Level Design

First, the big news - I am going on vacation for a month in July. Back to my parents' place in India with it's sunny weather and rolling farms. I will be taking my laptop with me - it is a pretty decent laptop but I am not sure how it will handle the heavy level editing required for Dragon Age; certainly not on par with my desktop at home. So, the focus for this month is going to be level design and building - I can then work on the areas, scripting, conversations, etc. while I am on vacation.

I have been laying out the levels on paper - I am not going to make the same mistake of reworking entire levels like I did when I started modding. The plan is to get the basic level design complete for Act 2 and a bit of Act 3 too. These acts will contain a few exterior levels and these are the most resource-hungry to design so the first priority is to get them done and out of the way. They are also going to be different in terms of layout - one of them will be a small one-street town, two will be small villages and there will be at least 2 more forested areas.

The next few blog posts in this month will showcase those levels. I also plan to start writing a series of articles about the game-play changes being done for Blood and Lyrium - there are some aspects of the core functionality that I feel are superficial or can be re-designed.

Before I sign off, I would like those of you not familiar with AmstradHero's blog to grab yourself a cup of coffee and read his latest articles on level design, texture blending and general game design. A very coherent and useful series of articles for any builder (player's feedback welcome too!)