That might sound like a simple question but I think it's a little more complex than that. For a game like, Super Mario Galaxy where there are so many layers and platforming, it's hard to imagine someone writing it all that down on paper to translate into 3D. Maybe paper isn't involved at all and people just go straight to the level editor. Little bit of both perhaps, or maybe even something entirely different? Anyone care to elaborate?

After the basic game story framework is layed out by the designer and writter, they will split it up into the individual levels. Then, a concept artist will make sketches of the level that the designer will review and critique. Eventually, once there is enough information ready to start working, the concepts will be passed to the environmental artist who will start roughing out the level (the designer will often participate in this step as well).

They start with very simple textureless primitives just to get the right scale and relationship of objects in the scene. The game is often playable at this stage. Once the level is satisifying, the stand-in art will be systematically replaced with real art. At this point the process is very parallelizable and is often spread out to many asset artists.

I don't know anything about Mario Galaxy, but some studios publish some parts of how they achieved they looks.

For example Prince Of Persia has tons of concept art published. That art was not exactly modelled in maya. Not just for the characters, but for each and every level.
You can buy the game, finish it, and as a reward you get the level's concept art.

Left 4 Dead has something similar. It's not exactly level design, but it is related.

There's also the Grim Fandango design document which contains lots of drawing about the levels.

There's also a lot of data scattered about Sonic 2 concept artwork, including preproduction

And of course, some other stuff is made "on the fly". It depends on the studio, the direction, the artist lead, technological limitations, etc.

Hope this helps
Cheers
Dark Sylinc

Every level-designer will have it's own workflow - some do a lot of sketching before diving into the editor, others start out molding and shaping things in the editor itself. I used to just dive into the editor, although nowadays I find it quite helpful to do some sketching and prototyping beforehand.

But, as bzroom already explained, it's a whole process, one that involves more than just the level-designers. Typically a lot of testing is involved as well. The actual process varies a bit from company to company of course, but that's roughly how it goes.

Hmm, I think I may have used the wrong terminology. I guess I meant to say the map! I imagine it'd be pretty easy for a game in which there's no platforming involved but a map for 3d platforming would seem like a daunting task.

Unless you mean the levels are actually composed through a bunch of different sketches???

Prince of Persia would be another example now that I think about it.

Quote:

Original post by AntiGuy Unless you mean the levels are actually composed through a bunch of different sketches???

Yes. The bigger the production level of a game, the more preproduction work is needed. For a game the scale of Mario Galaxy, the would have had a plethora of sketches they went through before starting to lay out the levels in their editor.

It really comes down to creative people and a very iterative process. They may crack open max and drop a few boxes real quick, load the game up and say either "wow this is really fun lets do it like this" or they may say "holy crap this sucks we need to go back to the drawing board."

Assuming they like the way it works, they'll sit there for months adjusting the positions of the platforms until the level is fun to play. Then as a last step they'll take the square box and make it part of the environment as either a ledge or a building or something.

I dont think any of the people involved find the tasks particularly daunting. They're fully prepared to spend a year on that level. Wether that means they jump into the modeler on the first day or not is up to the person and the team/project.

Ultimately a person will say "that's what you want? thats what i'm gonna give you." and they go in their little cubical and they open the editor and come out 12 hours later. It's not daunting, it's fun :)

Tons of sketches, I had no idea! I just assumed thay just drew a giant map then went to work! Perhaps that is the best technique. In some cases you can actually take the sketches and mix them up to determine the best order in which the level is.

Thanks fellas! Very useful information!

I think that is precisely what they mean. The key thing to remember is it is an iterative process. They probably split the level in to chunks, sketch out roughly what they want the chunk to look at and take that to the editor. Then, they make a quick version of it, try it out and keep on improving it. With games like Galaxy where the level design is what makes or breaks the game, this iterative process would be a significant portion of development time, starting as soon as it is possible and going right up till the last minute.

My favorite way to build maps is to design/build small modules, then construct the map with them. One module will usually be the same size as others, so they can be swapped easily. Modules can be extremely complex, because they're usually used more than once - sometimes hundreds of times in the same map. They can include dynamic animation (a door+frame that can be opened by a humanoid), perfect spacing of elements (a ladder), scripted reactions (door with auto-included motion sensor), random changes (dirt texture), complicated gameplay dynamics (destructible walls), etc.

When building an area with modules, I usually just go straight to the editor. If the editor is easy and efficient to use, it can work the same or better than sketching.