How do you design a multiplayer level to support sustained play at a professional level? If you're Valve, you work directly with the people who are ultimately the biggest stakeholders: the players themselves.

As part of the GDC 2015 eSports Summit, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive community level designers Shawn Snelling and Salvatore Garozzo stepped up to speak frankly about the process of building CS:GO levels and how it can inform multiplayer game design at large.

To hear them tell it, modern level designers can learn much from reaching out to expert players and keeping tabs on whether environments are being designed to be functional first and visually appealing second, rather than the other way 'round.

It was an interesting talk, and developers who missed it can now watch it for free over on the GDC Vault.

About the GDC Vault

In addition to this presentation, the GDC Vault and its new YouTube channel offers numerous other free videos, audio recordings, and slides from many of the recent Game Developers Conference events, and the service offers even more members-only content for GDC Vault subscribers.



Those who purchased All Access passes to recent events like GDC, GDC Europe, and GDC Next already have full access to GDC Vault, and interested parties can apply for the individual subscription via a GDC Vault subscription page. Group subscriptions are also available: game-related schools and development studios who sign up for GDC Vault Studio Subscriptions can receive access for their entire office or company by contacting staff via the GDC Vault group subscription page. Finally, current subscribers with access issues can contact GDC Vault technical support.



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