Process

Layout

You might say: top-down layout, floor plan, map sketch

A layout is an initial visual plan of a level's structure, areas and key pacing beats.

What it does

Makes spatial relationships and intended flow discussable before expensive geometry and art harden decisions.

Ask

What connects to what, and which route or beat should the plan make legible?

Typical

A napkin scribble can grow through parti thumbnails, bubble diagrams, a floor plan and gameplay markup.

Trouble

The plan is polished but unplayable; players experience a maze or the team builds details that hide the core.

Sources

1. The Level Design Book, Layout, Layout, Why design a layout?A good layout drawing is any image that effectively communicates the core design.

Use it on your project

teardown-apply: hold "Layout" (level-layout) from the teardown at https://teardownatlas.com/game-design/ against my project

Paste it into a coding agent that has the teardown skills.

An AI agent wrote this map with the teardown skill. It can contain errors: check the sources before you rely on a part. About and legal