How I design levels in text first, and why (HL2 level Part 1)

this is a very helpful guide, love the thought process!

Building without planning is like shooting without aiming

Trying to use these same planning steps for a mod level I have an idea for. its very different and offers a lot less freedom of choice. Trying to make a level of post-Nova prospekt, the rebels have stormed the remnants of the prison after the teleportation accident destroyed much of it. after rescuing and recruiting survivors, they have boarded a train headed for the city, and have to fight combine forces attacking as the train moves.


Mechanically its A LOT so I'm just going to do the best I can. No promises it will ever be finished.

Thanks

Steve, it's an incredibly useful information for ANY game developer, so thank you very much!

amazing video man

Hey Steve,

I really appreciate you taking the time to create this series about the best practices, and thought processes when it comes to developing bespoke levels for portfolio pieces. The level of thought on display, and getting to see a block out being done in real time has helped me get back into Level Design as a discipline, and has got me back to looking at Hammer Editor again! You mentioned it in another video, but it was nice to hear that showcasing LD is much easier within a Level Editor, rather than a Game Engine (UE4 in my instance), which I've been trying to wrack my brain trying to figure out the best way to show case that skill within.

If I may ask, when companies ask for experience within these different engines, how do you go about showcasing LD skills within these engines (UE4, Unity, etc..)? Is it something I should sweat over? Or is it best to showcase skills within an engine that has a complete game to work with and develop levels that emulate the types of games similar to games I want to work on? I want to get experience working with these engines, but I find it hard to develop hard LD skills without a game within it.

Again, really appreciate the work you're doing here!

I love it! Most things online focus on visuals and I like this approach so much more to start with

Thanks for doing this series! I've been doing level design for a while now on my own games and it always felt "wrong" to start with writing out the player experience despite it seemingly being what worked best for me. Everything you always see online talks about starting with a rough sketch or floorplan which for me personally always feels at best arbitrary and at worst distracting. Since I'm an extremely visual person, if I can visually see something it's harder to change it in my mind whereas a text walkthrough/outline has no visual component which makes it easier to iterate on in that early phase. When working with my teammates they will draw example sketches to illustrate level design ideas early on and I make them keep it between themselves and merely describe it to me, otherwise I can't get the picture of it out of my head. Anyways yeah, it's good to know I'm not crazy for doing so much in text form.

oh wow. I have a few simple game design documents but their more overviews.
And even the 1 game folder that does go into level design doesn't go this deep into how it's going to feel for the player let alone the kind of path they might take along the way.

I've been watching some original Doom gameplay videos to get a feel for this sort of thing but I think I need to find other boomer shooters and newer stuff with interactive mechanics to get a better feel of what's been done before

You have me very inspired Steve. I'll be using this as a template for a process I'm putting up on my Github account. Thanks!

Im fairly new to level design, never really needed to care about that in my previous projects and I kept struggling with a visual approach and I think this will work for me.
Thank you for the great video, I will definetly check out your channel for more

If I'm making a multiplayer shooter (TDM), would it still have a sequence?

That's really helps!

What text editor is he using?

You are awesome! Thank you for providing with an actual designer walkthrough,

Amazing video. you give me some insights into an aspect of my work as game designer which I always feared, for some reason. Incredibly stupid question, though: what notepad app do you use? Those colors are really pleasurable to the eye, and I'd love to use such an aestethically pleasing app.

I'm sure you hear this often, but should you release one, I would buy the absolute pants off your book and/or course.

I started 1 year ago learning level design and doing my first projects, alone and in teams. During the whole time, I had the feeling that I was the only one starting a level design with a text document to layout the general experience. I felt that I was doing something wrong and that I should learn "better" to not need to start with a text to then move to the blockout.
Thank you for this example! Really great :)

I've been doing level design for 6 years now, and it's nice to have a refresher on the bases of LD. Plus, I like seeing other ways of working, I personally don't do much paper design and it's nice to see alternatives. Thank you for that!

Thank you, Very helpful 🔥👍

Why do I discover this channel just now.

Nothing wrong with creating a GDD it can help you figure out what you will and will not need and key mechanics that may or may not be implemented

This is really wonderful. Thank you for sharing your process!

This was really interesting, thanks!

Awesome. Great overview and thought process.

I use a similar process but with no structure, this is so much more organized, I'm sure I'll find this very useful in the future

Great stuff Steve!

Can't wait for the rest :D

Keep up the amazing work

Enjoyed this. I think this top level approach is applicable to many processes.

This is so amazing, Steve. What would you like to add to the Constraints section for this level?

As someone who is just starting with LD the best thing about this vid was seeing that it is normal not to have all the answers at the beginning and the importance of iterating

Absolutely love your videos, Steve! I am a 3D artist currently in the process of transitioning into level design and your content is an absolutely invaluable resource.

Thanks for all your videos, Steve! Love seeing and hearing about your process, as well as other great LD's experiences

Really interesting to see your process! (It’s also reassuring, as I usually start in a similar way.)
Looking forward to the rest of this series.

I really like this approach, thanks for showing more of your process!

Thank you very much for taking the time to share your knowledge!

I think so too! Writing down your ideas is the best start and most effortless way to create something that is truly yours. You don't really need anything else than some imagination to get a first, very rough outline of how the level or the game should feel.

I'm very excited for the Hammer part!

nicee! waiting for the next video!👌

Very Cool Video and very useful <3

I really appreciate you doing this. I often find the documentation the hardest part to organize and feel the final product varies wildly from my original concept

keep up Steve !!

Finally, a true "level design timelapse".

This is gold, I've always found myself recollecting ideas, situations and objects for creating a game, but it never ocurred to me thinking about sequencing and doing all this stuff just for one level. This is good knowledge, and as you say, most of this stuff is logical first.

Very cool topic, thank you for sharing your design process!
I'd like to ask, do you use mind map diagrams to plan nonlinear levels? Or is it better to keep a linear structure in the plan?

This is some really cool insight. I normally end up working on less linear experiences so I usually taker to paper and draw some sort of graph to represent the possible player experiences if I can but I've made the mistake of designing a huge level and filling in gameplay after on a project before. I'm mostly a solo dev though so learning this stuff takes more time because I'm working on everything else for a game too. This series is going to be really helpful for me I think

This approach makes a lot of sense to me. Looking forward to the next video!

These videos are really cool. Thank you for showing your process