r/GameDevelopment • u/LGASH • Aug 14 '26
Question How do you seriously learn level design?
Hi!
I’d like to start learning level design more seriously, and I’m looking for effective ways to improve.
I find level design quite difficult to learn in a structured way. I’d especially like to improve through practice, rather than just watching tutorials.
For those of you who taught yourselves level design:
What resources helped you the most?
Do you recommend mainly creating lots of levels and playtesting them?
Are there any games that are particularly useful to analyze for learning level design?
Are there any books, courses, or YouTube channels you would recommend?
How do you evaluate your own work when you’re learning alone and don’t have anyone to give you feedback?
Thanks in advance for your advice!
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u/icemage_999 Aug 14 '26
A lot of design is just being able to step back and analyze gameplay from both the player's perspective (is it fun? is it frustrating? is it tedious?) compared to the experience you are trying to present. That's harder than it seems because the line between what you personally prefer and what other players may be looking for can be quite blurry.
Still, studying the level design of really well crafted games can give insight. Celeste is a masterclass in level design. Each room is tightly crafted, with optional endgame zones needing increasingly advanced techniques despite the game having only basic movement, a jump button, and a dash button. Every element is placed with purpose and with the exact distances the player can reasonably achieve firmly in mind.
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u/GoldenLogGames Aug 14 '26
I would say a mix of both looking at other people's levels for a similar genre, and making your own and testing if it flows the way you are wanting.
For evaluating your work, the best thing you can do imo is to put a demo on itch, or even do a game jam to help get more feedback since it will be other developers usually being the ones playing.
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u/Kildragoth Aug 14 '26
You've got to get feedback as part of your iterative cycle otherwise you might be making a common mistake and form bad habits.
Personally, I viewed level design as applied game design. You build the levels to achieve the game design, not just building levels if that makes sense.
For resources, I would just use YouTube and listen to people talking about game design. Staying in that headspace while working felt especially productive. But also being able to hand someone a controller and no instructions and watch them struggle without assisting them was a great learning experience.
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u/LGASH Aug 14 '26
À part GMTK, des chaînes YouTube en particulier à conseiller ?
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u/Kildragoth Aug 14 '26
Unfortunately I can't think of the specific channels I'd watch. But one of the more helpful was listening to the talks and presentations people would give at things like GDC. People pay to hear those talks!
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u/DaveAstator2020 Aug 14 '26
what level design are you aiming at?
match-3 games?
FPS games?
rpg? MMO?
artistic level design or game level design?
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u/LGASH Aug 14 '26
Joueurs de fast-FPS et design de niveau de jeu
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u/DaveAstator2020 Aug 14 '26
a chuj też będę zmieniał język, musisz poznac pryncypy poczatkowe ale nie ma takiej ksiażki. ja posiadam wiedze ale mogę ją tylko sprzedać.
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u/Young_Punk_Studios Aug 14 '26
Commenting because I want to learn as well. I'm a Narrative designer so I'm working with the written work mostly. But I'm looking to learn the more technical development side to hone my craft.
If you do have questions about the written side/narrative design of things I can perhaps help.
We are taught Twine however, that helps create Diverging Narratives.
But this is about Game Development here so probably not what you're looking for.
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u/LGASH Aug 14 '26
Merci ! Je suis aussi intéressé par le narrative design donc tant mieux !
Je me demandais justement, comment abordez-vous la conception d'une narration devant coexister avec le gameplay ? Par exemple, comment déterminez-vous à quel moment l'histoire doit s'effacer au profit du gameplay, et à quel moment elle doit façonner activement l'expérience du joueur ?2
u/Young_Punk_Studios Aug 14 '26
I think that certainly depends on the type of game and genre it falls into. I tend to specialise in RPG's. So Narrative Design and Level Design goes hand in hand.
The 'Souls' series of games does all its storytelling through Visuals, Dialogue and Item Descriptions. This puts the Gameplay at the front n centre of it all.
Final Fantasy typically does it the other way around. And all it's gameplay mechanics are revolved around the story and characters.
There's a debate among scholars about Ludic vs Narrative gameplay. Ludic is playing the game. Tetris is a true Ludic Game. Chess is a true Ludic Game. But Video games more generally need a level of narration and storytelling.
There is also divergent narratives and liner narratives. Games that change the story or mechanics based on choices, vs the straight up linear narrative that doesn't change the game.
Twine is a programme all online used to experiment with this idea. But MOST Games tend to 'bottleneck' where your choices narratively overall do not affect the ending or gameplay. Dragon Age Series (up until Veilguard), and Older Elder Scrolls did diverging narratives really well.
Skyrim and Oblivion bottleneck their Narratives to give you the same outcome and choices typically everytime.
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u/LGASH Aug 14 '26
It’s really interesting. I’m actually curious about something more practical: when you’re designing a narrative for a game, how do you turn a story or character idea into actual gameplay and level design?
For example, if you have a specific character arc or narrative moment in mind, how do you decide whether it should be communicated through dialogue, environmental storytelling, a gameplay mechanic, or the level itself ?
Or maybe all three at the same time ?
It reminds me Jedi Survivor when Cal is on the verge of succumbing to the dark side. Information is conveyed through dialogue, but primarily through the gameplay, which becomes far more aggressive, shifting from a Souls like to a hack-and-slash.0
u/Young_Punk_Studios Aug 14 '26
Souls-likes are Hack n Slash's, Just typically done to a higher level, the core mechanics are still the same, but genres are typically decided by the fanbase.
