The first week at DVNC went really well! The whole team has been incredibly helpful, and it’s been a great introduction to professional game development. To start, I’ve been tasked with creating new level designs for the RPG, Monochrome.

Before I began designing some of the levels, I did a bit of research about the fundamentals of creating a cohesive level design. One of the articles I read was by one of the level designers for the game Shogun 2, James Buckle. In the article, he describes his process through his own difficulties designing levels. One of my favorite principles discussed in the article was the use of a gesture line to indicate where the player spawn point will be and where the end goal of the level is (like an entryway into a different area). This technique really inspired me to explore and create my level designs with the player’s pathway in mind.

I was able to create five base floor designs for two different levels, and I’ve started the preliminary diagrams and environmental asset lists. It was very engaging to practice the different processes I learned while exploring the world of Monochrome. The player pathway principle especially helped make a realistic layout for each of the levels. I’m hoping to move forward with a few more levels in the future and improve the current ones I created.