It is the start of March, which means one thing for all of us, a chance to go learn from incredible developers, designers all across the world as we take in some of the best resources that I've found.
Hey everyone, I hope you're well playing and making the games that you all love.
You're joining me, your host The Level Designer, MaxPares That's how I imagine people react when they join the podcast and listen for it.
Just screams of joy for it but thank you, I hope you're having an amazing evening or night, whenever you're listening to this, it's a real pleasure to have you join for it and for those of you who may be new, this is the start of every month we go through some of the incredible resources that I've found that I think have been helpful because after all I do not know everything and the more resources we have the more amazing people we can learn from it just better for us all and I try I hope that encourages people to to share as much as possible right like god there's so many incredible people out
there and we all just want to learn I think that's one of the funnest aspects of the job is being able to to learn from it.
Instead of a traditional sponsor, what I'm offering now is that of joining the mailing list. Social media is constantly changing all the time.
As we're seeing, some people are leaving Twitter, others are choosing to remain, blue sky threads, all of this.
So, it's really hard to reach out to all of you incredible aspiring and current game devs. So, what I'm offering here is that of a emailing list so if you want to be kept up to date with all the great level design news as well as get your free guide which is my 10 tips towards better level design then please join the mailing list you'll be making sure to get three emails a week with me sharing that of different resources ideas as well as what I've learned through my career and some Q &A's so if you're constantly looking to improve level design and instead trying to figure out where all this information may be
then look no further than the mailing list check down in the description below to join now and get that of your 10 tips to improve your level design now with that in mind the very first resource of learning will be none other than a great article by i'm definitely also going to butcher your last name mate so please do forgive me this is by krill sharikov which is how to create a fair auto aiming system in robot shooters krill is a programmer and he was talking in the circle i thought it was really just fascinating to see how it is that he goes through and looks at designing and what is quote unquote
fair when you're making something we talk normally about humanoids right but obviously you can play whatever you want whether that be super powered beings or actual robots itself and he really focuses on the aspect of okay there's a there's a robot here what is it they they're able to do right their abilities as we're seeing we talked about ai last month or something and obviously they can and not even that but looking into military weapons for references they're able to go off and use such abilities like auto aiming and everything there and I think he really focuses on how is it that that would work
to be fun right, like if you're auto aiming I think many of us remember the, I believe it's STEM system from the Fallout franchise, for god that was not for me personally I remember when I had a 98 % chance shot of a headshot and I missed right, that was infuriating for me personally just wasn't for me, doesn't mean it was bad design, just not one that I was supposed to about but again back to the article him breaking down kind of or krill breaking down what it is different ways they do it how they set it up what are the chances what is the commonality with these kind of systems in play that they
have to consider for it as well and i really just enjoyed his thought in terms of again how it is especially from a programming right like from a design point of view depending again where you work you'll sometimes make the prototype and then obviously programmers will go make sure it's better optimized all these all these things and i really just enjoyed just reading through this seeing how different robots work different things or the common things that were considered in all these developments for it as well so to to see that from krill was a great one to to be able to have with him now we'll
move on to resource number two and I really did think this was a funny title for the talk but it is the best most stealable mechanics from that of tabletop RPGs obviously when you think about 23 crazy that's almost two years ago well it is two years ago what am I saying in 23 obviously the huge success of Baldur's Gate 3 and the big systems they took from Dungeons & Dragons in the more traditional sense of us seeing the dice rolls the different character sheet aspects and how they would play into your rolls forward as well and obviously tabletop has been around and influenced games for such a long
long amount of time so me being able to to look and hear about other the ones and again what's inspiring about these as well right and i think that to me is another huge aspect that i i don't play as many tabletop games as i would like but there's definitely some great ones uh that i'm enjoying i've just recently got back into to dnd with some friends and that which is great but yeah just seeing again how the craziest thing is no matter what we do in videos even the most amazing work on ballsgate 3 right like it can never beat the power of imagination imagination but there are still systems in place
to allow the players to conjure up certain things in their mind right and i think that to me is something again that's just really inspiring is and i think people don't realize how important that is especially when designing and developing aspects as well is that aspect when you look at um how do i say when we're creating the whole blank canvas syndrome really is something that horrifies a lot of people but by having constraints away for you it helps actually put up barriers to make you create much more freely it can feel annoying definitely at times but yeah but again back on topic just seeing
all the cool elements from this one and it is is by uh he's leading now i believe uh congratulations but it is by um evan hill which is a former alumni of this podcast and uh met with him last year actually uh which is great to see for it so he's out there sharing more great work he's done i think he's done what three or four talks at gdc now but yeah good lad and just again seeing how he explains from his experience with working in games and what is it that he's seen with tabletops.
I know he plays a lot of them.
So yeah I think it's a really fascinating one for that and I like Evan so check it out.
A really fun one overall with that which then takes us on to resource numero tres which Hey everyone I just want to give a huge shout to hopefully have you vote for me for the game dev heroes.
What we do around seems to be more focused on that of the UK, but focusing on celebrating those who contribute so much to our incredible industry and it seems cheesy I know but I would really love for all of you if you can to take the time and vote for me for that of your game dev hero.
