How To Decorate Like A Boss?

[VeNoMzTeamHysterical]

Hey dous anyone know how to decorate like a boss since i was checking on youtube how to make it nice but i could not find anny video of it?

annyone got some tips for me or a video link?

[Acies]

Years of playing Sims..

Open up one of the original amnesia maps and have a look at how they have made it. Especially nice if you need to "study up" on particles, lighting and billboards - often (in my opinion) more important than how you arrange the furniture.

[FlawlessHappiness]

Indeed!

Training and looking at the original maps.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Damn... I remember writing a humongous post about this exact topic a while ago, but I just can't find it anymore. That search function is useless!

Anyway, let's see what little I still remember from all that rambling I did about environment/ visual level design:

1. Avoid large, empty rooms, looong empty corridors and large planes with obviously tiling textures (walls, floors, ceilings). Break them up whereever you can by using decals, carpets, piles of fitting small objects (books, papers, rubble, lamps on a wall...) or simply by using a more interesting room shape.

2. Avoid placing all objects perfectly straight or in straight rows. (Unless maybe it's a throne room... every rule has its exception ^^) Rotating things subtly or furnishing a room with a bit more creativity than "everything straight along the walls" can go a long way towards creating a more organic, lifelike composition.

3. When placing large objects in a level, "integrate" them organically into the environment by placing fitting smaller objects around them. otherwise they'll stick out oddly. In general, try creating "object islands" around several large, eye-catching objects in a room instead of just spreading all the details around evenly. For example if you have a bookshelf in a room, put some bookpiles around it, maybe a small carpet in front or a comfy chair with a little table for reading and a lamp - this would create such an island.

4. When creating a room, think about its purpose first. Seems like a no-brainer, but I've often seen piles of storage crates and flour sacks in libraries or shelves with precious looking books in storage rooms. Stuff like that can look really weird on an almost subconcious level...

Last but not least: Make your level readable to the player. Think about where you want him to look, what you want him to notice first and what you want him to do. This is the most difficult part of level design and you'll have to really study how professional developers did it. (Valve for example is amazing at this...) I've written a bit about it here (third post) , if you'd like to have a look. It's pretty noob-ish compared to what the pros do, but it might give you an idea what I'm talking about

[FlawlessHappiness]

Damn... I remember writing a humongous post about this exact topic a while ago, but I just can't find it anymore. That search function is useless!

Anyway, let's see what little I still remember from all that rambling I did about environment/ visual level design:

1. Avoid large, empty rooms, looong empty corridors and large planes with obviously tiling textures (walls, floors, ceilings). Break them up whereever you can by using decals, carpets, piles of fitting small objects (books, papers, rubble, lamps on a wall...) or simply by using a more interesting room shape.

Will just add one thing here:

Also avoid having rooms stuffed with useless ornaments...
Remember a human is supposed to live in here. There's supposed to be space so you can walk, and stand inside the room with having to avoid sofas, chairs etc.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

That's also true of course! In fact, you may sometimes even have to make those walk spaces a little bit bigger than they would normally be, since a player character is basically a walking cylinder that can't move around obstacles as nimbly as you could in real life.
Say, for example, you're having the player walk through an airplane or a train, where there's already very little space by default. You might want to add a bit of space there to avoid him get stuck all the time.
(Unless of course you're going for a sense of claustrophobia...basically, every rule can be broken as long as you know why it exists and have a good reason for breaking it! ^^)

[The chaser]

Today I've learnt that level design is fucking complicated.

[FlawlessHappiness]

Today I've learnt that level design is fucking complicated.

No shit ^_^

[JonnyAnomaly]

Here is a site with some great guides on planning your levels out:

http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/articles.php

There are quite a few guides there, and I've just started going through them myself, but they are really helpful. I'll definitely be putting more planning into my levels before jumping straight in like usual!

[VeNoMzTeamHysterical]

thanks for all your help guys