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Interview with Zach Wilson about Level Designers

Game Roles Interview
Jarod Frank

What does a level designer do..?
·      Build levels, specifically, any playable area of the game. (Missions, stages, hubs, etc)
·      Designs the artistic and technical aspects of player interaction with nearly every aspect of the game. Be it programing how a player might climb a ledge or open a door, or arrange the assets built by 3D modelers in an intriguing manor.
o   EX: Arranging walls and panels in a way to form a maze.
·      Level designers have access to every other aspect of the game, and act as miniature directors of sorts, combining the sound, artistic, modules, and effect designs made by other departments.
·      “Level Designers have one primary goal: give the player an objective. Give ‘em something to do. And make it fun. Challenging, but fun.”



Necessary Skills

·      Knowledge of core “mechanics” of all genres of games, along with why they are implemented and what makes them fun or not fun.
·      Basic coding knowledge, recommended that you are competent in C++.
·      Some sources say experienced “modders” (those that use the games established assets and code to create new objects and levels, sometimes creating their own to add onto the game) are seen as very valuable to the industry for level designers.







                        Interviewing: Zach Wilson
                        Game Role: Level Designer


1.         How would you describe you job? (Like in a more personal, if you feel like making an inspiring quote sort of way! :) )

First and foremost, I consider myself the advocate for the player at the studio. Some studios are very marketing and production driven and there are numbers you have to hit, but BGS is very sheltered from that kind of interference so people are much more invested in the community and understand the impact our work has on the people that play it, so I have to fight less for the player here because we're all players.  But when you're working on a licensed title like Star Wars at EA, it's a much different experience and there are a great many more stakeholders who don't understand games.

Generally, my job is to make clear spaces that are not frustrating and serve the purposes of the narrative.  I'm also the start and the end of the production of a space - it's my job to build something so that someone can play it and we have something to iterate on, or throw away and start over. At the end I help bring it all together into a seamless experience.

2.         What programs do you use to create the levels you design..?

Currently I'm using Bethesda's Creation Kit.  I've used Frostbite and Unreal in the past, and Maya if I need to generate temp assets.

3.         Given that many games have multiple level designers, how often do you collaborate with other level designers?

On a constant basis, and I mean hourly.  We look at each other's work, make suggestions, correct flaws and give feedback on layout as well as potentially opportunities for environmental narrative and writing.  We eat lunch together, drink together and argue the details together.  They are my brothers and sisters in arms.

4.         Are you in charge of your level(s) for the entire duration of the game production? Or are you reassigned by the lead level designer(s) at their discretion?

In some cases, yes. At BGS we're as transparent with the pace at which we're operating and we track the time it takes different people to do different types of tasks. We generally collaborate on the schedule to make it as realistic and achievable as possible, and we take advantage of different people's strengths and weaknesses as well as the fluctuation of staffing.  For instance, I had something like 15 areas assigned to me at the start of production, but when we hired a new LD they did a sweep of the schedule and I was asked to hand off 3 of my areas.  It was my choice which areas went to the new guy.

On a game like Hardline, working for EA it's a much more top-down, producer driven culture with a much higher level of polish and more dependencies.  In a linear single player campaign with high-end performance capture, you're more of a cog focused on the interactive chunks of your level with other disciplines polishing and building out the non-interactive work, but you still have to make sure it all works and is hooked up properly.

5.         How much power do the lead level designers, (or other level designers period) have over your level..?

This is a curious way to frame it - I don't consider it to be "power" - a good lead will help you identify weaknesses in your level and possible solutions, but leave it to you and the team you're working with (frequently an LD is working with one or more Level Artists) to solve the problem.  Leads that prescribe solutions or demand that problems be solved in a certain way are generally bad at their jobs and get lower quality results.  You also want to be working with creative directors and executive producers that will inspire you to push your work further and make it better, and you yourself want to be highly self-critical.

At the end of the day, it's a conversation and you pick your battles - but if Todd Howard tells me to do something I do it no questions asked.  But he's never told me to do anything, because he's a great leader.

6.         Can you request/assign new modules, sounds, etc if you want to come up with a new area of a level..? (Like requesting a waterfall be made so you can come up with a water themed puzzle)

Yes.  Whether or not you get what you are asking for is a function of the schedule - early on it's easier to get assets made when there's more time and the game is less concrete.  The closer you get to Alpha the less likely you are to get new assets and after that it's a function of pure need and triage - like, if certain systems need to be “tutorialized” and need specific assets they will take priority over something that looks nice.  This is true for AI and systems as well.  Sound, like Lighting is it's own entity and more likely to just make things happen through collaboration.

