with it in the level editor, you stand a better chance of determining if your level is work-
ing out. If the level is not working out as you want, now is the time to make changes
until it does.
Step 5. Base Gameplay..........................
Now that your level feels right in terms of player navigation, it is time to start imple-
menting the gameplay your level will use. Certainly you had the gameplay in mind
through all of the steps of this process and you planned it out thoroughly before you
even started building, but now is the time to see if it will actually work out as you had
hoped. The best designers can come up with ideas and sketches for levels that success-
fully translate into fun levels in the end. Others start with a sketch, build some
architecture, and when it comes time to add the gameplay, find they need to make some
significant modifications to what they have already built. With experience comes the
ability to predict whether abstract ideas will turn out to be any fun or not. Before you
become experienced, however, the process involves a great deal of trial and error.
A level’s gameplay consists of whatever actions players are allowed to perform in
that level. In a first-person shooter such asDuke Nukem 3D, this means placing the
monsters players will shoot and the items players will pick up. In a role-playing or
adventure game, this is expanded to include whatever puzzles players will need to
solve, the characters with which players may talk, and the quests on which these NPCs
send players. In a real-time strategy game, the designer will need to figure out starting
unit placement and quantities for players and her opponents, as well as whatever rein-
forcements may appear later in the level. In a way, sports and racing titles have an
easier time with this step, since their gameplay is the same from level to level and
therefore does not need much setup for a particular stadium or track.
470 Chapter 23: Level Design
Setting up the gameplay
in a level from a game
likeDuke Nukem 3D
consists of placing
monsters and weapons,
and configuring puzzles.