GAME 198: Introduction to Level Design

• Examine and illustrate various aspects that make a game fun and compelling.
• Demonstrate the concept of game “flow” and how to design levels to keep the user in a game flow state.
• Apply terrain, environment and lighting effects to add interest and challenges to level design.

1. The Basics of Game Design
   1. Keeping the game “fun”
   2. System Design
      1. Gameplay
      2. Designing Challenges
      3. Pacing and Flow
2. Paper Design
   1. Ideas to Documentation
   2. Writing a Design Document
   3. Creating Maps
   4. Level designer’s role in the pre-production phase
3. Building Terrain
   1. Making Terrain
      1. Heightmaps
      2. Handmade
      3. Mixed
      4. Making terrain fun
      5. Terrain and gameplay
   2. Terrain and Strategy
      1. Making Realistic Terrain
      2. Terrain Props
   3. Texturing Terrain
4. Building Architecture and Spaces
   1. Toolsets
      1. Brushes
      2. 3D Modeling software
      3. Tilesets
   2. Designing your Environment
      1. Architecture
      2. Occluders and Portals
      3. Game Architecture Types
   3. Architecture and Fun
      1. Linear Gameplay
      2. Non-Linear Gameplay
      3. Tactics and Architecture
      4. Texturing Architecture
         1. Seams
         2. Collision

Practicum Landscape Terrain Basics

1. Landscape
   1. Outdoor Terrain 
   2. Landscape Brushes
   3. Landscape Copy Tool
   4. Landscape Manage Mode
   5. Landscape Splines
   6. Landscape Paint Mode
   7. Landscape Sculpt Mode
      1. Landscape Blueprint
      2. Landscape Erosion Tool
      3. Landscape Flatten Tool
      4. Landscape Hydro Erosion Tool
      5. Landscape Mirror Tool
      6. Landscape Noise Tool
      7. Landscape Ramp Tool
      8. Landscape Region Tool
      9. Landscape Retopologize Tool
      10. Landscape Sculpt Tool
      11. Landscape Smooth Tool

Practicum Lighting

1. Types of Lights
   1. Directional Lights
   2. Sky Light
   3. Point Lights
   4. Spot Lights
   5. Rect. Lights
2. Lumen Global Illumination
   1. Reflections
   2. Technical Detail
   3. Shadow Maps
3. Lighting Essentials
4. Features
5. Properties
6. Ray Tracing

Practicum Post Effects

1. Volumetric Fog
2. Using Transparency in Materials
3. Using Bump Offset

Practicum FX

1. Atmosphere Clouds
2. Sky Atmosphere
3. Volumetric Clouds

Practicum Assets

1. Importing 
   1. File Selection / Import
   2. Content Browser
   3. Drag and Drop
2. Creating Assets
   1. Reference Assets
   2. Viewing Assets
   3. Copying Assets
   4. Managing Assets
      1. Edit
      2. Duplicate
      3. Save
      4. Moving
      5. Deleting
   5. Migrating
   6. Consolidating

Practicum Actors

1. Defining Actors
2. Placing Actors
3. Selecting Actors
4. Transforming Actors
5. Actors Snapping
6. Actors Mobility
7. Grouping Actors
8. Merging Actors