5 Tips for Great Level Design

[@ericeastland6321]

Knowing the language of your game is so important! There was a clear difference between the levels I designed at the beginning of my project versus the ones that came after I had fleshed out my world and mechanics some more.

[@NeatGames]

Great tips! I've really enjoyed designing levels for my metroidvania :D

[@fufidae]

Those are great tips but what I really liked was how you addressed the principle of "Don't waste space", here's my piece of mind about it! What I think is that, it's perfectly fine to have space that doesn't immediately serve a purpose as long as that space is interesting, I remember playing Skyrim for the first time and being completely amazed by how big that world was, exploring the different biomes and doing road trips walking around was so much fun, it actually made me not want to use fast travel some times, and that could have been considered a waste of space since so much of Skyrim is just empty wilderness with nothing on it. Of course having an extra long corridor with nothing on it is still likely a bad idea, specially when you need to go back and forth a bunch of times, like the stardew valley example mentioned in the video, but having scenery that can get your players immersed in the world you're creating can really add to the experience. I think the key here is to find balance, between mechanics and world building, if a room is big then make it big but don't leave it empty, make it so that the room tells a story for those who are interested in exploring and observing, so many games make good use of environmental storytelling and I really like that, there's just so much more fun in uncovering the story through all the leads left in the level instead of having the game just throw a 10 minute long cut scene at you that tells you everything about the lore, The Last of Us 2 is a great example of this, I would spend waaay more time in levels than required just because I kept looking around, at walls and tables, not for resources, but for clues of what could have happened with the people that were once there.

[@morriganrenfield8240]

Just was complaining in a reddit thread about level design getting worse in devil may cry. Especially when 1/3 and the reboot exist in the series.

[@apoxfox]

I’ve actually never played DMC but I am definitely interested in giving the series a try. Which would you say is the best game to start with?

[@CliffDiverBOA]

@@apoxfox I will say I had no nostalgia for the series when I played through all of them 2 years ago. I went by release order, 1-5, and I felt that was the best way to experience it. Just know 1 and 2 are very weird feeling compared to the later ones (you can also skip 2 and not lose anything) But if you’re in it purely for the combat and don’t care about story, starting at 3 is the most popular option from what I understand.

[@thelastgogeta]

​@@apoxfoxTimeline wise, 3 is the earliest game in the series and I do like it the most, but there is no problem with beginning with DMC1 as well then going in release order. All of the games have ports, special editions or feature in a collection so your experience may vary but generally speaking... DMC1 is best played on PS2 - not EU version as 50Hz - (or PC with mods). HD Collection was fine for me, but not the perfect option. DMC2 is a bad and unfinished game, but if you already have the HD Collection and a free weekend - maybe see how it informed the rest of the series to never go full DMC2. Don't bother with both playthroughs and consider the HD Collection with mods to make it slightly better. DMC3 Special Edition... You'd either go with the Switch version (I recommend playing with Freestyle mode) or the PC version with mods though that's a very bad unlisted port which modders transformed into an amazing project with a lot of accessibility and training options. There are no known reasons to go with the original PS2 release though I believe some effects and input lag were messed up. DMC4... The fantastic PC port was unlisted but the Special Edition for casual players is just a better version even if it is more demanding. 3 more characters, better pacing for unlocks. DMC5 - PC version. The PC never got the Special Edition but it did get the main parts as DLC and mods are really out there too. ... I think DmC is also worth mentioning too. It was an unnecessary reboot attempt but can be considered fun in its own way. The PS3/Xbox version is the worst way to play at 30FPS while the Definitive Edition (not on PC) makes about as many improvements that can be made without adding any playable characters. PC version with mods is fine too. It doesn't really matter when you play it as long as you understand that it is a totally separate canon from 2013 which will never be continued.

