailed area and move over to another area or box out the whole area?
Finish each levels gameplay aspects 1st. Like Boxing it out. Testing the routes, collision, and look for other game breaking issues. Write down some key goals and a plan on how to meet them. Take your time, and get the core gameplay down before adding the paint and shiny things. Then once you get all that going good. Then you add the Pretty stuff.
As a Level designer, you are the person who makes the gameplay interesting and fun. And that comes out in the gameplay to the player, not the pretty stuff. The 3d Artist is always gets the glory for the Pretty stuff.
If you do both the level design and 3d modeling, and then implement them well. Then you have created a Masterpiece in my eyes.
I am rambling now,
Lee
You are trying to model an entire city. San Fransisco to be exact. What is this for? A portfolio piece? If so, then pick something smaller in scope.
Story time.
I met a guy a few months ago, a new animator just learning the ropes, who spent a YEAR making this super shitty replica of Detroit. He told me he spent week's walking the city shooting thousands of photo's for textures and references.
I asked him, "So what sort of modeling and texturing techniques did you use to speed up development?" He looked puzzled, so I decided to phrase a question that was more or less a statement of there being easier ways to do that. "Like, did you use modular geometry? Did you use tileable textures gathered from any of the reference photo's you shot? By the way, have you heard of Google Street view? Have you heard of Urban Pad?"
He just starred at me like I had a mouth full of marsh mellows. My heart broke for the guy. Not understanding a word I was saying, like I was the noob here, he said he modeled everything uniquely and used the reference photo's of entire buildings as his texture source.
Moral of the story? If you're going to do a project of this scope, don't be a dumbass. Do San Fransisco, but only make the buildings that make San Fran stick out unique. Otherwise, create some generic modular building pieces (for example, walls that you can change out so you can mix and match the 4+ walls of buildings) for the rest of the city. I'd say if it's not a relevant part of your story, take artistic liberties and don't even worry about replicating the area the player is in. I mean, think about how many people know every inch of SF... it's not very many people. Your player base won't know the difference. Create a few good textures, learn to use texturing techniques to make buildings look unique (even if the modularity is the same), and go to town. Even as someone new and figuring stuff out, you should be able to knock out a gray boxing of the city in a few weeks using that technique. And if you happened to jump on that Urban Pad deal when it was out, it could be days. But definitely don't get started on the texturing until you like where your models are at and you get to see your scene comp. Best of luck.
I could not have said it better myself.
Modular model sets and reusable textures are very important when building a huge level. Saves you time, and creates a very fast workflow. If you are going into level design, please make sure you do extensive research on modular design before continuing. It will save you days of anguish and heart ache.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2992/gdc_2002_realistic_level_design_.php
LOL
@ Stradigos : I'm not trying to replicate San Francisco. I'm saying my world somewhat resembles it. Anyway you do put a very good point. I had never heard of those techniques and I do need to learn those stuffs. Can you point me to the technique you mentioned? I need to learn those. My city is much like a pixelated city, a cartoon city and my player drives his car around the city. Thinking about it I was going to model a big city but now i'm thinking about doing just a small district.
@PolyHertz : So true.. so I distant myself from FPS games these days. The only FPS game I truly admired for its level is Half-Life 2.
This is my level I came up with. My player is going to be 1/3 of the box height and the box is rough size for a house. The black line are the alley ways. So what technique should I use to build this level?
http://www.scottjonescg.co.uk/FYPResearch/Investigation_into_modular_design_within_computer_games_v1.0.pdf
This whole thread, but I want to show you how excellent the texturing is on page 7: http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=39&t=444791&page=7&pp=15#post4855106
There is great resources all around, including our Wiki. Just use search terms like "Modularity, Modular, Environments, Design" and you should find what you need.
There are few more environment artists here who have very good stuff on their portfolio to learn from, if you are willing to learn the way I do.
In terms of making your own thing. I would say, take a picture of an ideal place and draw over it. Like, take a picture of a room, than just take a thick brush in photoshop and make psudo sketch and notes about what prop is going to go where to add stuff in that environment.
The process is pretty simple. Watch, get inspired, take pictures, draw stuff upon them, implement that concept in 3d.
For starters, this seems alot easier for me.
If I am making a medieval stuff like castle, or demon's domain type of environment than I have to spend more time just sketching things out than just taking pictures and modifying it a little bit to get the idea of your prospective for the concept of environment.
Good luck
EDIT: Ofcourse I delete them after so that I can pace up the stuff in the next attempt.