My Level Design book - The Hows and Whys of Level Design Thread

Hi,

After a year of work I have released my latest project: my book "The Hows and Whys of Level Design"!
It mainly focuses on 3D action games such as the Half Life/Unreal/Quake games. The book is entirely self published.

Book.hourences.com

About the book:

The book covers both the visual and artistic side as well as the gameplay aspect of level design. Don’t expect any technical how-to tutorials in this book, this book is about the "why". Rather than writing yet another tutorial/book about how to create a virtual room this book is about how to make that room look cool and play well. Expect tips and techniques as well as explanations of the logic and reasoning behind art and design decisions. How does the gameplay in a level work? What’s the reason this kind of architecture gives this kind of feeling or looks better in situation A or B? Why does this color combination work so well? What kind of floorplan can I best use to improve gameplay and why? What type of sound setup should I use?

The book is well illustrated and offers many examples with pictures, nearly 120 to be exact. The book is intended to be universal. Most of the information can be applied to a wide range of games and different genres, gametypes, themes etc. I tried to cover and support as many different types as possible but as I personally have most experience in 3D action games and FPS shooters one can expect most of the focus to be on those; especially regarding Gameplay.

The book has gone on sale in a printed edition and a digital PDF edition.

About the author:

I am a Dutch/Belgian level designer, active both in the community as professionally. I started in the early days of Unreal Tournament 1 around 1999/2000 and since then I have made dozens of stand alone levels, worked on various of well known mods and worked for a range of game studios on several gametitles including Epic Games, Guerrilla Games, Digital Extremes, Khaeon Games, and so on. For Epic Games I have worked on UT2004 for which I made a number of levels including the two very popular demo levels DM Rankin and ONS Torlan. More details can be found on my portfolio site ( Portfolio.hourences.com )

Edited by (in order): Chunky, INtense!, INtense!

Yeah bug is right, though the book looks like its pretty cool.

i agree salocin, it looks really good
i might pick it up later next year

And they're still figuring out a way he can advertise, but not on the forums.

Commercial advertising is just not allowed. Locked.

Also, links removed until the other staff members figure it out.

Edited by (in order): Chunky, Chunky

INtense! emailed him Chunky. It has been settled.

Especially when there is a growing number of alternatives

For specifically UT Mapping, I'd recommend "Mastering Unreal Technology: The Art of Level Design" - while it doesn't go into gameplay and flow theories and whatever else that the above probably does, it does go through almost every aspect of the editor.

Thanks for allowing my post!
Appriciated.

My book doesn't cover the UT editor, so it won't help you learn it. It does explain how to make a good level, instead of just a level and that is something you won't find easily online at all, and certainly not all in one place or covering a wide number of different level design aspects.

Your work is appreciated, Hourences! My gf says she got it for me for Xmas, and I can't wait to open it!

Well done, looks good.

I really wanted to buy the PDF, but they won't let me just give them my email address & paypal them the cash. I have no desire to give a company I've never heard of my address and phone #.

Hourences, if you're interested in making the entire $20 for a PDF copy instead of what Lulu shares with you, drop me a PM and I'll Paypal it directly to you for a PDF copy.