Everything in a game has to be created from scratch, either by you or by someone else: walls, floors, furniture, and of course the characters themselves. This is called game level design.

When you create objects for the level, you have to teach them everything about themselves so that they appear in the correct spot in the world and also look right. It goes kind of like this.

Object: What am I?
Me: You're a carpet floor tile.

Floor tile: Am I shiny? Am I smooth? Am I made of metal?
Me: No, you're not very shiny at all, you're kind of bumpy, and you're definitely not made of metal.

Floor tile: What color am I?
Me: You're this kind of unexciting institutional green, because you're in an office building.

And so on, for every little thing that exists in the world. In order to make the task of game level design a little bit less daunting, I use Unreal Engine 4, shown in the screenshot.

I spent the last couple of weeks creating and fine-tuning materials for the walls and floors of the building used in the first level of the game and then placing props, such as office furniture, in the different rooms. Yes, I made a bunch of different carpet tiles. How did you guess?

It’s quite exciting to see a world come together, let me tell you. I can’t wait to show you the first demo!

And now, back to work.

By Alex Maier, Shy Snake founder