My level design intro course lecture: assignment description Video at slide 16: https://youtu.be/w_x5wI3PNZA Video at slide 25: https://youtu.be/OPIwVcOe3k0

1. LEVEL DESIGN
Spring 2019
Petri Lankoski

2. LEARNING GOALS
• Describe what level-design is
• Summarize theories and methods of level design
• Apply theories and methods of level design in practical design work
• Design and develop levels using the core mechanics and overall vision of the game

3. WHAT
• A level (a scene) to a bigger game (group)
• Opposition (written, oral) to another group’s level (group, as PDF), deadline
2019/05/03
• Report (individually, as PDF), deadline 2019/05/03
• Literature review (deadline for the 1st draft: 2019/04/05)
• Development diary
• Post mortem
• NOTE: all should return their written opposition along their report
• Levels (and their versions) via perforce
• Report and written opposition via islearning as PDF

4. QUESTIONS ABOUT COURSE
Use Q&A forum to ask questions and clarification
Email ok if your question is personal

5. ROLES
• Lead team
• Provide overall design
• How levels (scenes) comes together
• Provides guidelines what a level should do and contain
• Work to ensure that levels match to overall design
• Playtest levels during the development
• Check that level contains aspects that they should and not deviate from the design
• Level team
• Each team (one designer, one graphic) builds a level (a scene)
• Handle testing their own level
• Participate testing the whole game

6. • You are building a game together
• Cooperation is essential to create something
• That works technically as whole
• Have coherent look-and-feel
• That levels/scenes makes sense when they are put together
• You are level designers
• You are not game designers during this project
• You get the game design you are supposed to use in you level design
• You get back story that you are supposed to use
• This is your change to work in a bigger production during this education

7. COURSE TIMELINE
Week What
Week 1 Lectures, Literature review
Lead team starts with preproduction (lead team starts dev diary)
Week 2-4 Concept workshop, preproduction sprint, production sprints, quality sprints
One day for preparing oral opposition
During these week you keep development diary
Week 5 Writing the repost

8. PROJECT TIMELINE IN DETAIL
When What What should come out
Week 2, day 1 and 2 Preproduction sprint Concept art, spatial studies, level design
sketch
Week 2-3 Production sprints Tested playable after each sprint
Scenes must be connected before the
end of 12/3
The levels should not have null reference
exceptions or other critical issues at the
end of a sprint
Week 4 Quality sprint Tested, complete game that can be
completed.

9. REPRODUCTION PRINT
• Concept art and level sketches should be
• Visible in MC523
• Uploaded to Plans and Concept Art folder on islearning

10. LITERATURE REVIEW MUST COVER
• Landmarks, paths, nodes, edges, districts, critical path
• Narrow, intimate space, arrivals, labyrinth, maze, rhizome,
• Prospect, refugees, anticipation
• Rewards (especially vistas & narrative stages)
• Expressive design, narrative space & environmental art storytelling
• Level flow, variety, intensity ramping, training
• Role of research in level design
• Gameplay diagram, spatial studies
• Lights: visibility & emphasis, mood, composition, plausibility, reinforcement, revelation of form, punctuation, story
• Plus three other aspects that you think is relevant your design work

11. DEVELOPMENT DIARY
• Kept during project time
• No need to writing during the 1st week unless you are in
lead team
• No need to write during 5th week
• What
• Date
• Hours worked
• Tasks I worked on
• Reflections
Example
• Date: 2014/10/23
• Hours worked: 4 hours
• Tasks I worked on:
• Environment design & modeling
• Reflections:
• We wanted to create a sense of big space and making a
player feeling him/herself small. We used high angle (cf
Piaskiewicz, 2014) for that effect by placing a very high
mountain in the middle of the level. The main color of
level is gray stone and green. To focus players attention
to landmarks, red is used in landmarks to contrast the
landmarks from the rest of the environment (cf.
Piaskiewicz, 2014).

12. POST MORTEM
• Introduction
• Explain your level (goals for level and short description about level) and
development process in introduction.
• What went right (five rights)
• What and why
• What went wrong (five wrongs)
• What and why
• Conclusions
• Explain here what are the most important things you learned from what went
right and what went wrong in terms of learning goals of the course.
Includeconceptart,
floorplans,etc.

13. REDOVISNING
Written (in groups)
• Introduction
• Given an overview of the level(s)
• What works
• What and why
• What could be improved
• What and why
• Conclusions
• Summarise your evaluation
• References
Oral
• Present the level(s)
• Use images
• Give your feedback
• What works
• What could be improved
• Summarize
Use literature in your evaluations when possible!