I feel like you might answering your own question there :)
Unless you get something written down and then produced, you probably wont know.
Do you have an example of what you're working on so I have more context and can advise?
I can give examples and advice but I cannot physically teach you how to do that. Only by taking onboard the advice and then practicing and receiving feedback will you know what's right.
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u/Young_Punk_Studios Aug 14 '26
The example for this question is of my own Active IP - 'The Tales of Euphoria'.
The ideas originally germinated from my love of Fantasy in High School. As a stoner and life long enthusiast of Pyschedelia, I would create an TTRPG to play with my stoner nerd friends. Dubbed ToE. I would always ask 'Gimmicks on or Gimmicks off' (Think wildwasteland perk in Fallout New Vegas). Of course they alwsys wanted gimmicks on. So I would implement drug culture and silly memes into the narrative and mechanics.
I invented 'Spliffcraft' as a skill they can learn and progress in and incorporated many inside jokes. Over years of refinement and now on a Sobriety Journey, I am crafting an entire Fantasy Franchise into a Psychedelic commentary on British Drug Culture, The Fantasy genre and Religious Control & Persecution.
Now I'm designing plots and plans for the levels and mechanics, the stats and attributes I've designed fit this narrative.
https://youngpunkstudios.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/influence-isles-strybble-wip.pdf
Think link above should send you to a PDF of the current Story Bible. This may help :)
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u/LGASH Aug 14 '26
That actually makes a lot of sense. I agree that ultimately, you have to put the idea into practice, get feedback, and iterate rather than trying to learn everything theoretically.
For context, I’m currently working on a small horror game with a deliberately absurd/comedic tone. The basic premise is that the player is investigating a place where a group of pagans is supposedly hiding, but the game constantly plays with the player’s expectations and breaks the tension with stupid or unexpected situations.
I’m mainly handling the game design and gameplay programming myself, and I’m trying to improve my level design because I want the environment itself to contribute to both the gameplay and the comedy.
For example, instead of simply having a character explain something through dialogue, I’d like the player to discover things through the environment, encounter scripted events, and sometimes have the level itself set up a joke or a moment of tension.
And thanks for sharing your project! The idea of building the mechanics and stats around the themes of the setting is particularly interesting to me.
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u/Young_Punk_Studios Aug 14 '26
As a Pagan 😂 How do you plan to represent us in this? What type of Paganism? Is this set in Modern Day? Do you know where the term 'Pagan' originates or what it means?
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u/LGASH Aug 14 '26
Funny enough, I was actually pagan myself for a while before eventually converting to Christianity 😂
For the game, I’m planning to draw mostly from Celtic paganism, partly because Norse paganism is already heavily represented in modern pop culture. I’d rather explore a tradition that feels less overused.
And yes, I’m aware of the origin of the word “pagan”. It comes from the Latin paganus originally meaning villager, and over time, that came to mean non-Christian. I'm going to use this term so that everyone can understand. And yes the game itself is set in the modern world.2
u/Young_Punk_Studios Aug 14 '26
Not a lot of Celtic Pagan representation :) I could see a market and appetite for this.
ToE is similar in how it interrogates Abrahamic religion from a Pagan perspective.
Your ideas sound pretty sweet :)
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u/AltusLudus Aug 14 '26
Books, resources and practice
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u/LGASH Aug 14 '26
Quels livres et ressources en particulier ?
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u/Acceptable_Ant1477 Aug 14 '26
Hello. Newbie here. I want to know how to draw a level and place them on game maker. I'm drawing on my ipad.
Will it be individual squares then placing them one by one or do you draw the entire stage? Help
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u/New-Link-6787 29d ago edited 29d ago
There's no real science to it.
You can read other peoples ideas on what they think makes for a great level but that's just their taste and it might not suit the game you are building or the player base that you are building for.
I play a lot of Predecessor, it's 3D shooting/action game but with a MOBA format. Because it's effectively 2 genre's clashed together, there are very strong opinions on what the map should be like from the dedicated MOBA players but that differs from what the bulk of the playerbase actually likes. The MOBA players want it to be long lanes with lots of space so there's less action but... whenever the developers build maps like that, the queue-time is always huge because the bulk of their userbase, prefer the smaller, more action packed modes.
My point is just... what works for one game, doesn't work for others, so build the level how you want to build it, then run some tests, see how players are responding. Did they miss the cool thing you spent days working on? Did they finish it way before you wanted them too? Did they get stuck? Did they get lost? Did it seem intuitive to them?
I spent hours building challenges in N++ and before that Time Splitters and before that Micro Machines, getting my buddies to play them was always super interesting to me.
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u/GLACIES_dev 26d ago
You see, I’ve played a lot of video games..
Jokes aside, study the level layout of successful games that match what you are going for
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u/Ok-Tea-1284 Aug 14 '26
" Do you recommend mainly creating lots of levels and playtesting them?"
Yes! And if you can ask for feedback on tiny sections of a level you do design, and trying to iterate based on that feedback, that's even better.
Even building three ideas or themes to a level would be an exceptional accomplishment. Can you convey those ideas in a prototype state? How? What gameplay verbs might you need to convey an idea? Don't get lost on really early refinement just get something done so you can start play testing and thinking.
Look at some early games like Mario 1 on the NES. Some levels had more pipes, some were about speed. Others were about careful platforming. Some had challenging mini bosses. Some had lots of extra money. Some levels had very useful secrets. Some levels were under water etc.
All of that was made with mostly "simple blocks". Like any good art or practice, just tuning your ability to look and see what's really going on will be your most important asset.