So these days what is a level designers responsibility?

It tepends what company you work for. When I was starting to work as a Level Designer I had to design whole level with placeholder meshes or boxes and script all the actions. Now I'm an Environment Artist, I'm doing same stuff except scripting and I have to prepare meshes (placeholders or prototypes (no texture, final geometry)), plan whole level on paper, set all the visuals, FX, sounds etc. That's the typical Env. Artist's job. When you'll show that you can make 3D models, textures and you're doing it good, in some companies you'll be asked to make also that stuff. Big companies will hire more people, smaller will try to get things done with available people.

I'm now part of a 3 man indie team so have to do a bit of pretty much anything and everything from programming to art, but previously I worked for Outerlight as a designer so that is perhaps more relevant. As a general designer I had lots of all round design responsibilities, but a big part of it was level design, so I'll describe how it worked there. It was only a team of about 18 developers though, so might not be too indicative of larger companies.

Typically we worked on a level as a 2 person team - 1 designer, 1 env. artist. We'd get together to brainstorm ideas (along with the other designers and env. artists initially), and once we'd settled on a theme the designer would start drawing out layout ideas and the env. artist would start gathering references for art style and assets. Once a rough layout was approved the designer would start boxing it out while the env. artist would start building general use assets for the level that weren't too rigidly linked to the base brushwork or layout (general use textures, themed crates and barrels, etc...). After testing the boxed out layout the designer would make adjustments for better gameplay, while making use of the general use assets the env. artist had produced. Once a fairly finalised layout had been reached the made-to-fit assets would be the env. artists new focus. The designer would be dropping these in while working on the technical side of our game's levels (room locators, interactive object triggers, item pickups, spawn points, drawing up non-artified floorplans for use on the in-game map, AI waypoints, etc...). Lighting was also part of the designer's role, though often the env artist would give their opinion on how it ought to look. As for sound, we had an external audio producer who would run through our levels and create soundscape files for each area. The designer would then be responsible for implementing these and liasing with the audio producer to discuss their balance and any issues.

As seir said, the larger the company the more focused and small your role will become. That's why I like small companies

Like its already been mentioned, it varies from company to company. But overall it does seem like industry as whole has become a lot more focused and specialized, with good reason, though like you said indie devs obviously have more overlap than larger devs.

At Io it's changed a great deal since I was hired, back then Level Designers and Environment Artists were basically the same. These days it's definitely become much more specialized in the design side of things. An example is on the project I'm working on now, all Level Designers are very engaged in all aspects of the game's design, and though in the end our jobs are to design, mock up, script levels and kinda act as a producer for the level, then we also got the larger responsibility of actually making sure that mechanics and the overall direction is on track. It's not that its that new at the studio from my perspective, but these days it's much more underlined as a part of our jobs. I'm sure there's plenty other studios that does it differently, but it shouldn't surprise anyone that larger studios are probably gonna get a lot more specialized in the next couple of years.

Where I work the Level designers are in charge of the tracks they are assigned to work on, that means that they are sent out to research locations, come back and plan the tracks in 2D, create the tracks in 3D and deal with all aspects of game play and finally send the track to art to be tarted up. What we also do is actually add features in to the tracks if we want them there, as well as tree placement etc, so what we end up with is a track that is pretty much as it will be when it returns from the art team, just on a more basic and less arty level. I can imagine in other companies the art team having more creative control over environments, I guess it's because we make tracks that are inspired by real world locations that we kind of force the artists to follow our direction.

In addition to all the very correct observations that people have already made here, then I would also like to add in the personal factor. No level designers are completely alike and therefore it would also be less than optimal to have them work the exact same way (even at the same company). People should be doing what they do best and level designers come in many shapes and sizes. If e.g. a level designer is also an amazing concept artist then it is only natural that he draws himself a number of sketches while designing his levels. Anything else than that would be a sad use of talent, even if the official job description doesn't mention drawing anything.

So rather than trying to work towards what you think is a level designers responsibility, as some people do, then a much better approach is to work on tasks you feel are interesting and then see where you end up. You might end up as a level artist, game designer or something completely else - but you will now be doing exactly what you think is interesting and what you are good at.

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People should be doing what they do best and level designers come in many shapes and sizes. If e.g. a level designer is also an amazing concept artist then it is only natural that he draws himself a number of sketches while designing his levels. Anything else than that would be a sad use of talent, even if the official job description doesn't mention drawing anything.

I work as a level designer but I'm also pretty decent at carpentry, so its natural that I sit down and work on some shelves or birdhouses while I'm designing my levels.

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I work as a level designer but I'm also pretty decent at carpentry, so its natural that I sit down and work on some shelves or birdhouses while I'm designing my levels.

Dumbass