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View, browse and sort the ever-growing list of sessions by day, time, pass type, topic, and format. With this Session Viewer, you can view session and speaker details for Game Developers Conference 2024.

You will be able to build your schedule with the GDC Mobile App. The GDC 2024 app will be available for download in Apple Apps and Google Play late February 2024.

Sessions do fill up and seating is first come, first serve, so arrive early to sessions that you would like to attend. Adding a session to your schedule does not guarantee you a seat.

Level Design Summit: How the Heck do You Teach Level Design?: Educating in the Studio

Christopher Totten  (Program Coordinator and Founder, Kent State University & Pie for Breakfast Studios)

Location: Room 2001, West Hall

Date: Tuesday, March 19

Time: 2:10 pm - 2:40 pm

Pass Type: All Access Pass, Summits Pass - Get your pass now!

Topic: Design

Format: Session

Vault Recording: Video

Audience Level: Intermediate

Ask anyone who has trained a new level designer or taught level design students, and they will tell you that a major challenge is balancing training for the technical aspects of the job while also teaching them "good" level design. In the studio environment, you also have to teach communication, documentation, designing for specific types of gameplay, or the elements of your studio's "style." How can we effectively mentor newcomers without taking time away from other ongoing design work?

This talk by a level designer and educator with 13+ years of experience examines processes that studios can use to onboard new designers in productive and accessible ways. It does so through topics such as setting "learning goals", assigning quick-but-usable level design exercises, incorporating "style" into task specifications, and how to structure feedback. This talk incorporates both on-the-job knowledge and examples collected from education to build a roadmap for effective mentorship.

Takeaway

Build effective processes for mentoring new level designers with methods from both industry and game design education. Topics include setting "learning goals" for new designers, designing small projects that teach both tool use and level design principles, structuring feedback, and other mechanisms that teach without detracting from ongoing studio work.

Intended Audience

This is a talk for professional designers in a range of studio types (from indie to AAA) that work with new or junior level designers, or for people who teach level design classes (some audience members may be both), who want to more effectively mentor upcoming level design professionals.



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