Ultimate level design guide

by Alex Galuzin

Ultimate Level Design Guide is 55 chapters long. It includes tips, advice, insight and principles into level design and game environment art.

This book is ongoing. New chapters will be added and released via World of Level Design newsletter.

Each chapter can be read as a stand-alone or you can read it in sequential order as it is presented to you. This book was meant to provide as much insight and give you tips with many examples so you can begin to apply them to your level designs today.

150 pages, ebook

Reviews

[Eduardo Yukio · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a book that has "Ultimate guide" in the title, I found it very frustrating. It's highly focused on the analysis of 3D environments, mostly from FPS games. It barely touches gameplay and how to make your level interesting to play.

If you are making a game similar to Left 4 Dead, maybe this book can help you a bit. But if your game is 2D or you are looking to learn about gameplay and how to better integrate your mechanics, this book is not for you. I learned more in this regard by watching a 5-minute segment from Edmund McMillen explaining the design of "Super Meat Boy" in "Indie Game: The Movie" than reading this entire book.

[Krzysztof · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though it has 150 pages, it's very short. The pace at which you can read this book thanks to great vocabulary and style, is unbelievable. Also it is very precisely pointing many LD problems and shows it with screens and nice examples.

Must-read to every aspiring Level Designer. Even more because it is free!

[Majid · Rating 4 out of 5]

این کتابی بود که تو مدت سربازی فرصت شد بخونمش و خیلی دسته‌بندی شده موضوعات مختلفی که برای یه لول دیزانر میتونه مهم باشه رو مطرح کرده. البته از اون دست کتابایی نیست که دقیقا بخواد به شما بگه اینجا را چکار کن و اونجا رو چکار کن اما یه روند کلی از دغدغه‌ها و نگرانی‌هایی که یه لول دیزاینر باید بهشون فکر کنه رو مطرح می‌کنه.

[Corentin Xa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really a guide, more like a checklist of aspects of level design. Most useful while designing levels to get ideas and check that nothing was forgotten.

[Alec · Rating 5 out of 5]

This publication is brief but to the point. It doesn't waste time giving you a history of the subject, or discuss reasons for why you might like to try level design. Instead it is just straightforward level design tip and techniques from start to finish.

I have a feeling this book will become increasingly more useful to me over time as the scale of the environments I create gets much larger. Prop placement, lighting, atmosphere and methods to guide a player are some of the aspects covered, and they'll go a long way to improving my portfolio pieces.

Much of level design is subliminal to the player, and simply having played games before doesn't help much when confronted with the task of environment production. Best of all, it's FREE, when you sign up to World of level designs newsletters!