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The Number One Educational Resource for the Game Industry

Session Name: Level Design Summit: How the Heck do You Teach Level Design?: Educating in the Studio
Speaker(s): Christopher Totten
Company Name(s): Kent State University & Pie for Breakfast Studios
Track / Format: Level Design Summit
Overview: Ask anyone who has trained a new level designer or taught level design students, and they will tell you that a major challenge is balancing training for the technical aspects of the job while also teaching them "good" level design. In the studio environment, you also have to teach communication, documentation, designing for specific types of gameplay, or the elements of your studio's "style." How can we effectively mentor newcomers without taking time away from other ongoing design work? nnThis talk by a level designer and educator with 13+ years of experience examines processes that studios can use to onboard new designers in productive and accessible ways. It does so through topics such as setting "learning goals", assigning quick-but-usable level design exercises, incorporating "style" into task specifications, and how to structure feedback. This talk incorporates both on-the-job knowledge and examples collected from education to build a roadmap for effective mentorship.

Game Developers Conference 2024

Christopher Totten

Kent State University & Pie for Breakfast Studios

free content

Level Design Summit

Design