i am extremly interested in level design. I'm about to graduate high school, where i will start exploring the field in-depth. What software should i use to create levels? Or does anyone have any tips or advice on stuff i could start looking at to learn more about creating levels?

I've been thinking about level design recently because I was trying to recruit a level designer for my game design project, so I'll share my thoughts.

Level design is totally different for different genres of game, particularly 2D vs. 3D games, and story-based games vs. non-story-based games. You probably want to pick one of these to focus on.

Level design requires the same skills as designing sets for plays, architecture and interior design, perspective drawing/drafting, puzzle design, and being a social coordinator doing things like designing team-building exercises and other physical challenges. So researching any of those will help you develop the skills necessary to be a good level designer. And of course any game design position requires good communication skills.

I wouldn't worry about using software because different projects you might get involved with will probably have different software - learn how to get your ideas down on paper either by hand or with a simple graphics program such as adobe illustrator, and then it will be easy to learn to implement them in whichever software the project requires. Oh, and if you want to get accepted to a project in the first place, have an online portfolio showing what you can do.

More important than the software are your skills. Start by practicing drawing and sketching. Take up photography, it'll help you gain an eye for the world around you. Look at books on archetecture, art, design, search the web for artists that you like. I found one thing that helped me was to create a "Scrap book", of pictures that I've found. It has categories such as architecture (Cites, castles, old buildings, highrises) weapons, vehicles, people, machines, textures, nature... you name it. Very useful as reference material.

As for the programs, start with a photo program (Photoshop, gimp, paintshop).
Learn the basics of 3d (Max, maya, truespace, blender). You don't have to be good at it, but you should understand the concepts.
As for editors, the easiest that I've come across so far is probably UnrealEd.
(you can pick Unreal tounament 1 up for $10 if you don't have it yet... Every other version works the same.) Great to learn on.

Get in some practice by creating maps for existing games. Unreal has already been suggested, some other popular ones are Halflife, Starcraft, and Quake - take a look at what games that you already own have editors, it's good practice to work with those, and see if you can make some fun, interesting and challenging levels. Also, it'll give you something to put in that portfolio. [wink]