7.         How and where do you get your inspiration? From related games/themes? Other games of the genre?

Last year I played 171 games for a total of 874 hours.  In 2015, I played 144 games for a total of 725 hours.  Some I play for an hour until I get what the game is going for, in other cases I find a game that really grabs me and I play 65+ hours.  This year so far, the only game that really sunk it’s hooks into me has been Breath of the Wild (for obvious reasons).

I try not to get sucked into games though. I see a lot designers play the same game for years (DOTA, CS:GO, TF2) and it can sometimes cause them to stagnate in their thinking, and I want to avoid that as much as possible.  The zeitgeist moves fast.  I think the most I’ve played a game is Battlefield 3 or Skyrim and that caps at around 130 hours. Although there are exceptions to the rule - some of the designers I respect the most have more that 2,300 hours in CSGO and are still creating innovative play experiences.

I read a lot of history (I'm going to see David Mculluough at Bookfest in DC over Labor Day!!!) and historical drama (like the Killer Angels). I collect books of photography related to the games I’m working on and that are generally inspirational - I'm a huge fan of the photography of the Bechers.

I also read a lot of non-fiction and biography to better understand how the world functions and how people function in it.  I also like reading design theory - Stephen Bayley (especially Taste and Ugly) Naoto Fukasawa, Giles Colborne, Deiter Rams, that kind of thing. People that are thinking about the way that people are thinking and using things.  Start with Gary Hustwit's films and work out from there.

I try to avoid popular scifi and fantasy (Game of Thrones, Star Wars, etc) to avoid polluting my inspirations with things that people are intimately familiar with.  Surface level research of tropes and expectations are worthwhile but mass media is largely homogenous because everyone is copying everyone else.

8.         What was your favorite level that you designed..? Why..?

Chapter 1 of Battlefield Hardline.  Mostly because of the challenge - we had finished it but our Design Lead had mandated that we didn't need tutorials, he thought people could learn how to play games from the tooltips.  We went into game lab and no one could play the game so I had to retrofit a level that was largely narrative focused into a tutorial level.  It took months of rework in gamelab and some brute force approaches that I do not approve of but had to do, but in the end we raised player comprehension from 10% to 90% and ended with a 90% no-fail rate.  It also has some really good, genuine story elements that capture the essence of the Miami hood in a way that I think is largely emotionally true.

9.         How is your level conceived..? Are you told what the beginning and ending are while you come up with the journey in between? Do you have any say in adding to the overall narrative..?

At BGS we have a Pass system - Pass 0 is a one-page paper writeup that describes the concepts and general size and theme of the area, which we use to derive the initial asset list from.  Pass 1 is a quick playable sketch using whatever kit pieces we have and is usually very rough.  Pass 2 starts to incorporate combat and more complete art and Pass 3 is shippable.  Art will be doing passes on the spaces in between our work and checking against their goals.

If the area I'm working on is part of a larger quest, then i'll be working closely with the Quest Designer to make sure it meets their needs.

AT BGS I'm expected to create a level that has a concrete story with environmental narrative and supplemental writing that reflects and elaborates on the lore.

Other places do it differently - Naughty Dog has a very strong high level direction and you have much less freedom, but it results in a movie quality narrative like The Last of Us.

10.         Who play tests the levels you make prior to public access? (I don't mean open beta) Do other people in the company? Do you pull in friends and family? Professional game testers..?

At EA and Microsoft there is a centralized testing facility called Gamelab where we bring in volunteers from the public, have them play the levels and answer questions about their experience.  From that we derive actionable changes to make the levels play better or make more sense.

BGS does almost entirely in-house User Research.  You are expected to play the game and send detailed feedback about what's working and what's not. For instance I have spent the weekend playing content from the upcoming Creation Club system to generate feedback.

11.          How often do to create content for the game that makes it into the final build? (I know you mentioned making temp modules in Maya and that got me interested)
98% of the work that I do makes it into the final game, the other 2% are those temp assets that are meant to be deleted - usually cubes, cylinders, etc. Very simple stuff for scale and gameplay feature testing. Most of the work that I do is intangible; scripting, AI work, writing, layout, etc.

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