Working with Level Design (1/2)

A two-designer interview with my Liquid Swords colleague Graham Hill about how level design actually gets made. I handle worldbuilding and city districts on the studio's debut project; Graham handles interiors and story missions. Narrative and core direction come first for both of us, but the coupling differs: "the world team can be a bit loose about it because, ultimately, we all want the players to experience the world for themselves instead of us throwing everything at them."

I walk through my district process step by step: gather architectural references, plan routes and navigation, rough out a layout that varies how you move (driving here, on foot there), consult art on the style of each block, then hold an intention review before anything gets built out. "It's important to show the design intention first. Then we can figure out whether it's something that we want to work towards, or should we take a step back and see if we can find a very different way forward?" Every city block also carries a small background story: what is the story inside them?

Graham's ladder anecdote explains why the job is mostly coordination. One climbable ladder needs Art to model it, Animation to sell the climb, Code to move you, and AI to teach NPCs what it is. As level designers, we take the initial brunt of the pushback, because we're the ones bringing everything together.