The Hows And Whys of Level Design - Released!

[Defrag]

Regardless of the negative review in this thread, I'm still thinking of buying it. There is no serious alternative out there and 99% of level design books are like "duh, here is how to make a room even though you know you can get this stuff on the Internet, and better".

I can't imagine any publisher would ever let a book like this get into production

Publishers let lots of people write books, regardless of their background (as long as they think it will sell). I guess Hourences didn't have an editor or even a copy editor, so maybe that hurt the presentation a little. Even then, would it really make a huge difference? The guy knows his stuff (whether he imparts his knowledge effectively I don't know), so I'd rather read poorly-formatted stuff from him than well-formatted books from random plebs.

To give you an idea of what I'm talking about: I almost wrote two chapters of a book on level design for some random dude. The publisher involved is a major company (one of the biggest). So, why didn't I do it?

A: What gives me the right to offer people advice on level design? (or at least advice you have to pay for) I'm an amateur. If you want advice, you go to the professionals.
B: I was offered so little money to do it that it wouldn't have even been up to minimum wage unless I cut a lot of corners.
C: I realised that given the rest of the book was probably comprised of amateurs like myself being paid peanuts, it wouldn't perhaps be hugely impressive to say I was involved with it.

I.e. a lot of the books you see out there are cobbled together by hacks and feature sections ghost-written by random plebs. Even if the plebs (such as myself) write decent stuff, it's not going to be of a level that is useful for anyone bar beginners. At least if you buy Hourences' book you know you're getting it from someone who knows what they're talking about.

[o_twincannon]

Indeed Defrag, I would've probably gotten it if I had heard bad reviews too just because I spend so much time on level design - I'd obviously be pretty damned excited about one of the first books out on my favorite hobby.

Honestly, I didn't know much about hourences before (only because I'm inexperienced with the unreal editor and community, though, I'm sure he's a star given his background) but this book really doesn't say much for him. I mean, it's bad. It may be from someone who obviously knows what they're doing, but that knowledge certainly does not translate onto the pages. The most interesting thing to me was the interviews at the back of the book (i.e., words from other mappers :P)