[@morriganrenfield8240]

@@apoxfox id just go with in order really. Although i kinda recommend skipping 2 as it was a hyper rushed game that barely came together as a functional project. Dmc3se play on the switch so you can swap styles during combat and play the special editions of 4 and 5. Reboot is decent to try for the gameplay and music. That's the one that has probably the third best/ most interesting level design. Oh on the reboot play the console exclusive definitive edition for sure. It fixes some broken combat design choices

[@icecp6532]

You have a very calming voice. I really like this style of video. Much love!

[@lunettecasquette]

I'm struggling so much with level design, thank you this is a great video !

[@andrempfive]

yo, how is it going? Is there any progress?

[@anthonywritesfantasy]

There's a video on dungeon map making, that talks a lot about making it so there is more than one way into a dungeon, and also more than one way out. Also, using elevations creatively, having paths that loop, and when to telegraph "there might be treasure here, but are you up to the challenge?" All great ideas not just for level design, but for experience design. I think that's another thing, that Jonathan Blow tries to talk about a lot: it's about the experience. Celeste is a total masterclass at this, at giving you opportunities to find a fun new way to use the tools you already have, before putting an extreme challenge in front of you, and pushing you to use that fun new idea to its absolute limit.

[@MrPangahas]

mind sharing that dungeon making vid?

[@anthonywritesfantasy]

@@MrPangahas Of course! It's on Map Crow's channel, which has a ton of excellent videos. But this particular one is called "Jaquaysing your dungeon."

[@MrPangahas]

@@anthonywritesfantasy found it thanks,this will help me in my procedural dungeon design.

[@anthonywritesfantasy]

@@MrPangahas Hey that's cool! What are you working on?

[@ravi12880]

It was 5 tips but i wrote 9 note from them. Thank you for your information it helped me a lot ❤

[@elephantmarch]

I feel a good rule is, if you're GOING to have a long stretch to travel purely for the sake of ambience or mood, it should be a spot you're not going to re-enter multiple times: Like say a connection between key parts of a hubworld you travel to several times..

[@jiratrello]

thanks for the video. i was wondering what that first person jumping game with the character portrait on the left is? looks interesting !

[@apoxfox]

Neon White!

[@jiratrello]

@@apoxfox thank u!

[@_xtel]

Banger video with lots of great info! Tip #3 really hit and made me think about my own levels.

[@apoxfox]

Awesome Xtel! Glad it helped!

[@Akeiga]

Awesome tips! Thanks for talking about different things and taking the time to help us out!

[@jameshughes3014]

i've been working on my first game for a few months. I found a great way to deal with this. just, make everything except for the levels and keep putting off building the levels for all of eternity :D These tips are super helpful. Feeling like I might actually finish now. Thanks for this.

[@FarhanAhmad-yb4zl]

I am an Environment artist but these level design videos really help alot

[@xaiyeon_xiuzhen]

ty i struggle with level design, but the advice is good, clear vision, satsification of completing, and story/character driven design seem important i guess

[@goodpuppii]

This is super helpful as I start the level design process for a new game I'm working on. The part on language really resonated with me, and I can see how it will help me focus while laying out my levels. Cheers🤩

[@alec_almartson]

Thank You for making this video. These are excellent Tips, really helpful.

[@apoxfox]

Glad I can help!

[@gianluberga7184]

5:52 i think that minecraft is one example, where instead of wasting space they add new stuff whitout integrating it in progression. aka: fancier way to say waste of space

[@vast634]

Open world and side content markers: a classic mix between no markers and all markers visible is a fog of war or region unlock. The player can see on the map what areas he has visited already, and which are unvisited. Once in a new area those additional question marks get added to the map. Unlocking them could also be linked to other activities like quest rewards or finding/purchasing a map, or from a guild the player has joined. And yes, games can also work without handholding. But not every game is a content monster to reward the player around every corner with something unique to find. So hints to additional places to discover makes sense then.

