My experience intake of the CGMA in Level Design.

The following is an article is about my experience intake of the CGMA in Level Design.

I want to share my experience in the CGMA Level Design for Games course, led by Emilia Schatz and Patrick Haslow, some of the most useful lessons I have taken, complementing my degree.

Choosing CGMA I chose the Level Design for Games course because there are very few resources for level design. Few online courses teach Level Design and those that exist do not address certain areas that are necessary. I discovered CGMA when searching the net. I was surprised by the content that the course offered and the teachers that taught. Having a great desire to learn and improve.

Some people think that the level design is just creating a playable map. This is partially true, but there is a difference between a well thought out level and a map.

I studied digital game design at the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança and learned how to solve problems and what to consider when designing a successful product.

Introduction

I'm a level designer and game designer at RingZero Games and Epoch Games and helped design levels for some games, one of them being The Lays of Althas: Sundered Order (LoA:SO), and was a level designer and artist for Fallout Miami, a mod for Fallout 4 being the first project I joined the team and GameSpawn. To continue growing and improve my skill set on Level Design, this year I looked for courses at CG Master Academy and I completed the 10-week Games Level Design Course with Emilia Schatz (Leading Game Designer at Naughty Dog) and Patrick Haslow (Advanced Level Designer at WB Games Montréal). The course provided me with greater awareness, necessary terminology and, above all, greater attention to detail and confidence in my ability as a designer. Since everything I knew before taking this course had either been self-taught or had learnt it on my Digital Game Design degree, I had a completely different notion of what a Level Designer was, so this course helped me a lot to grow.

The beginning of the Course I used to work with Unreal for my levels and Unity at my university, to learn the basics. This was my first time using Maya to block levels, and I enjoyed the challenge. With a history in Unreal Editor, I had never used a modeling package to create layouts this way, so I was nervous about adopting this method, but I quickly discovered that the speed and ease of going back and forth between Maya and Unity is very useful in making iteration and refinement of forms in the scene painless. Besides, Unity was quickly generating collision automatically to help me move from blocking to reproduction testing in seconds.

The importance of using references An important first step for me is to find references and inspiration, something I always did for each of my projects. Google Images and Pinterest are always solid sources of inspiration and image direction, though I often discover additional inspiration in books on History of Art, Cinematography and art books from various games. Mounting images on a mood board for tasks on Pinterest, Photoshop or PureRef kept me focused and became a catalyst for creativity to help me overcome mental blocks encountered along the way, sparking new ideas I hadn't considered before. I wrote an article on why it is essential to use references for our work, I'll leave the link if you wish to read more.

Scale Is Important!!! For me, the scale is a fundamental pillar when starting any project or design, having learned what scales are and their relevance in Digital Architecture classes in my degree, I already had some notions that were of great help for this course. I thought it was important to become viscerally familiar with the scale of a project before going too far into the process. As Jesse Schell says in The Art of Game Design, it is not important that 3D spaces have realistic 2D plans, all that matters is how space feels when the player is in it.

With the mechanics of our third-person design model clearly defined, it was important to ensure that the metrics were always consistent.

Painting with shapes Emilia Schatz redefined my understanding of how to paint with shapes.

Throughout the course, I tried to learn more about to use Maya, as I had worked very little with this software, using Blender 3D more often. With a history of level editors that encouraged the use of the grid for organization or optimization, it took me a while to learn the use of metrics and adequate scale, but in the end it was positive for me. Using other tools outside the grid allowed me to paint shapes, without restrictions and limitations, focusing more on the artistic aspects of level design. This focus was liberating, and I was able to predict the creative synergy that would occur between designers and artists as we came to understand each other's disciplines. Since I became a Level Designer learning on my own for these past 2 years, I tried to become a better artist as well, in my quest to become a better designer. This course helped me move forward in that aspect. Through the lessons of Emilia and Patrick, I began to appreciate the necessary consideration of each shape I created and each object I placed; not just from the perspective of a level designer, but how my choices could, in turn, affect the workflow of a collaborating artist.

