Tutoring Service?

[Greg D'Alessandro]

Does anyone know of any one-on-one tutoring services for level design? I'm looking for someone to help me through the areas where I struggle. I understand that there are many tutorials online, and that I will only improve with experience and practice, but I'm looking for someone to work with me through the process and areas where I struggle. Thank you.

[Greg D'Alessandro]

anyone know?

[blackdog]

I never heard of something like that, other than enrolling to a university game design course.

If tutorials are not what you looking for, as they are normally technical and focused on one tiny aspect of making a level, you might want to watch "speed level design" videos with commentary or livestreams to understand the theory behind. Also you need to read articles like the one just linked in the sidebar --->
on how to create a combat space, recently another Mapcore member published a lenghty article on guiding the player: http://www.clement-melendez.com/portfolio/articles/push-pull/introduction/

otherwise I can only think of befriending a good designer and asking questions, but...

Edited June 10, 2016 by blackdog

[Greg D'Alessandro]

Thank you for the reply, I didn't even notice the Articles pane to the right.

 

I consider myself a beginner at level design, and I have a hard time designing multiplayer layouts, and don't have much experience designing single player levels.

1) I have Unreal Tournament installed, and I have tried creating levels for it, but part of the issue that I have is that I keep drawing a blank when trying to come up with a layout, and I keep fighting myself to commit to a layout. (I find myself reworking it and making no progress) 

2) How would you go about creating different types of singleplayer levels for a portfolio? (Ie. would you create a level for different genres?: A FPS, a co-op level, open world, a puzzle game, survival horror, etc) 

3a) I really want to learn more with Unreal Engine 4 and get really good with it. But for showcasing singleplayer levels, should I essentially create a small game? (game/level document, mechanics, scripting, art assets) to show that I understand how it all works together? Would it be in my best interest to do this for each level? (for a portfolio)

I would like to focus less on multiplayer levels (CTF, TDM, etc) and more on singleplayer levels, at least to start with, but is that a bad thing? Is it bad to want to focus on a certain aspect? (singleplayer vs multiplayer) Do you have any choice (of what types of levels to work on) in the industry? Is it essential as a level designer to showcase (and learn) both? Thank you.

[Sentura]

Study some architecture or civil engineering courses, see if you can get a feel for how they do spaces in buildings or in a public area.

[blackdog]

If you have a "blank canvas" problem, I suggest you start by copying something simple. Like port a Q3 platform map to UT2016.

2) I don't work in the industry so I'm not sure, but I would start with what you really like and what you aspire to work on.

I think for genres like adventure/exploration (point & click or similar) I think you just need to show you can build an environment.

For racing games there are games like Trials and Trackmania that include a very simple "LEGO" editor that can get you acquainted with that sort of game. Starcraft 2 includes an editor (I think).

There are lots of options, yes UE4 singleplayer there's no game you can "mod" that I know, and it's what has been holding me back, but you can still create an environment by doing assumptions on what the kind of gameplay will be like. UE4 comes with some basic templates as well that would allow you to do an FPS or TPS for eg.

Bottom line is: start working. When I started I didn't have an Internet connection and learned to use Hammer (Worldcraft) reading the bundled guide and I couldn't texture because the Italian version was bugged…

[Vaya]

I think level design is too much of a iterative process for 'how to' tutoring.

It's a bit like being taught how to play a song rather than being taught an instrument so you can write your own song.

 

The only hard rules when it comes to leveldesign are tied to the logic of the game you're building for and what the engine's compiler accepts.

Mapcore can guide you if you get stuck- give subjective feedback on your design choices and objective feedback on stuff like optimisation.

[Sentura]

Level design is another part of a design process. If you understand design fundamentals, you understand a good part of level design fundamentals as well. There's certainly things you could look into regarding design language and similar topics, but all these require that you think about what kind of space you want to make first.

[Corwin]

10 hours ago, Greg D'Alessandro said:

1) I have Unreal Tournament installed, and I have tried creating levels for it, but part of the issue that I have is that I keep drawing a blank when trying to come up with a layout, and I keep fighting myself to commit to a layout. (I find myself reworking it and making no progress) 

2) How would you go about creating different types of singleplayer levels for a portfolio? (Ie. would you create a level for different genres?: A FPS, a co-op level, open world, a puzzle game, survival horror, etc) 

3a) I really want to learn more with Unreal Engine 4 and get really good with it. But for showcasing singleplayer levels, should I essentially create a small game? (game/level document, mechanics, scripting, art assets) to show that I understand how it all works together? Would it be in my best interest to do this for each level? (for a portfolio)

I would like to focus less on multiplayer levels (CTF, TDM, etc) and more on singleplayer levels, at least to start with, but is that a bad thing? Is it bad to want to focus on a certain aspect? (singleplayer vs multiplayer) Do you have any choice (of what types of levels to work on) in the industry? Is it essential as a level designer to showcase (and learn) both? Thank you.

