General Level Design Thread

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

I figured this was a topic that deserved it's own thread so people could get feedback on what they're doing and feel like showing.

So I was playing around with the editor for Deus Ex which I've done once in a while and knocked out this.
Trying to find out how much detail I should put into an area but being the Unreal Engine but I don't think I can go crazy like in Goldsrc.

Yeah the lighting should be made a bit moodier with the small maintenance area for vent access bellow made darker.
Add something to that wall adjacent to the corridor and the window.

Possibly add some static mesh objects at the end.
Add a trim to the bottom of the right wall and possibly remove some overhead lights in favor of lights along the bottom right wall.

Of course I'm looking at getting new textures in and have been combing through old Half Life mods to see what I can find.
There's promising ones there but it looks like ill have to remake some at a higher resolution.

 

[Reinar]

Reminds of the times when I was derping with Quake 3 map editor. Maybe you could use textures from there?

 

[Turtle-Zone 3000]

Still doing some experimentation in UnrealED, i'm feeling like i'm getting comfortable enough with it that I might make a fan mission for Deus Ex.

Spoiler

A goldsrc recreation of the last level in Max Payne, where I got the textures as well as what this level design experimentation is based on.

Just some thoughts as I'm trying to get my head around level design.

With respect to Unreal Engine 1 - it isn't easy get detailed brushwork and textures in and the lighting ain't that great as well.
It just doesn't help that i've been inspired by various games of this era and have wanted to get it to a similar level as them and developing possibly unrealistic expectations with regard to UE1.
And this one as well, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBOZ9bfcXhk .


With regard to the level design i've had some trouble figuring out the ideal scale of things for a level.
In the original Deus Ex things tended towards the larger scale which can easily reveal the simplicity of the architecture and repetition in textures.
This level is intended to be a large office level but i'm not sure how much the distances between places should be in order to create a level that has a decent amount of playtime and one that seems realistic. The default fast run speed doesn't help.
There isn't really levels in the original mods to compare to what i'm attempting to do, however there is
the Police station as well as the Singapore bit in Human revolution which are much in line with what I want to acomplish.

This article has a lot of info with regard of what i'm trying to attempt.
http://www.mapcore.org/articles/development/making-agency-the-popular-csgo-map-r62/

On the gameplay side i've been thinking about ways I could up the difficulty with regard to stealth.
I could add more electronic security like lasers and cameras but that does necessitate a way around them.. vents.
In order to avoid vents I was thinking of adding in a EMP weapon like in TNM and the tool in Chaos Theory.
Justifying ammo around the place for it I was thinking I could give the guards tasers which use the same ammo.
Enemies with tasers could add the possibility of being captured and having to go through areas again but with heavier opposition which is nice if you want the player
to experience a location that is reactive as well as having more choices.

 

[Keldryn]

One thing that will save you a lot of time having to rebuild your level later: you'll generally need to scale up interior environments by about 50% (on average) in order for them to play well. This is in order to accomodate the camera and pathfinding as well as to avoid the area feeling claustrophobic.

I'm primarily talking about the horizontal dimensions, but ceilings often need to be a but higher than IRL.

So real world dimensions typically don't work well. First person games can get away with closer to real life dimensions than third person over the shoulder.

 

[Severian Silk]

Dimensions in Civilization VI are pretty much like IRL, IMO. You could aim for that.