Games like Halo, God of War or Mario Galaxy for example have really complex scenarios, so complex that a height map or grid map editors do not suffice for prototyping. I can imagine that before 3D artists can start working on the final art, a simpler looking prototype must be created. I also can imagine that creating such prototypes need constant adjusting on the fly (a cliff may be too high, a room to small to fit the enemies, a target out of shooting range), so either special tools for editing stages are created or special plugins for integrating with, say, maya are needed?

So is it common that game or level designers have to learn how to work with 3D apps for prototyping? or do engineers have to create special tools for us? If so what kind of tools?

Say, if I want to create a prototype for a stage like in God of War and hand it over to a programmer so he can start testing AI and stuff, and so it allows me to do quick changes while playing? do I have to learn 3D to make it or are there simpler tools around?

Cheers!

At my last job, we built our level art in Max/Maya, and assembled the pieces in a custom level editor.

In prototyping (greyboxing), the designers would make really, really simple layouts in Max/Maya and assemble the pieces as usual in the level editor.

Then the artists would take the grey-box meshes and use them as a blueprint for the real artwork.

Professional level designers usually [color=#1C2837][size=2]use Autodesk Maya 2011, 3DS Max, Google Sketchup, Adobe Photoshop, and After Affects to design levels