Level Design Workshop: Architecture in Level Design

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In this 2016 GDC session, designer Claire Hosking explores how architectural design can help level designers achieve their intended mood and add depth to their levels, particularly how spatial design can anticipate and complement art design.
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[@niklasw.9660]

She deserves a comeback with a 1 hour slot. Super fascinating approach. The way she melts the ideas of architecture and level design from a user perspective is extremely insightful!

[@abdwyer]

"There's this amorphous ill-defined space of the suburbs that creates a sense of unease..." Well said, and that hit a little close to home, literally!

[@nirmattgopal1806]

😂😂😂

[@nirmattgopal1806]

Pro tip: if you see flixzone comment, unserstand that is spam

[@summerWTFE]

Really good talk. I would agree that it was too short - it seems like a huge topic that many designers could benefit from knowing more about.

[@nutritionalyeast7978]

wow, easily one of my favourite GDC talks. Packed with information, useful for game design without annoyingly delving into the business side of game development. Also I'm glad the presenter doesn't have a huge ego and go over all the totally amazing games they worked on in the past, just focusses on the audience and whats useful to them

[@ZactarZero]

if you're giving a presentation, i think it is kind of important to present some games you worked on, so the audience knows that you know what you're talking about. Although, obviously they don't need to spend more than a few seconds on it.

[@Foster_The_Wild]

it’s an architecture lecture, not a gameDev lecture. The speaker is simply using architecture and game designs shared ground to open the veil between two worlds. Architects typically look down on video games, and video game designers see architects as academics that build stuff. Realistically the have some similar processes and decisions

[@xultros3868]

I liked the first 5min most, cause it actually fit my definition of architecture when I think about level design. I rather have a 20min presentation than a 1hour-long with fillers. Overall cool speach, thank you :)

[@jixal]

Super interesting topic and some really nice insights. The presentation was spoken way to fast with an intense delivery, hard to assimilate what is being said before jumping to something else. Can tell she was really nervous so massive congrats for getting up there and delivering a speech. Very hard to do. Just need to remember to slow down!

[@gambini_modding]

I played it at 0.75 speed, and it was nicer.

[@linezgames3893]

Thank you for the presentation, basically reinforcing what I had for Horror, un settling and what is enterable and isnt just by the geometry, or texture/material itself. People think its a joke or not true that don't much or know anything about game development sooo watching this makes me feel super well at home. Thank you sooo much!!!

[@Grimsikk]

I really enjoyed this video. It's very informative and intriguing. Taking notes on all this for my own projects.

[@algi1]

This was so interesting and useful. Pity it's so short.

[@aeroperea]

this is a great perspective

[@mrqe5]

Amazing talk. Really useful.

[@Cindorellatellstory]

Really really useful. Would however prefer if it were closer to 60 minutes as it feels like some of the topics which are really interesting are just introduced. thank you so much, however!

[@ItsAllGoodGames]

nice video

[@bagr565]

Amaizing Talk!

[@Peterplayingguitar]

Which games has she worked on?

[@professorpachyderm8277]

Fantastic

[@JonesCrimson]

I was hoping to hear about interior building design.

[@linezgames3893]

Same, this basically was reinforcing my idea about exterior and how buildings are laid out. But in some parts it does hint at that some of the ideas could be use as interior designs but a more explained/detailed presentation about a flow of a interior building to have purpose/meaning for how rooms are places and walls are set would BE Such great help.

[@Muguetsu]

17:36

[@eliboy8583]

Looking at her kinda reminds me of Victoria from "How I met your mother" :)

[@jsmusic2245]

Oooh she's a real life Wattson.

[@walkingdead7115]

I understood nothing other than uuuummmm

[@jefawk9603]

says more about you than the speaker :)

[@kamilperzyna6417]

I love this talk, just wish that she was talking slower and had more slides to elaborate a bit more sometimes, especially the first 7 minutes is really chaotic.

[@gambini_modding]

I want to take her out for dinner and have an endless level design talk!

[@jameswise2]

UHmm!!!!

[@ar_xiv]

lotta OPINIONS in here

[@mileshodge3477]

If I had a quarter for everytime she says "uhh" or "ummm"

[@TitanSubZero15]

She should've learned in Architecture school to take those sounds out of her mouth when presenting.

[@milanimilivoj]

Too fast and becomes very vague the more it goes. Jumping from topic to topic without being clear enough.

[@AdamAmbrus]

given the timeframe, I think the talk was quite succint and a good intro to the relationship between spaces, materials and moods. What would you like to know more about?

