The Art Of Level Design

We speak to the minds behind your favourite games to find out more about the challenges and secrets of incredible level design

- Stephen Ashby

The fiendish puzzles. The waist-high blocks that protect you in a firefight. The platforms you stand on as you survey the path ahead of you. While you’re solving them, using them as a cover or leaping across them in a game, you probably don’t stop to think about how these elements got right there, in that perfect spot. They make you feel like a hero. They make you feel like you absolutely nailed what you were doing. And they all came out of a level designer’s mind.

Whatever your favorite level of all time is, these genius game developers built it. But how do they come up with these excellent creations that we relive, over and over, for days, months or even decades after we’ve finished a game? What are the toughest parts of making a really great level? And how do you account for us pesky gamers, who are unpredictable, easily confused or just want to break the heck out of a beautifully designed stage? We spoke to the level designers behind some of this generation’s most unique games to find out.

Going solo

“As a human being, you feel much more about your environment than you know,” explains Arne Oehme, Eidos Montreal’s lead level designer on Shadow Of The Tomb Raider. “You understand if architecture makes sense; even if you’re not an architect you’ll know if something doesn’t work.”

Level-building is a fine art and one that isn’t as simple as putting platforms in reachable locations – although that is, of course, pretty damn important. It’s about anticipating player behavior, subtly pushing them in the right direction and creating a path that’s easy to follow while still offering a challenge: not the easiest of tasks.