From reading this it sounds to me like you're approaching the challenge the wrong way. You want to focus on stuff that could get you hired but that doesn't click for you. Maybe you should try starting with things that really excite you? Like what is the last game you played that you felt you really wanted to build a custom level for? Sure you can't always mod your favorite games, but there's a decent panel of customizable games out there that you should be able to find something that motivates you. Cut the 'hmm, I want to focus less on MP', just select what you ACTUALLY wanna do, even if you don't think it's necessarily great portfolio material. Learn the basics by doing that, by fueling it with your enthusiasm for the particular game/genre, then when you have more experience (could be just a few months down the line), you'll be able to approach the tougher challenges of designing levels for games that you're not necessarily crazy about but that you feel would get you a job. Also remember that doing MP levels to get hired but not really enjoying it may very well mean you end up being hired to design more MP levels, so picking what you like can also help orienting your career down paths that you'll also enjoy. Don't design a competitive shooter level because you feel that's where the money's at right now if all you really care about is creating well-crafted SP experiences. At least not as your first few learning experiences.

[kunalht]

I am also learning about level design. 

If you want to create Single player levels maybe create quests for skyrim, witcher , fallout types games. 

About layout, maybe start with a real location ? Some place you know very well. Try to create that type of map. ( I am not an expert but I started learning it by creating my own house as a small map  )

[-HP-]

Mapcore is your tutor and your master! :]

[Corwin]

I realize I haven't really answered your questions and it's frustrating when people do that so here it goes:

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1) I have Unreal Tournament installed, and I have tried creating levels for it, but part of the issue that I have is that I keep drawing a blank when trying to come up with a layout, and I keep fighting myself to commit to a layout. (I find myself reworking it and making no progress) 

See my previous post and suggestions from others: find something exciting, form a vision from another medium (books, movies, other games...) or from real-life (e.g. go visit an abandoned place, an architectural masterpiece, etc.) etc.

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2) How would you go about creating different types of singleplayer levels for a portfolio? (Ie. would you create a level for different genres?: A FPS, a co-op level, open world, a puzzle game, survival horror, etc) 

I would worry about a portfolio when I've built a few levels I'm happy with. It's nice to vary your experience of course, so feel free to do just what you mentioned. Consider your strengths, weaknesses, limitations (time, engines...), passions etc. and that should help narrow down WHAT to work on.

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3a) I really want to learn more with Unreal Engine 4 and get really good with it. But for showcasing singleplayer levels, should I essentially create a small game? (game/level document, mechanics, scripting, art assets) to show that I understand how it all works together? Would it be in my best interest to do this for each level? (for a portfolio)

That's one approach, and it's a valid one, although it suits better the profile of the usual indie game developer than that of the AAA industry level designer. Extra experience and skills are never a bad thing, but by trying to tackle too many things at once you run the risk of not managing to sell your core level design skills. For instance, creating final art assets is something you'd pretty much never do as a level designer in many companies, BUT using a 3D package like 3dsmax or Maya can be very important depending on the company (some companies create levels directly in Max / Maya). So it's not necessarily about showing you can build a game by yourself, no-one is going to ask that of you if you apply as a LD. But game and level design are tied so it never hurts to have experience there, scripting too (visual scripting mostly these days).

I don't know how much of a newbie you are to level design so it's hard to say. If the goal is to learn level design itself, I would tend to think worrying about the other stuff too early could be detrimental, but I can't know for sure. My suggestion would be to focus first on levels until you feel confident using the editor of your choice and maps for the style of games of your choice, and then (if you so desire, because it seems you are concerned about just building levels being not enough for a LD position, which can be true in some cases) expend on that with extra activities like creating a small non-artistic game where level design is important and mechanics are simple/overdone but that challenges you to not match the level design of an existing game but to come up with your own rules and such fitting those mechanics you decide upon.

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I would like to focus less on multiplayer levels (CTF, TDM, etc) and more on singleplayer levels, at least to start with, but is that a bad thing? Is it bad to want to focus on a certain aspect? (singleplayer vs multiplayer) Do you have any choice (of what types of levels to work on) in the industry? Is it essential as a level designer to showcase (and learn) both? Thank you.

Nope, it's not a bad thing at all. I don't think there's a particular imbalance between the amount of jobs for MP levels vs SP levels, and the games industry keeps on evolving so it's more important that you learn the skills that are shared by both MP and SP design, which are the more abstract, more experience-based ones that would be hard to tutor. Just build levels you want to build and don't make the mistake of tackling too big of a challenge (it's especially hard in SP design where you tend to want to do a full campaign for instance), and you will learn skills applicable to all types of level design. For instance, there are plenty of level designers that start their career designing race tracks for racing games, that doesn't prevent them from being good at designing SP/MP levels (although they may be a bit rusty on certain skills/concepts specific to a game genre). Don't niche yourself too much.