Today I’m supposed to talk to you about designing levels. I’d get into the theory of it all, but I’m not really a theory guy. I’m a touch and feel guy. I live on my feral instincts, like that guy with the broken-down, silver Dodge mini-van under the bridge by the river, clutching a rusty hammer on dark nights for protection against the rabid world outside.

(insert sound of howling wolves here)

Yeah, I’ve made some bad decisions in my level-designing life.  Back in ’99 I built a level called South Wall for my first computer-based RPG, Crestfallen: Inception. That level had so much wide open space you could have landed a 747 in the main hall. What you really needed was an F-22 Raptor, or anything capable of Mach 2 (at altitude), because it took about a bazillion years to get anywhere on foot. Sure, I can laugh now as I look back. But am I really better off? Are my levels better off? Maybe all that’s really happened is that I’ve put my mind in a small, agoraphobic box. Level design is tricky like that. There’s a time and a place for just about everything.

But enough about the past. What about the future?!

In my future posts, I plan to take you inside both my own mind and the Impact level editor. I want to show you what goes into making a Shadows of Adam level. You’ll be a mute little angel or devil sitting on my shoulder, watching the creative process/struggle from a spectacular vantage point.

It will be fun.

Luke