A wonderfully valuable tip was the power of the cube. I always had a hard time understanding how complicated terrain and landscapes were created in games like Uncharted and others. Emilia introduced us to her use of the almighty cube. When crushing, stretching and slicing a cube, it is possible to create various shapes to use for terrain elements. By joining these manipulated cubes with one another they become mountains, rocks, houses, doors, bridges and so on, it also became clearer to me how to create more natural-looking geological formations. The core of the idea was not to worry about optimizing and welding vertices; but to paint shapes, create compositions and interesting spaces. And demonstrate them to the rest of the team, to give them an understanding of how the level is composed. No doubt I will take this tip as one of the most important for me.

The Composition In the fourth week, we started to explore the composition from a single point of view, something that I had also learned in my Digital Architecture and drawing classes in my degree. As mentioned earlier, the practice of photography is an advantageous way not only to create a reference, but to continuously focus the design on the composition, framing, and orientation of the viewer/user. I found investing a great deal of time refining each composition was invaluable. Using the lines (Escape lines) from my shapes to create guidelines that take the player towards the structures near the middle, for example the use of the angular lines of the rocks, served as a useful tool to guide the viewer.

Bearing in mind the rule of thirds and Rudolf Arnheim's idea of "structural skeletons", I worked diligently to be attentive to whatever forms I took. Through Emilia's teachings and the dissection of the psychology of a composition, I feel that I have gained a renewed appreciation for its differentiated power in design and I consider it an essential tool in a designer's toolkit.

Landmarks Emilia reminded us that we must not limit our thinking about focal elements as just distant structures and shapes. These landmarks can also be local resources to help strengthen the user's mind map of their spaces and spatial compositions. It was a great reminder to understand that landmarks can be local and distant to help the player unconsciously move around their spaces. When I started blocking course levels, I found ways to employ landmarks - local and distant - to better serve the player's internal compass. For example, a large tower appears in the distance, enticing players to continue exploring, while a water fountain in front of you reminds you of what part of the small market you are currently occupying.

Craft Districts As we moved from singular areas to large spaces, Emilia introduced us to the idea of nodes, edges and districts. When I started to map my level, I started to discover the points of intersection - these are considered nodes. Nodes can be described as intersections and decision points in their paths. They also make great positions for forming your compositions. We can be sure that the player will circulate through these points and, therefore, will be perfect to frame our compositions. Emilia encouraged us to install several cameras to maintain our focus on shaping and refining strong compositions at these points.

Edges help to communicate that you are entering a new space. These can be considered linear elements that help to divide one area from the other. I tried to place them in several districts within the level. Finally, building your spaces to include identifiable districts helps to promote identity and contrast within your levels. It also allows interesting points of connection between spaces.

Final Weeks In the final weeks of the course, our tasks began to marry the lessons of the past and we were introduced to combat in the third person, as shown below Through a familiar decision-making process, building blocks, tests, and iterations, it was exciting to see our little scenarios transform into complete spaces, full of different districts, environmental stories, engaging combat and a narrative established to bring it all together.

To Conclude

This course provided me with a considerable amount of knowledge of which I spoke about briefly. I found a new perspective on the levels of creation with intentional shapes and improved shape language. Something that I never thought of or even knew that existed. It continually challenged me as a designer and helped me expand my abilities, develop confidence in tools, perspectives, and genres that I had never explored before. I also learned to trust myself and my skills more, and to free myself to create projects that expressed what was true for my heart.

I consider myself fortunate to have learned from Emilia Schatz and Patrick Haslow. They never failed to provide constructive feedback and what they shared with me was always what I and the class needed to hear the most. I encourage anyone - at any level of experience - to take this course. It fundamentally changed the way I will approach level design. Without a doubt, I will take more CGMA courses, one of which will be The Art of Lighting for Games.