where to start...

Level-design requires little knowledge in programming and more or less requires common sense more then anything.

What engine you looking to map for? If your looking to map for the Source engine go here: http://%7boption%7d

afaik Gears of war uses the unreal engine, so you should probably check that out instead (UnrealED).

What exactly about Gears levels impressed you? Was it the visuals or was it the actual level layouts and the flow of the game?

either way just get unreal tournament 2004 install it and you will have all tools at hand right away to make levels.

As already mentioned, traditional level design doesn't requires any programming knowledge, unless you consider scripting programming, and afaik its not that often its required of people who work with level design (varies from place to place obviously)

My best advice, apart from finding an engine you like and reading a bunch of tutorials, is to play a lot of games and see how people set up situations and try to figure out how things were set up. Also if you're thinking about this on a professional plan, then trying out as many different engines as possible is always good idea, since it'll make you well prepared for the eventual point where you need to learn how to use some new stuff.

Also these days having some good experience in a 3d modeling app such as Max or Maya is a really big plus, and in most cases essential.

I have no idea where to find tutorials these days, but thats the way most people start

I never saw you wanted to start mapping. But as Mazy said, try out a lot of different engines. Play lots of games. Then when you have decided what you want to do in level design (there are a lot) get hold of different apps to help you in your quest. Texture=image apps, models=3d apps, maps=game engine, programing=c++ or c# even i think nowadays and there are other languages aswell but i guess c++/c# is the safest bet. Then as Mazy said tutorials. There are like tons of it out there. Its just a matter of searching or ask some one that are used to search. But first get a grip of what fascinate you.

If you want to do the art stuff, you dont need programming, but if you want to do game program, then you'll want to pick up an introductory C++ book. its a bit harder to learn than managed languages, but its worth it if you're in it for the long haul. Plus, its pretty much the game industry standard language.

Quote from Section_Ei8ht

If you want to do the art stuff, you dont need programming, but if you want to do game program, then you'll want to pick up an introductory C++ book. its a bit harder to learn than managed languages, but its worth it if you're in it for the long haul. Plus, its pretty much the game industry standard language.

and he would require a book covering programming paradigms like MVC. programming is not only to hack some code. al lot of work is designing the correct software architecture. so i would give the adivce to start with some hacking, but before getting serious he should try to understand basic concepts of how to organise code/software

wtf hessi get in my maya thread! >:L

Quote from hessi

and he would require a book covering programming paradigms like MVC. programming is not only to hack some code. al lot of work is designing the correct software architecture. so i would give the adivce to start with some hacking, but before getting serious he should try to understand basic concepts of how to organise code/software

I realize that this is in the modeling forum and now kind of out of place, but regardless...

If you want to learn about game specific MVC design and implementation, then I recommend Game Coding Complete, 2nd Edition. It was written by the lead programmer of the Ultima games. If he still wants to focus on programming, then I recommend an intro to C++ book to learn the basics of code hacking and algorithms, and then move up to the game coding book.

Its a great read. Focuses more on the design and implementation aspect rather than teaching you how to code it, but its written for someone who already has done a bit of coding.

Anyway, sorry for the side note. Back to modeling mumbo-jumbo

[edit]

Also, for anyone that cares, heres a great book that will get you started on learning C++. C++ How to Program. It starts off by pretending you know nothing about coding, but does well to work its way up to more advanced stuff. I really only read the last half of the book and breezed through the first parts. I just needed to pick up on the differences between C++ and vm managed languages after spending three years coding exclusively in them (Java and C# mostly).

I'm done now, I promise.

So a guy comes to a forum to learn the art of level design, but after just 10 posts there have already been multiple concerning MVC. Even if he had asked about programming I would not start out confusing him with MVC stuff.

Quote from Zacker

So a guy comes to a forum to learn the art of level design, but after just 10 posts there have already been multiple concerning MVC. Even if he had asked about programming I would not start out confusing him with MVC stuff.

Just making a sub-point to hessi's point