Communities
links to level design communities, websites, discords, podcasts, blogs, social media
Last updated
links to level design communities, websites, discords, podcasts, blogs, social media
Last updated
There are many benefits to joining a level design community:
help with design problems / troubleshooting tools
provide critical feedback for your work
motivation and encouragement
A game specific community can offer focused help / experience, and they are much more likely to playtest your work and give good feedback.
For game-specific level design communities, see the "Community" column in .
Below are some fun Twitter accounts which exist solely to post screenshots of community levels; they're good to follow because seeing more levels will help you train your eye for level design, and it's fun to see what other people make.
is an annual internet tradition where level designers post screenshots on Twitter during the month of October. The most popular tweets usually come from AAA industry level designers posting blockouts of their work from famous commercial games.
is one of the longest running active message boards for level design, and focuses mainly on Source Engine games (CS:GO, Team Fortress 2) but many members also regularly mod other games and use Unity and Unreal. Mix of modders and industry users.
is a Discord community for level designers founded by Ryan Smith.
is best for 3D environment artists, lighting artists, and anyone concerned more with the visual side of level design. Projects skew heavily towards Unreal Engine 4 scenes with Maya / Max / ZBrush / Blender know-how. No one here will ever playtest your project, but they will happily critique screenshots or video. Mix of students and industry users.
features news, articles, and guides for game / film / VFX artists. It is often very technical and tool focused, usually focusing on pipeline and workflow with visual-oriented breakdowns of particular scenes or projects.
features interviews with environment artists, articles and guides, as well as a podcast. Like other CG art communities, it focuses on tools and techniques.
(formerly Level Design Workshop, Level Design In A Day) is a full day of talks from industry and indie level designers every year. After many years it has found a medium-sized audience at GDC. Unfortunately there's no convenient list of past sessions, but maybe we'll put that together someday. Open submissions every summer / autumn.
is probably the premier level design criticism publication at the moment, featuring short blog posts as well as long-form features and interviews. Commissions and pitches year-round, pays writers.
has hosted several design-focused series, such as (game design breakdowns), (more game design breakdowns) and (interviews with level designers). Commissions and pitches year-round, pays writers.
is a free Harvard-branded online course about architectural theory and history that runs every year, popular among industry level designers for its conceptual focus.
makes videos about his experience as AAA level designer and gives advice for level design portfolios and resources.
writes posts about open world AAA production and encounter systems, usually with a Ubisoft-like approach.
blogs about encounter design and multiplayer level design. He also uploads occasional level design video commentaries on .
streams , playing a few randomly chosen Doom levels each week.
is a podcast hosted by Mark Drew, Jonathan Wilson, Valentina Chrysostomou, and Rob McLachlan.
is a podcast hosted by Max Pears.
is a very popular game design analysis YouTube channel by Mark Brown. He often critiques levels and makes good points, but we want to caution you, he doesn't quite have the personal experience of actually working as a level designer.
posts Quake 1 map screenshots
posts GoldSrc (Half-Life 1 engine) map screenshots
posts custom Doom WAD screenshots
posts Unreal / Unreal Tournament 1999 map screenshots
posts Team Fortress 2 community map screenshots
posts Thief and Thief 2 fan mission screenshots.
the original level design screenshot account (?) posts GoldSrc screenshots (on hiatus as of 2019)
