Level Design Club

October 12, 2016

Me giving a lecture on how level design changes depending on type of platformer.

October 12, 2016

Tanner Pearson receiving feedback from Professor Orth.

November 30, 2016

Students during an industry lecture.

October 12, 2016

Me giving a lecture on how level design changes depending on type of platformer.

1/16

Formed in 2016

Role: Organizer/Founder

Peak Attendance: 22 students

Level Design Club's primary goal is to provide a space for students to focus specifically on improving their Level Design Skills, and receive feedback from other students and faculty members on their personal or team projects. In each meeting we try to expand our Level Design vocabulary, look at professional examples, and perform a live critique of student games.

Student Led Lectures.

PICTURED: Myself lecturing on using graph paper to rough out concepts.

Feedback on Student Projects.

PICTURED: A student receiving feedback on their GAT project.

Lectures from Industry Pros.

PICTURED: David McKenzie talking about his path to getting hired at Wargaming.

What Went Right?

Meetings happened regularly. We met every week after the founding of the club for the entirety of the semester.
Good attendance. Every lecture we had, there were at least 10 people who showed up.
Growing attendance. Attendance got better as the semester went on. The final two lectures had around 20 attendees.

What Went Wrong?

Less attendance than hoped for. We had expected a substantial turn out due to faculty support and student interest, but we had a hard time getting Sophomores and Juniors to come in.
Fewer Game Testing Sessions. Students rarely brought in their games for feedback on level design, including a meeting time we had set aside entirely for feedback. For the 1st semester, a lot of student games might not have levels ready, but there are still GAT projects and such that could have gotten feedback. We need to figure out a stronger method of giving feedback and try to increase word of mouth.
Less Faculty support than expected. While we had faculty in almost every meeting, we didn't have a large variety of faculty. This is most important for feedback on student games, so getting them in will be important in the future.

What Have I Learned?

I have had the chance to learn a lot of practical knowledge about Level Design and game design as a whole from other presenters, including a few with industry experience.
Running this club was more time consuming than expected. I had hoped meetings would run themselves a bit more as we went along, but we never broke out of the dependence on my planning. Having a more thorough plan from the start might have helped the week to week grind, but moving forward, the club will still need strong leadership.