[@rilke1791]

I think she was so nervous that the details slipped from her. Happened to me when I was younger to

[@jerewillis7769]

ummm uhhhh

[@Masenken]

She kinda botched this presentation, imo, but I enjoyed the information anyway. She jumped around a lot, but everything she was saying had a point, if not disjointed. you could almost feel her head jumping around and jumbling one thought from another and trying to piece itself back together. Like what she wanted to say (scripted) and what she was thinking were fighting to get out of her mouth at the same time, and you could feel the frustration building in her tone and in the pauses. Nonetheless, the information was there, and while I had to fight to pay attention, her references helped keep me on track. it might be because I suck at architecture that I found it a chore to follow, but it's a topic I've always wanted to understand more, and she did a good job of making the case for its importance and how it can be effectively used in game design beyond just trying to mash a bunch of cool looking buildings together. that's my 2 cents

[@visualeyezdoug8158]

Very interesting but a bit too ethereal. Would have liked a bit more about just solid concepts. Less “use this to achieve a certain experience” WHAT EXACTLY are you talking about. Lol. Combined with the accent made it kinda hard to follow.. Maybe I’m just a big dummy.

[@Icefirealchemy]

She didn't give a recipe, only general principles. I think that's ok

[@dieberliner1576]

I'm sure there's some good information in here, but I found her rocking back and forth distracting. I know she's nervous, but it never stops.

[@Soturi4k]

yeah its super easy for introverts to speak publicly.super lame broski.

[@matty101yttam]

The positive and negative space thing, was the only thing i felt was useful and most people know this anyhow by instinct. The other stuff i just wasn't feeling at all, like about the church thing...i felt absolutely nothing, she was talking as if it makes people feel this or that and i'm just thinking it looks like someone started building something in a field and stopped after the 1st lot of concrete. Nothing about it suggested anything religious to me, likewise the pictures she shows of in game religious architecture, the only ones i thought of as being semi religious were bottom left, top mid and bottom right and not because hard geometry = subtle mental links to religion but because the pyramid IS a hard mental link to egyptian religion.

[@danielvutran]

This too is a skill you must develop ( if you'd want to ! ) This is about sensory compassion, i totally know what you mean tho ( I was the same way LOL ) i had to watch a LOT of emotional movies / shows / books for me to start to ' git good ' Once I did all of that tho, I now am REALLY compassionate with the subtle emotions such as the church building she present'd LOL ( Thank you One Piece )

[@maxmuller445]

@@danielvutran But is it really useful at this point? Since the spaces arent designed for architects but for regular people, whats the point if those feelings aren't surfacing?

[@danielvutran]

@@maxmuller445 I think it is really useful, since I'm not an architect either yet I felt those same feelings LOL - you can tell also by the reactions of many people in places such as temples or those Maya ruins when they walk around there is a sense of 'something'.. If you simplify it even more, our eyes are just absorbing information lol - the colors and shapes of everything. So of course there will be colors and shapes of buildings that will make us feel a certain way, like a really bright yellow house xD So if simple things such as a bright yellow house can make us feel things, it is a really easy idea to grasp that more complicated buildings will also make us feel more complicated feelings. Food is a good example too, someone can make really good French fries... and then someone else can make a 5 star meal : both are delicious but one is definitely more complex in its flavor and higher quality of sensation, i hope this makes sense! Again I'm a total noobie for architecture LOL, so it's not like only professionals can get a feeling from these things!

[@maxmuller445]

@@danielvutran I can see why the interior evokes a "holy" sensation but the exterior not at all. My theory is that its an american thing, more modern brutalist churches. In europe churches usually have a rectangular or crucefix shaped floorplan and gabled roofs from the exterior, domed in the interior. Most churches are ornate and spacious. Shallow angles between walls are almost never seen.

[@danielvutran]

@@maxmuller445 Oh yes for exterior i agree i got nothing from it at all LOL : however not every building will appeal to us! I'm sure there are some people out there who will feel exactly as how the architect intended XD

[@akashverma4280]

Ooh look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you made me do Look what you made me do Look what you just made me do Look what you just made me do!!!!

[@SP95]

My bandwidth said no, please wait till 2025

[@2Cerealbox]

They wanted to make sure the lecture was as equally desirable on console.

[@yonjuunininjin]

Yeah right, the transition of the slides was not smooth enough, it hurts my eyes, we totally need the 60 fps for that... :|

[@kdhlkjhdlk]

Except in the walking dead your surroundings don't matter at all because the game is a series of nodes where dialogue, QTEs and non-choices take place. Nothing is really at stake beyond what Telltale pre-scripted.

[@NickKinsman3D]

Oh boy. Missing the point much, eh? This talk is 100% about how appropriate architecture incorporated into the world can help establish mood and feeling in your game, exactly as it can in real life. The surroundings in the walking dead (for reference, a game I did not like) absolutely benefits from this idea because every part of the game should be pushing you to feel unease and dread. Whether or not any other parts of the game succeeded in that regard is irrelevant to this talk and her overarching ideas.

[@bt5270]

20 minutes of word soup without any reality at all.

[@Soturi4k]

life is hard