Hawty McBloggy Invites You to Play

Perhaps you have heard of a deliciously frightening game expected out later this year called Dead Space. If you enjoy copious amounts of blood, aliens, violence, and terror (and really, who doesnt?), this scary third-person shooter is probably already on your radar. The talented developers behind Dead Space have a blog they keep udpated in which they give everybody behind the scenes peeks into various aspects of the making of this spine chilling title. I’m excited to bring you their next blog entry for a few different reasons. First, it won’t be available on their website for a handful of days so you’ll be a little bit more in the know than usual. Second, it’s focus is on level design and Paul Mathus (the author of this particular blog entry) was kind enough to give advice to those individuals looking to break into the industry. Third, I got to say “exclusive”. Exclusive, exclusive, exclusive. I’m pretty sure that makes me a complete bad ass. I suppose we should get to the actual blog entry at some point so off we go. Following up his first post, here is the latest from Dead Space’s Development Director Paul Mathus (be sure to watch the latest trailer at the end of the article as well):

Hello again! For my second blog entry I said I’d talk a bit about the day-to-day business of the level design group.

Level design goes through two distinct phases on a project, design and implementation. The design phase, which happens earlier in the project, is where the levels get designed from scratch, usually first on paper, then on the computer in Maya. Typically the designer of a level will be given a set of parameters to create within, which could include the setting (for example, a china shop), specific story points (you’ve been transformed into a bull) and objectives that have to happen (destroy $500k worth of china), which enemies (angry soon-to-be-married couples shopping for wedding china, shopkeeper boss) and weapons (horn upgrades?) will be found in the level, etcetera. The designer then sits down and dreams up a hopefully fun and innovative level that fits all those criteria.

Right now we are in the implementation phase of the project, which means the designs of the level are pretty much nailed down and we are busy executing on those designs and making things happen on the screen, which is my favorite phase of the project personally. This is where the level designers do things like place the enemies and ammo/health, deciding what will attack the player and when, where the player will be under pressure and where they will be free to explore and wonder what will hit them next. Being a level designer is something like being a movie director in a way, in that you are trying to craft a compelling experience for the player. It’s very different however, because games are interactive and you have no idea what the player will do. It’s extremely gratifying when you watch someone play your level for the first time and see the reaction your work gets. Hopefully they are scared when you want them to be scared, excited when you want them freaking out.

The way this all gets done is in a level editor, which is a piece of 3d software that lets you view the game level on the computer. The designer can see a 3d representation of the level map, rotate it around, zoom in and out, etc. The designer uses the level editor to place things like enemies, health, ammo, story elements like video logs, and more esoteric scripting objects which are invisible to the player, but which we use to track the player’s location, control when things will happen, load and unload sections of the level, count how many enemies have been killed, and lots of other things. To give a very simple example, the designer can place invisible objects called “triggers” which send a message when the player steps through them. The designer can use the message to cause an enemy to spawn, make a scripted event happen, anything they like. There are a ton of other tools which the level designers have, but when you come right down to it the level designer is the guy or gal behind the curtains, pulling the strings, as you creep around the level trying not to get eaten by the undead. It sounds like a fun job because it totally is, heh heh.

People often ask me how to get into game design, and I say “write your resume on the seat of a Ducati 1098 S Tricolore and send it to me at.. .”. Actually, the best way to get into game design is to start doing it! There are a number of computer games that include the development tools for building levels. Two FPS examples are Half-Life from Valve and Unreal from Epic. An RPG example is Neverwinter Nights from Bioware. These games come with or let you download level editors that you can use to make your own levels. This is a great way to try out game design for yourself, and build a portfolio. There are web communities that will give you technical help and feedback on your creations. If you think design might be your thing, give it a shot!

-Paul Mathus