14. THE GAME

15. GAME BRIEF
• The PC (a cyborg), a spy, is trapped in a cell in a research space station conducting
illegal human experiments. She has been there a long while after the crew vanished.
The PC started hibernation to keep oneself alive. When the cell door starts to
malfunction, her system woke her up. After wandering around in the space station
she finds dead crew members and monsters (who are crew members turned to
monsters). The monsters try to kill the PC if they spot her. She can only sneak and
try to avoid the monsters and find her way across the station to an escape shuttle.
While she is exploring the station, she collects data that might be valuable. She does
not find out why some crew turned to monsters for certainty.

16. THE BEGINNING
https://youtu.be/w_x5wI3PNZA

17. YOUR LEVELSIn between given Start and
the End

18. THE END

19. LEVELS
• Must connect the beginning and end
scenes
• Build horror feeling
• Tell the (backstory) story using
• Architecture
• Assets
• HUD messages
• Video / voice recordings
• No
• cut-scenes
• Long texts, forcing the player to listen
or watching
• Stealth & monsters
• Not in every level
• Some levels must focus on storytelling
• Multi-level & single level puzzles
• Using given core assets & mechanics
• Not in every level

20. GAME MUST
CONTAIN
Access Controls Stations & Locked doors
Security System is down at the start and Access
Control Stations do no work at the beginning
Research Data at least worth of $XXX

21. WALK THROUGH CORE GAME
https://youtu.be/OPIwVcOe3k0

22. • Each level
• Short critical path: max one minute!
• Backtracking ok
• Design it to be interesting
• Research data
• Are part of critical path
• Use to add challenging paths for completionists
• Not part of critical path
• Can require substantial amount of backtracking
• Also between levels

23. CONTROLS
Mouse Look at
ASDW / Cursor keys Move
Space Jump
x / fire1 Interact
C Crouch
i / right shift Scan
o / fire2 Stealth

24. HORROR
• Horror is about
• Fear that something will happening
• Monsters
• Disgust, fear of contamination
• Action and horror work against each other

25. STEALTH
• Requires
• Guards
• Hiding places
• Requires information
• Patrol routes
• Places to hide
• Conflict between Stealth and horror
• Claustrophobic spaces vs spaces set-up for stealth

26. OBLIGATORY STORYTELLING
Evocative Spaces
Storytelling with Modular
Assets
Some levels/scenes should have
solely storytelling focus

27. HINT: USE AREAS
• Organize your levels to areas
• Living quarters
• Laboratory
• …
• Multiple levels/scenes belongs to an area

28. RULES
These are important to follow

29. UNITY VERSION
2018.3.7
There can be only one

30. DEV RULES
Do not use
öäåÄÖÅéÉ
in file names!

31. FILE RULES
• All your files must be named as
• grXsomething X is your group number, something is descriptive name of the asset
(use English for that)
• E.g., gr1scene
• C# files must follow the naming rule!
• All your assets should go to folder names
• grX X is your group number
• Only edit your own files on the project side
• On Scene view you can edit other group stuff if you use some
• Do not edit materials

32. 3D MODELS
• Create your models to the same scale than the assets in GameCore and
CoreLevelAssets uses
• Monster, Corridor_2 are good reference models
• Import reference to Maya
• Textures for the models should have size of 2nx2m
• E.g., 1x1, 2x2, 4x4, , 16x32, 256x16, 512x256, 1024x1024
• Max 1024x1024
• Use texture atlases and the same material for multiple objects
• When object is intended to be static
• When texture atlas is shared between multiple objects you can use larger texture
• Export models as FBX!

33. DEV RULES
Use prefabs
• No models to scenes, but prefabs
• Create prefabs
• Collider(s)
• Material(s)
• Script(s)
• Tags
• Corridors, rooms must have LevelBlock
tag
• Mark as static if static
Project view
• Only change or checkout your own
stuff
• Copy and move if asset needs editing
• OK to change in Hierarchy / scene view
• Do not change materials that you do
not own

34. DEV RULES
• Your project must be in perforce
• At least once a day
• Submit
• More often recommended
• In case you need to fall back to previous version
• More time between submits, more work you loose if your project breaks
• Newer submit something you have not tested!
• At least each morning
• Get latest updates

35. GAME OBJECT INSPECTOR SCALE
•Do not use except with
• Unity primitives
• You need dynamical scaling
•Maya models should be scales using Scale
Factor

36. CORE GAMEHow-To

37. CORE GAME / NEW SCENE
A new scene must be created using CoreGame menu

38. CREATE NEW SCENE
Field What to fill
Scene Name Leave empty. Give the
name when saving the
scene
Floor Info used elevators
Area Name
Skybox DSGWP (windows to
space)
StarSkybox (no
windows)

39. CORE GAME / SAVES
• Game makes autosaves when moving between scenes
• Saves menu allows
• Saving the game when ever
• Persistent objects states are saved
• PC starts from last entry position
• Also when testing game in editor with play button
• Deleting the save data

