Level Architecture

Iuliu-Cosmin Oniscu
5 min readAug 12, 2024

--

A few words on level architecture

Stockholm in Summer

Detach

Sometimes, as a designer of spaces you need to detach yourself from the constraints of the level design medium and try to think bigger, and more efficiently.

Level Architecture is a label put on top of a process that aims at achieving:

  • Consistency
  • Believability
  • Experiential Immersion

You can argue that you can achieve both of those by either using excessive environmental art or Level Design effort, however, the reality is that Architecture as a whole sits somewhere in the middle.

It’s not about pretty pictures, but about identifying key pieces to make the picture better and more readable.

It’s not about making fun levels, in the traditional sense, but about making levels that have the potential to facilitate fun.

It’s about making things intimately approachable in terms of metrics, but also excellently scaled in terms of scope.

Caveat

The Caveat of traditional linear-level design relies, perhaps a little too much on the traditional process of building things for gameplay purposes rather than trying to convey a purposeful, functional believable space, because, we have been told that, gameplay is king.

You can try to build a sense of place on top of that, set dressing and narrative devices to contextualize the location, however, that creates a dependency where Level Design informs the Environment Art, and any adjustments come as a set of negotiations between the two disciplines.

And you can have it the other way around as well, of course, and that leads to beautiful artful spaces with little to nothing in terms of actual-level design.

However you spin it, somebody has to lose and that is in a nutshell the tragedy of game development.

Is Level Architecture a solution to that?

The answer is “Maybe”!

In the context of level architecture, having a solid understanding of both could be a solution to please and help both sides of the coin.

Surprisingly the development of modern technology and the advancement in gaming tech and development have forced the “simple” job of the early game designer, to be simplified into ultra-specialised positions, of Programmers, Level Designers, and environmental art, and the only solution to make the collaboration between these people is to generate a bridge job, the Level Architect, as a master of understanding space and player psychology and apply that understanding to build better, more coherent spaces.

Like a real Architect

The Level Architect needs to use spatial design to generate spaces that resonate emotionally with the player.

A Level Architect looks at spaces (even devoid of detail) as containers that manipulate human emotions.

Back in my Watch Dogs days one of the dreams and aspirations I was going with, about building the part of London I was working on was:

  • Cities are giant complicated messes of geometry and social relations, Often one informs the other and by tweaking them you get interesting dynamics.
  • Cities are also broken in many ways, that’s, perhaps, what dictates their character, and fixing those blemishes, while necessary for building better experiences, is expensive.
  • As World Builders, Open World Designers, and Level Architects we might have a duty to take advantage of the flexibility of the world (in grey block mode) and fix those issues.

Being a Level Architecture means giving yourself the right and the duty to look at the world, the people, and the mechanisms that make up the system.

The System

If we allow ourselves to look at the world around us as a system of interconnected mechanical components, that can be extrapolated, simplified and codified into a virtual medium, then the process of photographing the world becomes a process of documentation.

It’s less about photographic rigurosity, artistic vision, and shooting to edit later, instead, it is an opportunity to observe the space around us, and meticulously identify the key components that make that space and make an image out of that concept.

And then to document it, review it and build a cohesive narrative from it. Story about how this space builds itself and how the people here inhabit it. We must give ourselves the right, and we must make it our Duty to document.

Not for any professional endeavours, but for the sake of our souls.

We take cities, and urban structures for granted.

They are there to be explored, abused, inhabited, infiltrated, constructed, deconstructed, cherished and loved.

They are not going to be around forever. So as Designers, we need to look at the world and subtract the essentials and then build spaces with it.

I am tempted to bring up New Bordeaux since it resonates with me pretty loudly to this day.

Process

It is hard to put together a step-by-step process that encapsulates the entire process of how this could/should/need to be done.

Like always in game dev, design is personal and it depends on how people approach things, the nature of the project etc.

But one thing way of starting it is to look critically at the space and try to understand how people move around, and what makes them click.

Large populations of creatures, move around based on the process of attrition, subtract a comforting resource factor from one area and people will move to another, remove it all together and people will get frustrated.

Shadows split and reconnect

If you try to build something emotional and tridimensional there is no other place to start but by looking at Maslows higher needs:

  1. Need for Self-Actualisation
  • Leave Space for Adventure in your maps
  • Allow for challenges
  • Provide adequate rewards
  1. Esteem
  • Don’t play around with your players
  • Respect their time. Make it worthwhile
  1. Love and Belonging
  • Allow them to feel connected to the world
  • Immersion
  1. Safety Needs
  • Respect the metrics
  • Make the space conquerable
  • Allow for places where players can relax (Put some trees in there!)
  1. Physiological Needs
  • Balance between Prospect and Shelter spaces
  • Allow for players to be able to make the distinction between the two
  • The Boredom/Frustration curve is real

I keep recommending these books because I think the concepts there are essential:

--

--

Iuliu-Cosmin Oniscu
Iuliu-Cosmin Oniscu

Written by Iuliu-Cosmin Oniscu

As a level designer I am not a creator, I am a facilitator. Senior Open World Designer. #Leveldesign #Open World #Design @notimetoulose.