The Level Design Book
BookResources
  • The Level Design Book
  • ✨What is level design
  • Book 1, Process
    • πŸ—ΊοΈHow to make a level
    • 🧠Pre-production
      • Pacing
      • Research
      • Worldbuilding
      • Scope
    • πŸ”«Combat
      • Enemy design
      • Encounter
      • Cover
      • Map balance
    • πŸ› οΈLayout
      • Flow
        • Circulation
        • Verticality
      • Critical path
      • Parti
      • Typology
        • Gates
    • 🏠Blockout
      • Massing
        • Landscape
        • Composition
        • Prospect-refuge
      • Metrics
        • Modular kit design
        • Doom metrics
        • Quake metrics
      • Wayfinding
      • Playtesting
        • Player persona
    • πŸ“œScripting
      • (stub) Navigation
      • Doors
    • β˜€οΈLighting
      • Three point lighting
      • D6 lighting
      • Lighting for darkness
    • 🏑Environment Art
      • Shape and color psychology
      • Texturing
      • Storytelling
      • Optimization
    • 🌈Release
  • Book 2, Culture
    • 🦜Level design as culture
    • History of the level designer
    • Zero player level design
    • (unfinished pages)
      • History of architecture
      • Structural engineering primer
      • History of environment art
      • History of furniture
      • History of encounter design
  • Book 3, Studies
    • πŸ”How to study a level
    • Single player studies
      • Undead Burg (Dark Souls 1)
      • Assassins (Thief 1)
      • (STUB) The Cradle (Thief 3)
      • (STUB) Sapienza (Hitman)
      • (STUB) Silent Cartographer (Halo 1)
    • Multiplayer studies
      • Chill Out (Halo 1)
      • (STUB) de_dust2 (Counter-Strike)
    • Real world studies
      • Disneyland (California, USA)
      • (STUB) Las Vegas (Nevada, USA)
  • Book 4, Learning
    • πŸŽ’Notes for educators
    • Project plans
      • Classic Combat
      • (Unfinished WIP pages)
        • Modern Combat
        • Modern Stealth
        • Exercise: Direct Lighting
        • Exercise: Whiteboard 2D
        • Level Design Portfolio
        • Design Test: Adaptation
        • Exercise: Layout
        • Exercise: Verticality
  • Appendix
    • Tools
      • TrenchBroom
    • Assets & Resources
      • Recommended talks
      • Recommended books
      • Quake resources
        • How to package a Quake map/mod
      • File formats
        • FGD file format
        • MAP file format
        • MDL file format
    • Communities
    • About this book / authors
    • License / copyright
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On this page
  • 3D models and props (free)
  • Materials and textures (free)
  • Prototyping blockout textures
  • Skyboxes
  • 2D tilesets and sprites (free)
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  1. Appendix

Assets & Resources

Where to get free art assets (models, textures, materials) for use in levels

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Last updated 1 year ago

This page lists free art assets (models, textures, materials) for use in levels.

  • We only list sites with robust free download plans + generic file formats that work in most engines.

  • "CC license" refers to free assets with permissive or style licenses.

  • We also list other types of resources:

    • : list of other level design books, with brief summaries

    • : list of free texture .WADs and other Quake-specific files

3D models and props (free)

Site
Content
CC license?

biggest selection of free low poly + realistic + 3D scan assets on internet; quality varies; make sure to filter for "Downloadable"!

lots of free models designed for games, but quality varies a lot

the most prolific free asset creator in games; many well-designed low poly 3D tilesets

another prolific free asset creator, lots of free low poly 3D props and characters

lots of good low poly 3D modules / tilesets, special Unity integration but works for any

free community model exchange for Blender users... it's not hard to learn how to export models from .blend to .fbx / .obj

used to be the biggest stock 3D platform on the internet; still some good free stuff there

Materials and textures (free)

Site
Content
CC license?

many free photoscanned 8k+ PBR materials, as well as high poly model library

formerly CC0Textures; lots of solid 4k / 8k materials with PBR support

lots of free textures designed for games with handpainted styles, quality varies

free photosource for 1990s-2000s retro vibe, spiritual successor since CGTextures / Textures.com removed its free plan

Prototyping blockout textures

Skyboxes

A skybox is a special type of 6-sided cubemap texture that gives the illusion of a distant sky background. Contemporary game engines usually use procedural sky shaders / skydomes, but sometimes the old fashioned ways are more effective.

Quake / Half-Life style skyboxes

2D tilesets and sprites (free)

Site
Content
CC license?

10000+ free tileset packs and sprites, mostly retro / pixel art style but lots of variety, basically the first place to look

smooth chunky tilesets packs and sprites, very good but also very recognizable

When making the , we recommend using gridded placeholder textures to prototype the level geometry. This helps establish consistent scale and for the level.

by Ciathyza (Unity)

by Code Respawn (Unreal 4)

by Tom Looman (Unreal 4)

by Kenney (.png)

To make 2D levels, you'll usually want a tile-based level editor. See .

Creative Commons
public domain
Books
Quake resources
blockout
metrics
Gridbox Prototype Materials
ProtoTools
Blockout Material
Prototype Textures
https://www.quaddicted.com/webarchive/kell.quaddicted.com/skyboxes.html
https://lvlworld.com/review/Quake%203%20Arena%20skybox%20collection
http://www.simonoc.com/pages/artwork.htm
Sketchfab
OpenGameArt
Kenney
Quaternius
Fertile Soil
BlendSwap
Turbosquid
Polyhaven
ambientCG
OpenGameArt
Texture Ninja
OpenGameArt
Kenney
Tools