FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION

Level Design to Art Handoff

With the level locked, it's time to hand off your prototype and all your design work to the artists who will use it as a blueprint to build the geometry, animations, and textures that will end up in the real game. The artists will need all your files, as well as a detailed list that explains each file. Your job includes making this list; you cannot simply give them a directory dump and leave them to figure it out. If they don't already know about your design from the level reviews, you should sit down with the artists and give them a thorough briefing not only on how everything looks in the level, but where everything should be and how everything works. From this information, the art director will create a task list to construct all the content the level requires: models, textures, animations, special visual effects, and so on.

If your prototype has been relying on placeholder audio, at this point you will also need to provide details to the audio team about what the level will need in the way of final audio. Notify the programmers about any special code that is required for the level at this point so they can have it ready for the content integration stage. (Content refers to the non-software part of the game: artwork, audio, movies, and text.)