An Architectural Approach to Level Design

Introduction

GAME DESIGNER AND THEORIST Ian Bogost has been quoted as saying that game design is a bit of a “black art.”¹ While many people outside the field underestimate the amount of work, expertise, and manpower required to make video games, many inside the industry are humbled by game design’s staggering complexity. The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) 2008 curriculum framework for game design education is a testament to this complexity. Over twenty-seven pages of its forty-one-page length are devoted to a list of suggested topics to cover in an academic program on game design.² In The Art of Game Design: A Book of Lenses,³ designer Jesse Schell highlights nineteen fields from which a successful game designer must draw knowledge. ...