One example of this is from the development of my gameDamage Incorporated.
The very first level I created for the single-player game was done before I fully under-
stood the game mechanics or the level creation tools I would be using. As a result it was
far from fun to play and was quickly thrown away. The next level I made, though cer-
tainly not the best in the game, was good enough to make the final cut. For this level, I
had deliberately picked a map from the middle of the game, so that it would not be the
very first content players would see since I knew my mapmaking ability would improve
after I had a few more under my belt. It is often a good idea to start developing your con-
tent from the middle of the game. Early parts of the game need to be at the highest level
of quality possible, so you want them to represent your more seasoned efforts, while
levels at the end of the game will often tend to be more atypical and hence will not rep-
resent the “regular” gameplay that you want to have working first.
Damage Incorporatedalso included death-match style multi-player, which used a
completely different set of levels. Due to time constraints, I spent significantly less
time balancing the network play than I would have liked. In particular, the first level I
created for the network game, “My Mind is Numb, My Throat is Dry,” ended up not
being much fun to play. It had a number of cool areas but they did not flow together very
well and a number of sections in the level were unfair and unbalanced death traps. One
of my playtesters even suggested it would be best to throw it away and start a new level
from scratch. Unfortunately, I did not have the time to make a replacement and it ended
up shipping with the game. Fortunately there were seven other network levels that
were significantly more fun to play. Nonetheless, it would have been better if I had com-
pletely scrapped my first attempt at a network level and made a new one instead.
OnThe Suffering, the first level we built was the first level of the game. Interest-
ingly, it ended up shipping in a form fairly close to how it was originally planned, and was
one of our strongest levels. In part this was because we were a fairly experienced team
working with a relatively known gameplay mechanic (a shooter). An equal part of the
level’s success was luck. Though it succeeded from a game design standpoint, from a
technological standpoint that first level was built in such a way that it was a nightmare
Chapter 15: Getting the Gameplay Working 289
The first network level
made forDamage
Incorporated, pictured
here, was also the worst
one in the game. It
would have been better
to scrap it and construct
a new one.