Documentation. This word tends to inspire some scorn amongst level designers, a few will turn their noses up and close this page, and others will wonder why on earth I would write about such an uninteresting topic, and a few will read on in the hopes that the topic was actually a cunning ploy to throw others off the trail of a potentially brilliant piece of information.
Sorry, it's about documentation. sad yet true. You won't find any pieces of literary treasure here, well... maybe one or two if you are fascinated by the writing skills of lazy level designers who are avoiding real work.
It's no secret that it is quite possibly the most mundane of tasks being a game developer is reading and writing copious amounts of documents that at best seem only vaguely related to the task at hand, especially when the documentation appears to be written in some strange dialect by a crazed madman under the influence of a narcotic that to them seemed like a good idea at the time.
Recently however, I have been working on a freelance project with a company that is currently in the glorious startup phase. This is where the sparkley eyed geeks speak of their dream of riches, gold, supermodels and fast cars that will be achieved through their perfect project vision.
As a level designer I have was charged with the task of developing levels based off a design, which sounds particularly easy in theory and it should be in practice, assuming the respective gods smile favourably and the moon is in the correct alignment of venus.
However a problem occured in the design department, the idea of having one design quickly was voted out by the collective minds of the designers and proceeded to quickly split into three of four designs of the same idea, all while not informing the other designers of the changes that had been passed down to your author.
The number of designs on this same idea appeared to vary based on the day of the week, the weather and the colour of the designers undergarments.
When combining a deadline looming around my head buzzing angrily in a way only deadlines can and a designs that appear, stay for a chat and a cup of tea and then proceed to dissapear again, producing and polishing content to a professional standard becomes as easy as building a house with a very small knife, a bucket of concrete that would rather enjoy a nice slide down a hill than actually adhere to a surface and a variety of bricks that have more sides than would appear on the most hardcore of dungeons and dragons player's dice.
After some careful consulting of the greater gods of level design, your author decided to build a level from a design that seemed the most straight forward, well thought out and easiest to implement to showcase the best features. This caused some duress amongst the designers who appeared to change their undergarments on a 2 hour basis.
With the task complete I raised my concerns about the lack of co-ercive direction in design and we quickly resolved the situation upon creating a documentation management system. The moral of the story is to be prepared for this kind of lunacy to occur.
It is quite normal for designs to change in the process of development. However when there is a deadline fast approaching logic often dictates at some point you need to say 'we're going to build what we've designed and work from there'.
This is where documentation enters the scene, and for a well deserved change not to be used as a low velocity projective or a medium of creating the latest and greatest origami monstrosity.
By having clear documentation that is accessible to all members of the staff the project is given a clear direction as much as the neon lights of the tavern find the traveller looking to drown their sorrows.
I heartily recommend to all level designers working on projects, mods or published games. If you don't have a method of keeping the team on track you will quickly find yourself bogged down and confused. I suggest working closely and clearly with the designers to avoid the plight I have told to you.
- Evyn
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