Slides revised Mar 23, 2015. The course intro for level design course with an introduction to some surrealist methods and development project aiming to use those those techniques. This is part of an experiment in design teaching to extend student design understanding outside of tradition methods. The slides contains the course intro, instructions to a development assignment and description of prefabs that are offered for the project (the Unity Project will be available later after I I fixed all the details and removed assets that I cannot redistribute).

1. Petri Lankoski
Level Design
Sprint 2015

2. Level Design
“Once the core gameplay for a game is established, it
is the level designer’s job to create the game-world in
which game play takes place, to build spaces that are
fun for players to play in” (Rouse, 2005, p.449)
Use of ready design and components to populate the
game-world
 Where, what, how
 Implementation of models, textures, sounds that are
needed in the levels
Level order and how the levels are connected
2

3. Petri Lankoski
Course Info

4. Petri Lankoski
Learning goals
Create levels for a game using a specific game system
design
Apply theories and research in level design work
Describe and Analyze level designs
Document and reflect own work

5. Petri Lankoski
Pedagogy
Problem-based / project-based learning
 Problem-driven (in contrast to lecture-driven)
 Project is the problem, a tool for learning
Set-up
 Intro + seminars
 Focus on concepts and theories
 Project
 Focus on applying theories and concepts in development
work
 Reflection
 Focus on documenting, reflecting, analyzing

6. Petri Lankoski
Portfolio
Game level (not returned via StudentAdmin)
Development diary (project part, 7/4-23/4)
Test plan & report
Two work samples accompanied with an
explanation how the sample exemplifies your learning.
Critique to the levels of another group
 Artist of the group writes one critique
 Designers of the group writes one critique

7. Petri Lankoski
Grading Criteria
G
Portfolio shows that the student
is able describe and justify their
design choices
Portfolio shows that the student
can apply theories/methods
from reference literature in
design and practical
development work.
Attended all the seminars and
project work
VG
Fulfil the criteria for G
The portfolio shows that the
student is able to critically reflect
their and others designs.
Portfolio shows that the student
has a good command on the
reference literature.
You have kept all deadlines

8. Petri Lankoski
Reading List for Thu (10/4)
All:
 Rouse, Game Design: Theory &
Practice (2nd ed), Chapter 23: Level
Design (pp. 449–474)
 Surrealist techniques (Wikipedia)
Artist
 Salzberg & Kupferman: Stage Light
Primer: sections Principles of
Composition, Functions
Of Stage Lighting, Qualities of Light
 Solarsky, Videogame art. Chapter 7
Environmental design and part of
chapter 8, colour (pp. 203–229)
 Hayward, Videogame aesthetics.
Gamasutra.
Designers
 Licht: An Architect’s Perspective
On Level Design Pre-Production.
Gamasutra.
 Stout: Learning from the Masters.
Gamastutra.
 Galuzin: Horror/Survival Level
Design. World od Level Design.

9. Petri Lankoski
Game
One game
 Theme: Surrealism
 Apply in look-and-feel
 Palette: complement colors
 Core mechanics:
 Exploration
 Finding power-ups and portals
 Portals are hard to see by design
 Spatial puzzle
 Finding ones way from the beginning to the goal
 Portals, power-ups, and kill zones are the main components
for the puzzle
“Published” as a freeware after the course

10. Petri Lankoski
Game...
 You get Unity project that include (via version control)
 Start screen with full functionality
 An into scene
 Fully functional
 Except, some features depending on your level design in other
scenes
 No coding except for visual effects
 A set of prefabs that provides the core functionality

11. Petri Lankoski
Development Diary
See template
Remember to
 To describe what you did
 Describe the problems you face and how you solved the
problem
 Explain how you used the course literature in your work
An entry per day, a longer entry once a week
 Development phase
 Include also quality sprint

12. Test plan & test report
Plan
 Plan what to be tested
 Aims for systematic approach
 You should actively test things that needs to be tested! It is
not possible to see everything in advance.
Report
 Contains the cases that where tested
 Also the list of issues that remains
12

13. Petri Lankoski
Work samples
 Two Samples: for example:
 Level design schema, concept art, assets, postmortem, etc.
 Instead of 3D files or Photoshop files, use screenshots showing relevant details
 Written report (around a page)
 What did you do?
 How did you do this?
 Why did you do this ?
 How this sample demonstrates your learning?
 Keep in mind the learning goals of the course!
 Telling that you have learned to normal map or using Unity profiler, etc. won’t help to
demonstrate your learning

14. Petri Lankoski
Groups for Project
Level Design Groups:
 Two levels (he second levels is a copy of the other with some
small changes)
Lead Level Design Group:
 overall structure & set-up intro & end scene
 Requires co-operating with all groups
Scrum Master Group
 No scrum masters in the other groups
ME: lead designer / product owner

