How do you design your game’s levels to feel both complete and whole in and of themselves, but also a believable part of something greater?
At GDC 2017 Arkane’s Steve Lee offered some advice on that front when he took the stage to advocate a holistic approach to level design, where LDs not only think about many aspects of the player’s experience (primarily gameplay, presentation and story), but focus specifically on how all of these things work together.
His talk was especially notable because it drew from his experiences as an LD on games like Dishonored 2 and BioShock Infinite, and the design values of the immersive sim genre in general.
Plus, he highlighted and discussed several key ideas that emerge specifically from the relationships between the output of different disciplines, such as affordances, intentionality, world building and (in the context of these kinds of games) interactive storytelling.
Lee’s talk was fascinating and insightful, especially if you do any sort of level design or worldbuilding on your own games. If you missed it earlier this year, don’t skip your chance to now watch it for free over on the official GDC YouTube channel!
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