Fundamentals of Level Design with Unreal Engine

Epic Games via Coursera

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/level-design

Syllabus

Level Design Fundamentals

Level design is an important part of designing a game, and can directly affect how your players move, react, or even feel while playing a game. This content will look at level design from a game design perspective, covering the important facets of level design theory. It will overall what level design is, and the role it plays in the game industry, then move into the theory behind it. How can a level affect how a player is guided through a level or game? What controls where they go or how quickly they can move through the game? How is all this different between single and multiplayer levels? All of this answered by looking at real game levels. This content will give learners a solid foundation of level design theory that they will then further apply to future content.

Design Theory for Specific Types

Depending on the level you are creating, the way you apply level design theory can change. single player levels apply the same theories differently than multiplayer levels or open-world levels. This content will look at different types of levels and discuss how the theory might be applied, and how to represent that theory in a design document. In the end, the learner will be able to take what they learned and create a small level on paper for their design document.

Documenting Level Design

When working in a team setting, you will most likely be working with multiple developers on a single level. In order to plan the level out, and make sure everyone stays within the same vision, you make a level design document. This document holds all the information that anyone working with the level would need to know. This content will cover creating a level design document, defining what it is, walking the learner through the steps and process of creating one from scratch of a level of their own choosing.

Grayboxing in Unreal Engine

Before a level is made or even art is created for it, it first needs to be drafted and tested. Taking a sketch of a level, this content will walk through the steps of greyboxing the level. Learners will take a level sketch, and translate it into a real level in Unreal Engine. They’ll use built-in Unreal Engine tools to create the level while following best practices for level design with Unreal Engine. At the end of the content, they should have a lit, transversable level in Unreal Engine based on the sketch they made.