[@RKIOrbMage]

Great video! Tip 5 was really uselful + 1 subscriber

[@Amipotsophspond]

I bet you live in the city, star-dew valley is designed to capture a idealized small town feel. the long walk to the city is made to separate the city from your house and capture that remote feel. it's like if I was making a city game I might include a subway where you could get mugged in, meet a girl and fall in love, see a homeless man banging on buckets, or get pushed on to the tracks. I have never live in a city with a subway but I bet those are actual super rare things that unlikely to show the real feel of big city life. so maybe the subway should have advertisements that just lead to disappointment, when all the really great places are not advertised are something recommend by someone or that you discover. the walk is like the fishing mechanic something made to slow down the player stop achievement grinding. the point is that hike to the town is really well planned to make it a chore/event to go to town, something you do for a reason.

[@KVMII]

If playing the game feels like a chore, I’m not having a good time.

[@whilefree]

Awesome video! Great tips! What is the name of the platform game shown as the first scene in the intro?

[@apoxfox]

Thank you! It’s a Metroidvania called Animal Well that came out 2 days ago, I’m loving it so far!

[@whilefree]

@@apoxfox Yeah it looks so pleasing. Gonna try it out.

[@Retrobro11]

Definitely a useful tutorial

[@nikz000]

What a great video thank you for the tips

[@algi1]

Pro tip for The Witcher 3: A lot of the minimap options can be turned off or changed in the options. Last time I played, I turned it into a The Witcher 1 style minimap that only shows the terrain and North is always up. The detective style quests are really trivial and boring with a fully functional minimap.

[@fierorecensione5828]

Very nice video but the point 5 is still a little bit unclear to me, let's make an example, what Celeste try to tell us in their levels?

[@apoxfox]

Thanks for the kind words. For Celeste, it’s a game about overcoming difficult inner challenges. That’s why a lot of the levels are centered around avoiding yourself (in level 2 the main mechanic is literally avoiding a copy of yourself that’s following your exact movement) Spoiler alert: the final levels are centered around working with yourself to overcome those challenges (now Madeline has to use the dark side of herself to climb the mountain, it’s the main focus of those levels) “Your game is a language” is really just a way to say that each element of your game informs eachother. Not every game needs a deep message, but letting the direction of your overall game dictate the level design can be a good tool! Hope that helps!

[@ultimaxkom8728]

^ Cough. Personally, Celeste's pure _level design_ language is simply _challenge,_ while the stuff about self and dark side is a mix with _narrative design._

[@JeffNeet]

I would take a slightly different angle. Forgetting the narrative and theatrical content. Celeste 's. Level design says " You are capable of more than you realize". Every time you encounter another floating strawberry, it very clearly states it is possible to get here and back without dying. But it leaves the question of how to accomplish that to the player to grind on. That grind would feel demoralizing unless it was true that every strawberry was achievable. It would also feel demoralizing if the strawberries were missing and you wandered all the way down to branching path just to find nothing but more interesting platforms at the end. The strawberries offer you a personal challenge, but don't require you to tackle it in order to move forward. The game, even very clearly states that there is no reward for collecting more strawberries other than the personal satisfaction of knowing you did it.

[@rmdcompositions]

Great video!

[@apoxfox]

Thanks for watching, glad you liked it!

[@leafstormblaze9449]

That part in sterdew valley needs to be there so you can link it to modded towns.

[@diarmuidtherat]

A mountain can just be nice to look at, or an obstacle between you and somewhere else.

[@Styleknot]

What games are these at 0:40 0:55 2:52 09:59

[@goldencookie5456]

Hey nice video. Do you have the platformer game you showed on your video up anywhere to play? I'd like to try it out.

[@mangoes1012]

Thats crazy, I was watching another KZbinr play animal well so I definitely got jumpscared by the opening

[@nicreven]

was it tyler

[@mangoes1012]

@@nicreven sure was

[@drdca8263]

Hmm... how would one apply the first two of these to a SHMUP? Would the “clear goal” just be “completing the level”? Or would it be smaller goals within the level, like “beat this volley of enemies”/“pick up that powerup”? Maybe for an autoscoller, having a clear goal is automatically handled?