40. CORE GAME / ADD
Add CoreGame game objects using only the CoreGame menu

41. STATION – SMALL/LARGE CORRIDOR
1X1 ROOM
• Dialog for configuring the corridor /
room
• Instantiates to location of selected
object / prefab position
• Select the last corridor piece to get the
new one in a good default position
• Move with CoreGame Auto Snap on
• Possible to edit afterwards
• Delete non-prefab pieces
• Copy prefab pieces and active

42. CORE GAME / AUTO SNAP
• Toggles auto snap
• Use when placing rooms and corridors

43. ACCESS CONTROL STATION
Add
• Select a room + Add
• Adds Access Control Station and create
an unique access code
• Hack difficulty
• Bigger the number, longer time it takes
to get the code
Access Control Stations
• Copy
• Copies the security code of Access
Control Station
• Paste
• To a lock panel

44. LOCK PANEL
• Select a Room or Corridor that has a
Door (ForceField, *Door*) + Add
• On LockPanel dialog
• Select Door from pop-up
• Click set-up
• A door can have multiple lock panels
• One is master storing the game state
and communicating other locks
• Master lock set-up also if door is
locked with security code
• Copy the code from a
AccessControlStation and Paste
• You can add/change security code later

45. MONSTER
• Select a room + Add
• Monster patrols around
• Waypoints describes patrol route
• Max five different routes can be defined (for five different agents)
• Attack with cooldown
• Aggressive off halts the monster while cooldown state
• MonsterWake can be used to wake up monsters when Player object hits the trigger

46. MONSTER PERCEPTION

47. WAYPOINT
• Select Monster / Robot / Waypoint
• Add /^G
• Connects waypoint to the selected
monster/ waypoint
• Note: reverse order
• Circular route
• Connect last first to last
• Agents wayfind to the waypoint
• No need to point how to bypass
corners
• Multiple next
• One randomly selected

48. HIDE AREA
• Select LevelBlock – Add
• This is just trigger so you need to
accompany this with something
• E.g. bushes
• When the agent is inside the area,
monsters do not see the object
• Unless in near range

49. MESSAGETRIGGER
• Select LevelBlock – Add
• Fill in details
• Message to displayed. Needs to be short to be displayed fully
• MainHUDMessage
• left hand side on the hud area
• If not checked, message will display at the center and vanishes in 5s
• OneTime
• MainHUD is always one time

50. ROBOT
• Select LevelBlock – Add
• Follows paths defined by Waypoints
• Can be combined with RobotControlTerminal to sent robot to specific places on the
scene

51. ROBOT CONTROL TERMINAL
• Select LevelBlock – Add
• Link robot
• Link waypoints
• Write info for each button (target info 0
relates to target 0)
• After adding
• Edit the terminal so that buttons make
sense
• Add map etc to help understand where
the robot will go

52. FIRST AID STATION / ENERGY
SOURCE PANEL
First aid station
• Select a room/corridor
Add
• Define how much health can be
regained
• Move where you want it
Energy source panel
• Select a room/corridor
Add
• Define how much power can be
regained
• Move where you want it
• Must be below floor, above ceiling etc.

53. RESEARCH DATA
• Select a room + Add
• Data value
• Value of data
• Data amount
• Defines how much time it takes to get
data
• Hud info
• Short message that can be used in
storytelling

54. SPORES AREA
Spores area Hazmat suit storage

55. OTHER
• Mine adds mine under selected object
• Mine kills Player Object
• Monsters and robots explodes the mine, but does not damage those
• Security Camera
• adds camera connected to a renderer texture
• Props
• Toilet group
• Bed
• Bunk Bed
• Lock Panel Multiple
• Can be connected to multiple doors

56. PREFAB TOOL
• For creating scene transition pieces
• Elevator
• LevelToLevelDoor
• Creates prefab and instantiates it to the scene
• Prefab is places to ScenetoScenePrefabs
• Drag and drop the piece to the other scene(s)

57. CORE EXTRAS
• Contains various prefabs
• Furniture
• Plants
• Art
• These can be drag-and-dropped to scene

58. CORE GAME / REPORT
• Some tools to get an overview of CoreGame game objects and their settings
• Can also warn some misconfiguration situations
• You must fix the errors given before submitting to version control system

59. REMEMBER
• Baking
• Navmesh
• Lights
• Occlusion culling
• Disable auto generate lightmaps
• Check
• Lights
• Reflection probes
• Light probes
• New corridor or room pieces should
have
• Tag: LevelBlock
• Static selected
• If you have dynamic parts, you need to
handle those separately
• Default
• Reflection probes
• Light probes