Level Design
Purpose
Shape level flow, pacing, navigation, encounter staging, and spatial teaching.
Use When
- building levels, missions, dungeons, arenas, or traversal spaces
- players get lost or overwhelmed
- encounters need better pacing
Inputs
- core loop
- combat or traversal rules
- narrative beats
- content constraints
Process
- define the player path, beats, and teaching moments
- place pressure, relief, discovery, and decision points intentionally
- support readability, landmarks, and recovery from mistakes
- coordinate with UI, narrative, and combat timing
- review the space with playtest and traversal metrics
Outputs
- level beat map
- encounter flow notes
- spatial teaching plan
- revision targets
Quality Bar
- supports the core fantasy and player goals
- defines readable rules, edge cases, and feedback
- creates concrete hooks for tuning, telemetry, and QA
Common Failure Modes
- adding systems that do not serve the core loop
- shipping vague rules that QA and engineering must guess at
- tuning without instrumentation or hypotheses
Related Agents
- level-designer
- combat-designer
- narrative-designer
Related Commands
- level-beat
- playtest-report
- verify
Notes
- Keep this skill aligned with the relevant rules layer and current project documentation.
- If engine-specific constraints materially change the workflow, hand off to the matching engine skill or engine-specific reviewer.

