Adding on World Builder

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In the last post I talked about being a level designer and a world builder, well due to time commitments I do not have the ability to teach you how to actually do world building or use the specific engine that you want to use. You are going to have to do that on your own. Though There are helpful blogs and tutorials that you can find for the specific engine that you want to use. Unfortunately I cannot provide links to specific blogs/tutorials because I don't know what engine you would like to use, if you want help locating one for your engine please post in the comments below and I will help you to the best of my ability!

That was a general overview of what this blog is going to be covering and hopefully some helpful information on getting started. I will cover some important topics next time such as networking. Including some of my pre-made connections as well as my personal LinkedIn profile!

Be sure to subscribe, and if you have any questions feel free to leave me a comment, I will be sure to get back to you as soon as possible! If it is important enough I will even include it in the next post!

Being a Level Designer

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Let's first talk about what it actually means to be a "level designer". There are several terms floating around that are similar to level designer which cause some people confusion. The title Level Designer is not the same as World Builder or Mapper. A Level Designer creates the concept of the level in the regards to what is suppose to happen in the level, the purpose of the level and the over all look of the level. Now you might be thinking, that this sounds like a lot of drawing and art. Well, it sort of is. Level designers are normally expected to be able to produce top-down map layouts and be able to write, in detail, events that happen in the level and when they happen.  Now we run into our first problem, level design is a very abstract thing, and is hard to explain or show to anyone. It is also a very easy position to replace and doesn't have as much work as many other positions in game development.  So, solve this problem I suggest also specializing in World Building. In this blog I will be doing this, so you will be able to see the results for yourself.

Next post I will cover the basics of being a Level Designer and World Builder!

The Introduction

Want to get into the game development industry as a level designer? Well you are in the right place!

First a little about myself:

My name is Ian Owen, and I am currently the Lead Level Designer for Planewalker Studios and I work under the title of "indie" game developer. Even though I am the lead level designer I am still a student at The University of Texas at Dallas, and I don't plan on doing indie game development as my career. I am planning on making my way to the AAA sector of video game design. In this blog I will talk about some of the things that allowed me to get where I am today and how I plan on moving forward in the career, some of the things that you will see in this blog post are:

• Networking (via LinkedIn and in person meetings)
• Portfolio (How to)
• Resume (What they are really looking for)
• Cover Letter (To really stand out)
• Do's and Don'ts of Interviewing

A new blog post will be made about every 10 days. If you would like for me to elaborate on a specific topic, please let me know as soon as possible!