[@apoxfox]

Good question! I think it really depends on how the game plays, but I think you’re on the right track that in a SHMUP your goal could be the brief moment of rest after a long wave or reaching a checkpoint. I like when a SHMUP has a recovery zone. I play a lot of Beat ‘em ups (which feels pretty similar in design) and I think it’s really important to reward the player with some time to relax a little and decide how to handle the next wave

[@TobyJWalter]

Absolutely Increible video!!!!

[@llenvnn]

what is that game in the first clip before celeste?

[@claireglory]

i have been playing all kinds of game genres since 1990. and i played japanese games and finished it even when i do not know or understand japanese. my experiences in game level designs is astronomically high. sadly i have no courage to apply for a job, because i believe no one will hire me.

[@apoxfox]

If you really wanna get hired at a game studio the best thing you can do is just start making games. Build a portfolio, show people what you are capable of. Saying you play a lot of games isn’t gonna be enough to get a job, you gotta put in the work and prove yourself

[@claireglory]

@@apoxfox i am. :) im using unity 2D and will venture to 3D soon. full stack dev. when i write. it feels and kinda sounds like im very westernized right? but my accent is way different and i hate it. it has pushed me back from my goals for so long. english interviews scares the f out of me. if only interviews allow non-voice.

[@apoxfox]

@@claireglory wow your English is really impressive! I can imagine that it will be intimidating, but you just have to let your work speak for itself. Best of luck to you :)

[@3mpt7]

Massive amounts of open space that have no purpose: Ah yes, the Halo series under 343 industries.

[@AvectaInteractive]

Good tips thanks! Level layout and design looks so simple till you get into it and start hitting wall. Pardon the pun 🤪

[@unluckychloe]

what game is that at 7:47 ?

[@camgoodkicks]

What makes me laugh SO hard about some of your points is how Pokemon goes out of its way to make sure it eats as much of your time as it can. Especially in towns

[@Catbrizzle]

Game name at 0:40?

[@Flash_of_Stars]

Good tips, i like tham

[@nikhilvardhantawania4591]

3rd tip, I can't agree more with you. This is one thing I hate the most about GOW

[@Sezox]

What is the first game name.

[@haomakk]

I absolutely love ghost of tsushima, but I was a bit disappointed with the secrets you "find" around the map. they are the things like hot springs, bamboo strikes, haikus, etc. and they appear as a question mark when you clear the fog of war on top of them. but the game has this awesome mechanic of following the golden birds that sometimes appear, and they'll lead you straight to those secrets. it would've been really cool if you actually had to do that to find them, instead of just setting a waypoint to the question mark on your map.

[@rahulraghu4928]

What game is at 5:57?

[@alexevaldez]

Tales of symphonia or abyss i believe.

[@gamesthatiplay9083]

Checkpoints = great level design?

[@Chaingz]

Uhhh Mordecai? Bro seriously ascended I wonder where’s Rigby

[@Ibrahimoezhan]

Good video!

[@Leikjarinn]

What game is that? 0:01

[@JeffNeet]

Animal Well. It's brilliant and just came out. One of the freshest feeling platformers I've played in a decade.

[@MKzing]

Thanks!

[@hiiambarney4489]

Eh. There are harder things when it comes to making games than level design, at least for me personally. The subtle languages are something you will pick up on given enough time in games spent at least somewhat picking them apart critically. And level design is something that is really easy to pick up on, once you notice the shared lingo between games that you actually enjoy. By the time Metroid Dread released it was very clear to me that I got constantly locked out from accessing areas that don't hold something I need to progress in the game, in more or less subtle ways. When I first played Super Metroid, I didn't understand this concept intuitively yet. As to what things I actually deem harder in game design? For example: Making a Camera. I mean... Making a GOOD Camera, excellent, perhaps. This is so much harder because it's much less intuitive to pick up on simply by playing a game. It's not subtle light guiding you towards something hidden, it is supposed to be hidden. And it's so much work which seemingly adds "nothing" to the game for the player as he doesn't notice it when it's applied. He will notice how it's gone though and the entire game will suffer from it. These aren't intuitive, they happen to need a lot of abstract thought put into them. I played a TON of Super Mario World in my days, but before I put in the work, researching this topic, I could not have told you how it's camera system works without looking it up. Try it for yourself. Pick a game, similar to one of your projects, which you played a lot. Ask yourself: "How did they handle the Camera in that game?" Visual and Auditorial queues are much easier to pick up on, trust me.