15. Petri Lankoski
Sprints
Sprint 1 (7/4-8/4)
 Concept: Concept art, maps,
prototypes, etc. -> High level
User Stories (1)
 Scrum team does not work
as scrum masters during this,
but with lead level design
group
Sprint 2 (9/4-14/4):
 Dev sprint
 First level
Sprint 3 (15/4-17/4):
 Dev sprint
 Second level ready
 The game is fully playable
Sprint 4 (20/4–23/4):
 Quality sprint (testing &
iteration)
 Test the whole game
(1) Keith, Agile Game
Development with
Scrum. Addison
Wesley, 2010, pp. 85-
124

16. Petri Lankoski
Game
Messanger

17. Petri Lankoski
Theme
Surrealism
 Illogical, visually realistic
 Let your unconsciousness
guide
 E.g.: Max Ernst, André
Breton, Salvador Dali,
Federico García Lorca, René
Magritte
Match to the style of concept
images, intro scene, and demo
“SURREALISM, n. Psychic
automatism in its pure state, by
which one proposes to express
-- verbally, by means of the
written word, or in any other
manner -- the actual functioning
of thought. Dictated by the
thought, in the absence of any
control exercised by reason,
exempt from any aesthetic or
moral concern.“ (Breton, 1924.)

18. Petri Lankoski
Approach
Disorienting
 Pseudo-randomized progression structure
 Portals
 Power-ups
 Some levels looking almost the same, but are not
Spatial puzzle
 Finding ones way from the start to the goal
 Finding and collecting power-ups that enables to pass gas
clouds that kills (Killing Zones)
 Finding portals

19. Petri Lankoski
Level Design and Level
Progression
 Power-up access
 Hide
 simple platform path
 Simple puzzle
 Hide portals in the level
 Portals should be easy to access (if one have needed power-ups)
 Levels can be revisited
 Use Killing Zones to force players to finds Power-ups
 More game world should accessible when more more power-
ups are collected

20. Petri Lankoski
Style

21. Petri Lankoski
Style…

22. Petri Lankoski
Style…

23. Petri Lankoski
Style…

24. Petri Lankoski
Style…

25. Petri Lankoski
Style…

26. Petri Lankoski
Style…

27. Petri Lankoski
Style…

28. Petri Lankoski
Style…

29. Petri Lankoski
Style…

30. Pseudo-Random Variations
New game will modify the game
 Three variations of the portals
 Where they are or where the portal leads to
 Three variations of where power-ups are
 Where the power-ups are
30

31. Petri Lankoski
Different game variations

32. A Game Example
Windows:
• http://www.mediafire.com/download/aei7qb5z4aotf8l/Messang
OSX
• OSX: http://www.mediafire.com/download/zf3two2blqber1f/Me
32

33. Early plan: Portal Set 1
33
Intro
Level 1A
Level 1B
Level 2A (UP)
Level 2B (UP)
End Level
2A (DOWN)
2B (DOWN)

34. 34
Set: ONE
Level: Level1A
Exit: Exit01
Set: TWO
Level: Level1B
Exit: Exit01
Set: THREE
Level: Level2A
Exit: Exit01
Intro

35. 35
Set: ONE
THREE
Level: Level2B
Exit: Exit01
Set: THREE
Level: Level2A
Exit: Exit03
Set: ONE
TWO
Level: Level2A
Exit: Exit02
Set: TWO
Level: Level1B
Exit: Exit03
Set: THREE
Level: Level1B
Exit: Exit04
Level1A Set: TWO
Set: THREE
Set: ONE
Set: TWO
Set: ONE
Set: TWO Set: THREE
Set: TWO
01
02
03
04

36. Level1B
Set: ONE
THREE
Level: Level2B
Exit: Exit03
Set: TWO
Level: Level2B
Exit: Exit01
Set: TWO
Level: Level1A
Exit: Exit03
Set: THREE
Level: Level1A
Exit: Exit04
Set: THREE
Level: Level2B
Exit: Exit02
Set: ONE
Set: ONE
Set: THREESet: TWO
Set: ONE
Set: TWO
Set: THREE
01
02
03
04

37. 37
Set: ONE
TWO
Level: Level1A
Exit: Exit03
Set: ONE
Level: Level2B
Exit: Exit03
Level2A
Set: TWO
Level: Level2B
Exit: Exit04
Set: THREE
Level: end
Exit: Exit01
Set: THREE
Level: Level1A
Exit: Exit03
Set: THREE
Level: Level2B
Exit: Exit03
Set: THREE
Set: ONE
Set: ONESet: ALL
01
02
03
04