Now I will send a link to this and have it down in the description below but in terms of things that need to be filled out along with your names and my name for your nomination name which would be max pairs category design my email is leveldesignlobby at gmail .com my role is lead level designer and the studio workout is people can fly if you wouldn't mind giving back for me giving to all of this incredible industry that i have for over the years i would genuinely really appreciate this as i would love to be part of this incredible ceremony with the game dev heroes many you know i've been doing
the podcast now for i think seven years around there crazy to think along with sharing all of my talks out there for you to see with books about that of exploration traversal and combat and most recently that of the level design kit as well so if you wouldn't mind taking the time to vote for me and nominate me in the game dev heroes 2025 nomination i would sincerely appreciate that one this one's called uh gnarly content nine risks for horror game development and in this one uh chad habble really highlights the elements of pros and cons of designing horror and especially especially when you're
an indie dev how horror can be quite a quite an attention -grabbing genre an appealing one that will get you noticed obviously you see a lot of twitch streamers content creators will gravitate towards that of horror games right and seeing the different kind of uses i say uses the different kind of reactions that can give them so it makes it feel more organic when they're building their own audience as well, but I really, really did enjoy this one and just how him and his team, I believe, worked on their own one, what is it they've taken away and man it is a really fun one to see because when we
have last year with Silent Hill 2 releasing and the Resident Evil remakes and more recent entries into the franchise Horror in the AAA is obviously having a bit more of a present moment but in indie it never died I mean Christ look at Blooper before getting Silent Hill IP they did Layers of Fear which was great and the Medium which was really inspired by Bekjinsky's work as well which was great Bekjinsky's was great Rest in Peace was an incredible artist that has some very horrifying even the colour blue blue, the choice of that, he used, it was the same blue which was the residue on the gas chambers
for the Nazis had used, so yes, really, it's a striking blue, but when you hear the one that relates, because Beck Chintzy I believe is Jewish for it as well, with it, but yeah, just an incredible look and thought on, again, different ways to design horror, but what kind of comes at the risk of it as well with that being saying the saturated market trying to decipher again what is the sub -genre of your horror and kind of where do you draw the line right obviously we have horror the saw horrors were really popular especially in the 2010s being more of you know what had then been coined as the gore
porn right or gore fest where the horror wasn't necessarily what they were facing but more you were there to see how they would die and then the hostile and others came into that right and with games we don't necessarily have that but we do have stuff like psychological horror survival horror etc with that so it's again a very different aspect but really enjoyed this recommend it and a fun little read and I think it's definitely one to consider if you are an indie dev or aspiring to make your own game for it now we move on to resource numero 4 and this is demystifying creativity in game development
with Faziz Mezmar who if you don't know Faziz is a I'm trying to remember because he got into he's up into that of I think he's a creative lead I believe at Ubisoft for it but he's been in the industry for a long time very nice guy i know we've spoken a few times and it's on about his new book which i believe is coming out this year for it so yeah if you get a chance i'm sure i'll pick it up as well but it's really talking about again his kind of time working in the industry and kind of the aspects that he has learned with that as well and kind of you know we talk about like us all being inspired
trying to create but that you do have mental blockers and what it is you know what it means to be creative per se.
I think sometimes you see some artists really take that to the nth degree for it but again just see his process how he's found it in his incredible and very successful career career, because I believe Prince of Persia the most recent one came out under his guidance and it was a very big critical success and a great game for it so yeah, again very much a man worth listening to for a designer worth respect and his whole breakdown for it is really nice to see that one, I'm only part way through it at the moment but I'm enjoying it and will be We'll be finishing it off with it.
And now we go to the final one.
And we talked about in January, February's recommendation, we talked about Rebecca, who's creative director on Warframe, and how her path to creative director was very different to traditional of a development role.
She was community manager and then became a creative director, right?
And this is another aspect that I've just seen in an article on game developers which is deep dive harnessing the power of player feedback with dying light 2 and basically them talking about and i didn't realize this how they've involved these community ideas to be part of okay well things they can add to the game and they cipher through it all and using a vote system for it and yeah it's just rather incredible with that and again amazing to to see more open development you know we talked about how ninja theory was doing a kind of a dev vlog and while working on the first hellblade and how that had
brought them a lot of eyes and success for it for being very open uh back when cliffy b i can't remember the name of the game now but was making his uh game sally didn't uh do well but they were doing like i can't remember his weekly or monthly round tables and asking questions about the game as that was being been developed and so we're seeing more and more communities we obviously have community managers as a role in this industry now being more harnessed and using more of the ability to communicate right like we all have social media now in some form or another and being able to use that and have people
suggest things right like little big planet you heard about people getting careers started because they made levels in their their own levels level editing system so So it's a great one to, again, see and how they've actually gone off and used this in terms of how they vote, the systems in place, what it is that they really acknowledge from their community and the community appreciating that as well, right?
And to me, I think it's going to be an element we're seeing grow more and more as time goes on.
So to see Dying Light 2 use it in such a different but yet fascinating way blew my mind for it.
so yeah yeah that is this month's recommendations to go through it again we have the very first one by krill which is about how to create a fair auto aiming system the second one being that of the best and most human mechanics frame tabletop hodji rpgs by evan hill third one going back to that of nine risks of horror development fourth one being an interview you which is demystifying creative and game development with fuzzy and then the final one being the deep dive with techlands creative director on that of harnessing players feedback in dying light 2 so thank you very much if you want to give
me feedback you can do so by emailing to me over at level design lobby at gmail .com reaching out via twitter or blue sky both are at max pairs please come join have some fun and then if you want to join the mailing list please do so as well there'll be a link to that below where you get your free guide on 10 tips to help make your levels better well thank you all very much take care and i'll catch you all next time Thanks for watching!
