Two rants on level design, need opinions

    Quote from kleinluka

    Time contrains for one thing. Like Zaphod said earlier, depending on the scope of your game you simply cannot design, model, texture and light a whole next-gen quality game (level) all by yourself under industry standard deadlines. Also, just because you are an all-around-guy doesn't mean everybody else is. I know a ton of level designers who are just that. Designers. I think anything related to art should be left to the artists to create, not the designers. Of course the two should always be in constant communication with eachother so both visions are merged into one.

    Umm you DO know that movie CG is even more specialized and split up than games right?

    Some parts of movie cg yeah. Depends where you end up.

    The whole point about splitting level design is that there is NO point. It does not save time. The only thing that became more complex these days are your models and textures but everything else which ranges from gameplay to floorplan to placement of those models to lighting, particles and whatever else ALL is just as much work as it was 5 years ago. It only looks nicer now. So I dont see why it should be splitted, apart from some texture and mesh creation.

    Some companies make you part of a machine. Thats not creativity.

    I know plenty of people from the level design communities who seem to master both graphics as gameplay. Ofcourse they are always better in one of the two they still manage to do them both well..

    Splitting gameplay and art is a choice I could understand but on the other hand it isnt that neccerary for the reasons mentioned earlier. At work we're currently trying to design a new world, instead of waiting for god knows who I designed the floorplan and concept myself, which took me half an hour to do and after an hour long meeting today the design was agreed upon.

    If I had to request that design from gameplay department I would have had to wait for at least a week if not more. This saves time.

    The point for me is that the current workflow at a lot of companies is frustrating and inefficient.

    As a profrssional Level Designer, I don't have to worry about modelling or texturing my own stuff. A lot of that is determined by the kind of game I'm working on and what engine I'm using. In my workflow, it's much easier and far faster if an Artist makes the meshes and textures while I'm designing the map. Since the game I'm working on has no BSP to texture, that's not a concern either. I still place the meshes when I get them, but I didn't waste any valuable gameplay design time making them. I still get to light the map, and do the scripting, and plan the layout.

    I'm mean, why should I waste my time making models and textures when a professional Artist can do a much better job, much faster, and free me up for making the map play that much better? Then again, if you love make models and textures... well, in a professional environment, you're probably going to have to choose.

    All this only works if the Level Designers work very closely with the Artists. I share an office with one other Level Designer and two Artists. This works because we are in constant communication. In more corporate environments, I can see where this breaks down and fails. Just depends on where you work at.

    Yea we also have lots of moving of computers lately, the guy working on assets for my level was moved next to my desk, simply because we got tired of running up and down all the time, plus the time we waste on typing in messenger

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