38. 38
Set: TWO
THREE
Level: Level2A
Exit: Exit03
Set: ONE
TWO
Level: Level2A
Exit: Exit02
Set: ONE
Level: Level2A
Exit: Exit02
Set: ONE
TWO
Level: end
Exit: Exit01
Set: TWO
THREE
Level: Level1B
Exit: Exit02
Set: ONE
Level: Level1B
Exit: Exit02
Set: THREE
Level: Level2A
Exit: Exit04
Set: ONESet: TWO
Set: THREE
01
02
03
04
Level2B

39. 39
Portal Set: ONE, Power-Up Set 3

40. 40
Portal Set: ONE, Power-Up Set 3

41. Petri Lankoski
Surrealist techniques
What & Why
Use surrealist techiques in
When modeling & animating
Putting a level together
The main point is restrict the
conscious control in the process
Examples
 Collage: Cut-and-paste from
different images, models,
animations; combine without reason
guiding
 Bulleting: Shoot ink to paper;
draw based on what is seen (useful
in drawing concept art)
 Excusive Corpse: words & images
are collegially arranged; first
write/draw and hides the most, next
continues the writing drawing and
hides most, etc.

42. Petri Lankoski
Unity Project
Technical Overview and Project Customs

43. Petri Lankoski
Unity Version
Unity version 4.6.3
We cannot put things together if other versions are
used

44. Petri Lankoski
Technical overview
The master version of the group’s work on Unity Pro
(on school machines)
Version control activated
 Edit->Project Settings->Editor
 Version control mode: Asset Sever
 Window->Version Control (Ctrl-0)
 Server setting as groups passwords in handouts

45. Petri Lankoski
Working with Version Control
1. Get changes from the server
 Update
 Do each morning
1. Do your updates
2. Test
3. Local Changes
 Select all & commit all your changes
 Required at the end of sprint, but commit at least once a day
 Do not commit untested changes

46. Petri Lankoski
Setting Up a Level
Remove camera from the scene
Add MainManager prefab
 Prefabs/MainManager/MainManager
Add PlayerStart
 Prefabs/Player/PlayerStart
 No need to add PlayerPrefab directly to a level!

47. Petri Lankoski
Portal
Prefabs/Portal
PortalEntrance
Values need to be set (after adding to a scene)
 PortalSet: select from pop-up
 Portal end:
 level name: the level where portal leads to
 Portal name: the portal exit where the player object is
transferred to
PortalExit
Rename object after adding it to a scene
 Name needs to be unique

48. Petri Lankoski
Portal & Power-up Set
New game will randomize
Portal Set
Power-up Set
A portal is active if its set match to the active portal set
Power-up is active if its set match to the active power-
up set
Examples coming

49. Debug GUI
Toggle on–off: 0 + 8
You can
 Set active Portal Set & Power-up Set
 Add Power-ups to PC or remove all
 Jump to different Portal Exits in the scene
49

50. Petri Lankoski
Power-ups & KillerZones
Power-up
Prefabs/PoweUp
Five different types of power-
ups
Each enables to pass a specific
type of KillerZone
Edit Power Up Set after adding
power-up
Killer zone
Prefabs/KillerZone
Five different types of Killer
zones
Distinguishable by the smoke
color

51. MainManager
Prefabs/MainMan
ager
LevelManager
to change
movement & jump
per level
51

52. Petri Lankoski
Other Prefabs
Following eye
 An eye ball looking towards player object
MainMenu
 Used in MainManu level
Intro Boss
 Used in intro scene. Fixed behavior: on level start, freezes
player, plays dialogue (can be edited on Inspector), frees
player and follows Waypoints

53. Petri Lankoski
Project Organization
Groups has their own folders
 Add your assets here
 Use the directory created for your group (Group1, group2,
…)
 Your stuff outside of your group folder will be deleted
Prefabs
 It is a good practice to use prefabs
 Everything that goes to a scene that needs some kind of
set-up should be made as prefab

54. Project…
Edit only your groups assets without consulting
teacher
 Ok change prefabs after added to Hierarchy
 NOTE instances of prefabs share the Materials
 Make sure that you only edit the materials of your group
 Duplicating a prefab or game object does not duplicate
material
No not add multiple versions of a same file to Assets
folder
 Replace the earlier version
54

55. Naming assets and Scripts
Use GRN prefix for every script you add
 Example:
 A sound script of the Group1
 GR1PlayOnEnter.cs
Use only English in file names!
 Letters öäå (etc.) will break things
55

56. Petri Lankoski
Hierarchy Organization
Use empty objects for grouping
things
Always rename objects when
you have more than one
 Eg.:
 Waypoint -> Waypoint1
 Waypoint -> Waypoint2
 …
See example in intro level

57. This week
Read the materials for workshop
Play the example game
Get familiar with the Unity project
57

58. The End
58