World of Level Design

Level Designer Interview: Mateusz -Seir- Piaskiewicz

Mateusz "Seir" Piaskiewicz is a professional level designer currently working at Techland. Techland is a game developer located in Poland. They are known for Call of Juarez series.

Read the Interview...

Unreal Development Kit Released

Epic games has released UDK for free noncommercial and educational use.

Licensing terms are available to those who wish to sell UDK-powered games or to create commercial products for business use at www.udk.com/licensing.

UDK is Unreal Engine 3 – the complete professional development framework. All the tools you need to create great games, advanced visualizations and detailed 3D simulations.

The tools include many features and technological enhancements...that have yet to be seen in an Unreal Engine game. The company further pledged that it will be supporting the Unreal Development Kit with continuous upgraded builds.

Watch the Videos ...

Call of Juarez 2 Part 3 BONUS: Terrain Workflow

Part 3 covers:

Workflow Terrain

Continue with CoJ2 Level Design Tutorial...

Past CoJ2 Tutorials:

Mod Tools and Installation

Interface and Navigation

Creating Initial Environment

Creating Initial Environment BONUS

Call of Juarez 2 Part 3: Creating Initial Environment

Part 3 covers:

SkyBox
Terrian Tools
Map Settings/Environment Properties

Continue with CoJ2 Level Design Tutorial...

Call of Juarez 2 Part 2: Interface and Navigation

Part 2 covers:

Simple Mode/Advanced Mode
Viewport Navigation
Interface Overview

Continue with CoJ2 Level Design Tutorial...

Call of Juarez 2 Part 1: Modding Tools, Support and Beginning

I have been collaborating with Techland, the developers of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood to bring you a set of tutorials focusing on single player level design using ChromEd. Techland is fantastic to work with and I have nothing but praise to say about them.

You can find out more about the company here..

We will cover from beginning to end how to create a custom single player map using a very powerful engine, Chrome Engine 4.

Being able to create custom maps for Call of Juarez 2 requires a full game. You must have a PC version.

You can get the game from Amazon.com

Part 1 covers:

Modding Tools
Support
Custom Map File Structure
Playing Custom Maps
Beginning your first map

Continue with CoJ2 Level Design Tutorial...

The Release of CryEngine 3

CryEngine 3 has been released to the developers. It is the Next Gen Ready engine. DX9/DX10. CryEngine 3 Sandbox See What You Get level editor has been re-designed and it is more powerful then ever.

I personally cannot wait to get my hands on the editor.

Leave me your thoughts in the comments or on the forums.

Watch the Videos ...

How to Get a Job with Epic Games

The following notes are from a presentation by Andrew Baines, a Senior Level Designer at Epic Games.

Article Includes:

- Epic Games 8 step hiring process
- Pick a field that needs you
- Passion
- Resume
- Portfolio
- Onsite interview
- Questions to anticipate

Continue Reading...

Playing with Space and Light

Olafur Eliasson creates art from a palette of space, distance, color and light. The following video begins with an experiment in the nature of perception.

Olafur Eliasson's presentation "Playing with Space and Light" focuses on making the individual a part of the environment.

In our case, making the player part of the environment.

How does this apply to level design and game environments?

Read the Rest...

WoLD Store Re-Launch

I've redesigned the front end and relaunched the store section of World of Level Design.

The store now includes:

Featured Section

Recommended Books and DVDs

What Do They Say about WoLD

Testimonials

Head over to the Store section and take a look around.

IGDA Montreal Halo 3 Environment Presentation

IGDA-Montreal Presentation with Vic DeLeon a Senior Environment Artist and Mike Zak a Lead Environment Artist at Bungie.

Watch the video and notes on the presentation highlighting important points.

Continue Reading/Watching...

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood Modding Tools

Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood latest patch 1.1 updates and adds Modding Tools for the game.

The game uses a very beautiful and powerful ChromeEd.

There are also 3ds Max Exporter, FaceAttribMod, AnimExporter and Autodesk Maya Exporter.

You must update to 1.1 patch to use the modding tools.

Take a look at the links, videos and screenshots of Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood

Continue Reading/Watching...

29 Ways to Become a Better Level Designer and SteamLined Level Design

I wanted to give you a few resources and direct article links on my website that are related to Becoming a Better Level Designer and Streamlining your work for better productivity and time management.

Guide to Collecting Level Design Reference

How to Plan Your Next Map

Part Time Level Design

60-60-30

If you enjoyed these articles, take a look at my two ebooks. The two ebooks describe more in detail and take you through a step by step process of some of the elements described in the articles.

29 Ways to Become a Better Level Designer
128 pages of 29 Techniques, Tips and Advice Ebook on how to become a Better Level Designer.
Learn More...

'Streamlined Level Design'
Ebook includes a 51-page guide and 5-page Worksheet, along with notes.
Guide to help you plan, create, manage and produce results in level design and 3d environment projects.
Learn More...