FUNDAMENTALS OF GAME DESIGN, SECOND EDITION

Pitfalls of Level Design

This chapter ends with a discussion of some important mistakes to avoid—classic errors of level design that, unfortunately, some designers continue to make.

Get the Scope Right

The single most common error made by inexperienced level designers is to try to build something too big. (They almost never try to build something too small.) Everyone would love to make an epic such as a Final Fantasy game, but such games require huge production teams, giant budgets, and multiyear development cycles. And even among experienced professionals, epic projects often run late and go over budget.

You must design within the resources of your team, your budget, and the time you have available. Scope, you should remember, refers not only to the size and com­plexity of the landscape but to the number of props, NPCs, and special events in the level. In order not to undertake an unrealistically large level, you must make lists of these things during the planning stage before you actually start
constructing the prototype. The process of making these lists may surprise you by showing you just how much work goes into making even a relatively small level.

Before you choose a scope for your level, determine how much time and staff you have available, taking into account any vacations and holidays that may be coming up. Then assume that half of your team will be out sick for a week at some point during the development process—it's entirely possible. Now think again about the scope. How many models can your team build in a day? How quickly can you detect an error, correct it, and test it again? Choose a level size that you and your team can manage. If you make a level too small, it's not easy to enlarge it, but at least you won't have the art team killing themselves to create all the content. If you make a level too big and find that there isn't time to complete everything, you'll have to either deliver a sparse, unfinished level or scramble to cut things out, which will almost certainly harm your level's balance and pacing.