How to actually get good at level design

[helpisneeded]

Most of my maps are either a bunch of squares with a few skewed linedefs, connected in a linear manner, thus i'd love to get better at map design. Are there any sources like videos or such to help me better design my levels? After playing through DTWID, something just sparked inside me. The maps were so well made and sensible, and I really want to be able to make maps like that some day.

[Kappes Buur]

There are several tutorials, which might help you, by Rex, Wildweasel and Tormentor.

Other than that, check out lots of pwads by others for inspiration.

[wildweasel]

I appreciate the shout-out, but my tutorials don't really apply to level design.

[Zen3001]

playing alot of levels and noting what you like and what you don't like.

[RockstarRaccoon]

Practice.

Sit there with GZDB for a long period of time just making random things, maybe try to copy a few things from other stuff that you thought was neat. Eventually, you'll be comfortable with the editor. Then, build out some very simple maps and play them. Don't bother with details, just try to learn how to make the gameplay flow well and be fun.

[ZZYZX]

There are several tutorials, which might help you, by Rex, Wildweasel and Tormentor.

Other than that, check out lots of pwads by others for inspiration.

Most of these links are not related to level design and are just GZDB/GZDoom howto tutorials, and "checking out lots of pwads" (as also recommended by RockstarRaccoon) might be completely out of one's interests to advise that as the main source of experience. (I personally don't play other peoples' mods/maps, unless it's something really, really good, e.g. DBZone.wad :Р)

What the thread's author wants here is a generic approach to level design, as from what I can understand he's out of ideas for his mapping; in which case I can recommend actually googling it to find some more generic tutorials. I personally found this by that query and think it's pretty ok for starters, it also features a lot of practical examples and theory.

More links:
http://www.worldofleveldesign.com/categ ... elines.php

And of course, all of the above (especially on practicing) still applies, but it's still very important to learn to plan your maps first, and actually get some theory instead of trying to intuitively understand it by playing 2000 maps.

[RockstarRaccoon]

Another thing you might do is go watch/read a few reviews of larger mapping projects. Take note of what other people have succeeded at, and what they've failed at, and why. Understanding what constitutes good and bad in a complete map can help you to compensate in your design.

and "checking out lots of pwads" (as also recommended by RockstarRaccoon) might be completely out of one's interests to advise that as the main source of experience.

I didn't tell him to do that, I told him to make a bunch of things to get used to the editor and engine. That said, there's an argument to be made for trying a few of the more interesting map-sets (like Knee Deep in the Dead, Knee Deep in ZDoom, No Rest for the Living, Freedoom, Hexen, Ancient Aliens, Project Brutality, The Sky May Be, Dead Air, Marine Assault, Techbase, The Sewers, Waterlab GZD, etc) in order to get an idea of what can be done and how well (or poorly) others have pulled it off. Note that some of the ones in that list aren't really that good, and possibly not groundbreaking, only that they're worth understanding. I'm not going to say "play through everything", but you really will benefit from having a few WADs you've played. (personally, I stick to projects which completely overhaul the game, like Hedon and Adventures of Square)

That's a nice link though...

[ZZYZX]

Woops, sorry. Apparently I was bad at reading at this late time :Р
Apparently I confused your post with Zen-something post right above yours.