Level design
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Level design is the creation of levels—locales, stages, or missions—for a video or computer game. This is done using level design tools, special software usually developed just for the purpose of building levels.
Some level editors include Bungie's Forge & Anvil and Fear&Loathing, Valve's Hammer Editor, Epic's UnrealEd, BioWare's Aurora Toolset and id Software's GTKRadiant (also known as Q3Radiant). Sometimes, professional 3D editing software, such as 3D Studio Max, AutoCAD, Lightwave, Maya or XSI is used. Many games ship with custom level editors to allow players to create their own levels.
Traditionally, the term level design is applied to the creation of game space for the real-time strategy and first-person shooter genres. However, level design is something that is necessary in all but the simplest games, and as such can be found in some form in almost any computer game. Only in the last 10 years or so has the actual separation of labor occurred that has allowed the job of level designer to come into being.
See also
External links
- Valve-ERC (http://collective.valve-erc.com/) Editing resource center
- UnrealWiki (http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/)
- Q3Radiant (http://www.q3radiant.com/)
- The Future (http://www.thefuture.dk/) Mapping resource center (requires Flash)fr:Level design