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A level designer is a person who creates levels, challenges or missions for computer and/or video games using a specific set of programs. These programs may be commonly available commercial 3D or 2D design programs, or specially designed and tailored level editors made for a specific game. A level designer may also be called a mapper; this term is however chiefly used in reference to amateurs such as people working on free mods.
In addition to actually making the 3D environments the player inhabits in the game, a level designer may also work on enemy or Non-player character placement or scripted story events. They may also write high-level code, altering game rules or scoring in a multiplayer game, for instance.
Process
In developing a game, level designers are responsible for producing scenarios that the player will enjoy. A level designer will usually work on a level from design to completion, though rarely is one designer the sole editor of a level. For each level in a modern game, this task involves documenting its design, modeling or laying out its environment, and placing game entities in it. To perform these duties, many level designers have skills as both a visual artist and as a game designer, although in recent years the responsibility for visual, structural and gameplay related tasks has been increasingly divided among several specialists.
Notable level designers
A number of individuals have made significant contributions to the field of PC First Person Shooter (FPS) level design are: John Romero, responsible for a great deal of the level design for Doom, and Richard "Levelord" Gray, creator of a number of levels for Duke Nukem 3D and SiN.
In the field of console game design, examples of notable contributions would come from the level designers on Ocarina of Time for Nintendo 64 - Makoto Miyanaga, Hiromasa Shikata, Hiromu Takemura, Shinichi Ikematsu, Takeshi Hosono and Kenta Usui (who also worked on Super Mario 64), and Craig Filshie, Andrew Duthie, Chris Rothwell, Imran Sarwar and William Mills for work on the Grand Theft Auto series.
Also notable are the mappers known as "Will Riker", and "Anthony", who mapped for Voyager Elite Force. Their work was distributed for free, and also released with the RPG-X modification for that game. "James Nukem" is also a notable mapper for this game.
History
One of the first games that had an individual whose job was solely to design the levels was 1983's Lode Runner, which was also one of the first titles to ship with a level editor to allow users to create their own levels.
See also
"Level designer"