Blocking out the level

To begin with, you can draw your ideas on a piece of paper. You may also use simple tools like Microsoft Paint to hash out the general layout of your level. The tools are not important, your ideas are.

Here is what I created for our level. Feel free to use this or your own design!

The advantage that this method has is that it can be easily manipulated and changed before we decide what assets we want to use. Once we are happy with the general layout of the level, then we can simply choose suitable 3D models (i.e. static meshes) to replace the blocks in accordance with their shapes and sizes.

A few elements that I find important in a game like ours are the following:

• A location for the player to spawn.
• Locations at which the enemies spawn.
• A place for the player to take cover.
• Verticality or elevated platforms to make the game more fun and varied.

Note

Block out the level and then test it. Take notes on what works and what doesn’t work. Then change the level’s layout a few times to suit your needs. As a general rule of thumb, we always want to take small steps to improve our game until we are somewhat satisfied: do not aim for perfection in one go, getting there is a process.