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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: The Tao of Level Design: A Study of 3 AAA Games
Speaker(s): Neil Alphonso, Saku Lehtinen, Elisabetta Silli
Company Name(s): Splash Damage, Remedy Entertainment, EA DICE
Track / Format: Game Design

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Overview: Part designer, part producer, programmer and artist, what is it that makes a level designer effective? The short answer: knowing how to balance all of these roles to maximum effect! This session will examine situations from three AAA games, and the specific challenges they brought about and the solutions required to surmount them. Are level design approaches for radically different games inherently similar, or do accepted methods need to be drastically altered to fit the unique nature of the project? An examination of Alan Wake, Mirror's Edge, and Brink will help answer this question, and many others.

Level designers will come away from the session with an arsenal of lessons learned in different genres, and attendees from other disciplines will gain insight into the implications and ramifications of their decisions and processes on level design and how this in turn affects the overall quality of the final product!

GDC Europe 2010

Neil Alphonso

Splash Damage

Saku Lehtinen

Remedy Entertainment

Elisabetta Silli

EA DICE

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Game Design

Design