The Hows and Whys of Level Design and Beginning Game Level Design both cover the theory of level design without talking about the tools and programs needed to realise this. To this end I have selected 4 technical-minded books: 3D Game Environments, 3ds Max Modelling for Games, Mastering Unreal Technology Volume 1 and Mastering Unreal Technology Volume 2.
Further information about each book is located below.
Sjoerd “Hourences” De Jong (29 August 2011). The Hows and Whys of Level Design – SE. N/A: Sjoerd De Jong. N/A.
This book serves as an excellent overview of level design in
both singleplayer and multiplayer environments. It covers key concepts such as:
floorplans, theme, lighting, sound effects, and more. I read most of this text
over the summer so I am already familiar with many of the ideas discussed.
Feil, J. and Scatterwood, M. (2005) Beginning game level
design. Boston: Thomson.
This book covers the theory of level design. It approaches level design in a generalised fashion, not focussing on one particular program or game engine.
Ahearn, L. (2008) 3D game environments; create professional 3D game worlds. Oxford: Focal Press/Elsevier.
After having a quick look through this book I am positive
that it will be extremely useful when creating my final artefact. In particular the sections on creating high quality textures
using photographic references will greatly improve the look and feel of my
level.
Gahan, A. (2011) 3ds max modeling for games : insider's
guide to game character, vehicle, and environment modeling. 2nd edn.
Amsterdam; London: Focal.
Specifically the sections covering: environment modeling, mapping, and texturing will be very useful in realising my project. My texture work has always been lacking, so I hope by reading this and I can improve the overall standard of my textures.
Busby, J., Parrish, Z. and Wilson, J. (2009) Mastering unreal technology; Volume 1. Introduction to Level design with Unreal engine 3. Indianapolis: Sams Publishing.
This book covers how to apply level design principles using Unreal Engine 3. The sections on Kismet scripting will be very useful to my project.
Busby, J., Parrish, Z. and Wilson, J. (2010) Mastering Unreal technology; vol II: Advanced level design concepts with Unreal Engine 3. Indianapolis: Sams Publishing.
This book builds on the concepts intrdouced in the first volume, while introducing more complex ideas such as particle effects creation, post processing tricks to make a level shine and advanced material editing using the Material Editor. This information will be invaluabe to polish my final level to the industry standard.
Hi Sam. This looks like it is progressing well. I appreciate the fact that you have gone back to your proposal and offered more focus for the project. I think that this will help both when you scope out the project timeline and when you think about the skillset you will develop as a consequence of undertaking the work.
ReplyDeleteHi Sam, I see you're looking at the two Busby et al volumes on Unreal. These are based on UT3 rather than UDK. While there lots of useful information to be gleaned from these tomes, both broader conceptual / theoretical ideas about level design as well as UT3 specific ways to achieve a particular effect, you will have to do a certain amount of translation / transposition from what appears in Busby et al to apply the same techniques in UDK. It's not impossible, but some additional time will be required to work out how things appear in the older UT3 interface need to be done (or located) in the evolving context of UDK. It's good to see you getting stuck in though.
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