Importance of Concept Art

Concept Art & In Game Screen Cap from Top Left
(Guild Wars 2, Bulletstorm, The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Darksiders 2, and Trine 2)

The importance of concept art in design is something that I am very familiar with. I have wanted to be a concept artist since I joined IADT. I studied what concept art was and the importance of it in the development of Video Games. However, at the time I did not know that concept art was heavily used in a wide variety of industries.

The study that I did on these pieces pertained to Level Design. Having a great concept can relieve a lot of the pressure put on the Level Designer. They can look at the concept and determine where they need to place specific pieces, and game play aspects. They can also get a feel for the depth and mood of the level. Therefore, the importance of concept art is something that should NEVER be overlooked.

History of Level Design

Reading the chapter about the history of game design has made me understand Level Design as a whole a lot better. The chapter talked about how one of the very first places level design was actually being implemented  by MUD's 1991 game ZZT. It allowed players to build their own levels with editors.

These level editors continued to ship with games and hobbyists began to learn how to create interesting levels. These hobbyists were later being hired by companies to design levels for them. However, as level design grew, more complex Level Design software began to be used. Now most of the levels are created in an outside program and then implemented into a game engine. Now Level Editors have evolved from simple editors to a place where you can composite a scene to show off your pieces.

I've had experience with Level Editors in previous computer games that I have played. The most notable one that I remember was from a game called Age of Mythology. You could use tools in the game to alter terrain, add buildings, and units. This allowed you to create scenarios that players could actually play out, and you could tell them that you designed it in the editor.

Age of Mythology: Ensemble Studios

Level Design

Today in class we went over the difference between being an Environmental Artist and being a Level Designer. We found out that the Environmental Artist is there to make the level look pretty. Whereas the Level Designer is there to design the gray box of the level and design the flow of the level.  The Level Designer works on creating experiences for the player. They think up different events that occur throughout the level to make interesting and original game play.

In the first chapter of "The Hows and Whys of Level Design: Second Edition" the author talks about how the beginning of the level is one of the most important aspects. If a player jumps into a game and the beginning of the level is boring, they may not want to continue playing the game.  He also goes over balancing your workloads and going through a basic checklist so you get a well rounded level.  (Time, Tech, Limitations, Requirements, Purpose, Gameplay, & Theme are all part of the checklist.) Each of these has their own importance when designing a level. Overall starting in level design you will need to practice to come up with good level designs.Work as efficiently as possible and try to be as original as you can without impeding your progress.

5 Levels Designed

Using the information I learned from Yesterday's class and the first chapter of the book, I designed 5 unique levels.  I focused on designing my levels to make them interesting to the player. What helped me create the levels was thinking of a story in my head and drawing out some concepts. From those concepts I started to rough out top down maps to understand where I want the player to encounter enemies and world dangers.  I focused on trying to make each level unique in style and game play. I will use what I learned from chapter one about managing your resources and being original when creating my gray box levels.

Concept Sketches

Layouts

Level Concepts

Down Below Concept