Beginning Game Level Design (Premier Press Game Development) [Paperback]

John Harold Feil (Author), Marc Scattergood (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2005 | ISBN-10: 1592004342 | ISBN-13: 978-1592004348 | Edition: 1

"Beginning Game Level Design" is aimed at readers who want to learn about the creation of game environments and the control of game play, known in the game development industry as "level design". It presents an overview of the skills required to produce high quality levels and teaches readers the basic uses of several genre-specific tools along the way. It focuses on key topics, including design aesthetics, familiarization with the basic tools used in level design, what makes "good levels" and how to create them, and explains how readers can transfer these new skills into a job as a level designer. The author takes a step-by-step tutorial approach to teaching the level design techniques genre-by-genre. Offering readers a unique value, this book covers the basics of level design without focusing strongly on one single software platform or product.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John Feil is a game industry veteran whose duties have spanned from quality assurance, to technical writing, and finally to level designer and designer. He's worked on such titles as Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter and Star Wars: Battle for Naboo, as well as a host of other Star Wars titles. Currently, John is a member of the board of directors for the International Game Developer's Association (IGDA), and was recently a designer/implementer on Microsoft Game Studio's cancelled massively multiplayer game, Mythica.

Product Details

• Paperback: 232 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology PTR; 1 edition (February 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592004342
• ISBN-13: 978-1592004348
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #857,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book! Good for aspiring devs and everyone else., October 5, 2006

By 

RNSK (PHX, AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning Game Level Design (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

This book does an excellent job of teaching you all the different elements in game design. It also includes some of the tricks pro developers use as well! A nice bonus. The book is written in "simple to follow" English so as to not discourage anyone from following the lessons. I highly recommend this to all the gamers out there that want to get into game or level design!

5.0 out of 5 stars Every page is full of precious information, January 7, 2007

By 

Paulo M. F. Andrade (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beginning Game Level Design (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

This is the 3rd book I got about the subject and I can say that this one in my favourite. Is short but covers everything very well. Also, the authors really show a lot of experience and very good writing skills. A really hope they write and intermediate book covering more stuff and using a RPG Toolkit like NWN2 one. You can't go wrong with this book. GRAB IT !

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good but could have been great, September 14, 2007

By 

Brad - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning Game Level Design (Premier Press Game Development) (Paperback)

This book makes the same mistake most every other book does having to do with game design in that the author assumes the reader has never played a video game before and spends the first few chapters explaining "game design concepts" that are beyond obvious and would only benefit someone who has lived in a cave for the last 10 years. When the authors finally get around to explaining how to do game levels, they dont give any particular button pushing instructions, its all "we did this, and then we did this.....". Despite these shortcomings this book is quite a bit better than the other books on game level design that are out there.