[@legowyn24]

About the part where he mentions that no waypoints are better; this is not true for everyone. I have no idea about the vast majority but I know from personal experience that I can't play a game without them. I love waypoints because they give me something to do. I'm a big fan of certain quest systems because they give me something to do. In other words, they give me instructions on what I can do to progress. I can't enjoy Elden Ring because I have no idea what to do. I don't know how to progress or get better equipment, and around every corner is something that is much stronger than me. I've played Elden Ring for probably a collective of 3 hours gaining no progress because the only cave I could find that I could actually beat; the boss is nearly impossible without arrows-which I do not know how to get

[@nerdtime7657]

Good vid.

[@akihitonarihisago1203]

What is the name of the game at the start of keep it fresh segment?

[@apoxfox]

That’s my game REM Runners! It’s still in very early development but I’ll have more updates soon 😄

[@akihitonarihisago1203]

@@apoxfox that was cool will keep an eye on it, i would like to support your game and many other indie games because I liked them but due to my home country being India games are pretty expensive and I am still a student will repay whenever possible, keep up the good work bro ❤️✨

[@apoxfox]

@@akihitonarihisago1203 Thank you bro! And I totally understand that, localization and fair pricing for everyone is very important to me.

[@nerdzone]

I think the first 20% of the video are somewhat off. I never asked myself "Why I am doing all this?" in a game and then answer it "To reach the next bonfire." This question applies to overarching macro goals and you were talking about micro goals instead. Those to me are not the same.

[@schar1024]

Level Design is the reason I Like Gravity Circuit, but dislike Berserk Boy. Both are MegaMan like Games, but levels felt unique in Gravity Circuit and like Copy Pasted in Berserk Boy.

[@ThalesCardris]

I find Celeste to be very good, and pretty, but extremely repetitive. I struggled a LOT to finish it tbh

[@windums560]

👍

[@watercat1248]

In the game I'm working most of those tips dasn't work at all the reason it's 1. The game I'm working it's mulpayer PvP with out story or any of that The clear level printable for my game is the following. 1. And enough items for the collect the player 2. Avoid impasse as much as I can because my game is multiplayer fps and the movement is very important I have disaing the map's for game to have 2 or more exits In this way the player's able to run with each other esyer and and search for other items and player's esyer as well. 3. My game not have small door's and room's for few reason 1. The player movent are fast and don't want that player colid on the wall Wean try to move around. 2. Because the room and areas for my game needs by big enough for the movement it has extra benefits able to move around more Player's esyer as well. 3. However I need to add perfect balance for how big those rooms are because if the make those rooms tobig and empty with not real reason I will be anoing. Like most other multiplayer game's my game I will have mixed between close open areas in most stage wean you make PvP shooter the need to be perfect balance ⚖️ for open areas areas for hiding and to have something in the order to not make cambers. The game I'm is more like old fps game's the have items to collect from the map and Player collect need collect weapon the don't have all those items weapon starting this one off the way that I make the player to move around. The other way make the Player not want to hide forever is the fact have 0 accuracy lost wean you move, However I believe cover it's valble option for time to time for example if one player is hiding on house for example it's harder to shaman out site house to shooting this person, on the other hand if you are on the middle of the map in open area you are easy target 🎯. In the end off the day wail I have some level disaing pattern for my game that I believe I will work the only way to know for sure if the level are fan to play are playing testing, I'm sure those patterns help unit my my game playble I will able to know how much open or closed areas to have I will see wean make my game playble.