Preferred Genre: Sci-Fi…
My approach is mostly organic / inspirational and largely unproven… But if I try to work left-brained and plan-it-all-out or work from a spec, it usually comes out flat or something forgettable… Or worse, its too close to another work I know and admire too much! If so, I lose interest and stop working on it. But once in a while something sticks, and then the level turns into a whole project. When that happens the end result is usually a universe away from where it started. That’s the exciting part! Its how it was for Film / Music projects before, so its not a complete surprise…
All I know is, I can’t work with blocked out levels of grey. That’s torture. For me, gameplay potential comes out of having an interesting level that has ‘something’, not the other way around. There’s lots of serendipitous discoveries too. This material won’t work with that mesh… Oh wait, that’s interesting, must push forward with that, see if anything comes of it. I keep factory levels with lot of variations of ships and spaceports and weapons as a bible as the project progresses.
You have a lot of liberty working in Sci-Fi. You can break or tear up the rule book about scale and composition and lighting in a way that doesn’t often work in other genres. That’s what makes it fun imo… If a ship / hall / doorway is oversized for the main character in a contemporary game it will often look wrong. But if you have a backstory to sell it in Sci-Fi, then maybe it’ll work. Overall, I hate losing time on small details that most won’t care about, when the gameplay ‘is urgently calling’…
I have a database of legacy COD2 / COD4 Community maps too, and sometimes I refer to that to brainstorm ideas. Its handy, because you get to see what a simplified world looks like, which is easier than looking at real-world photos sometimes, as you can just focus on the essential parts - not the noise etc.
There was once a COD2 Community map set in a Valley. Its been the most influential map I’ve drawn from, as it had everything. It was huge, but it had a single large focal point. There were many paths of discovery and exploration and combat as well. It had vistas, choke points, and gunfire at height along an elevated rail track / bridge.
You just don’t see that anymore, even in later versions of COD. You can tell the talent left the building long ago. COD maps are often boring / repetitive / lack inspiration, even if the gameplay and weapon options / attachments are far superior. This map didn’t bore, and unbelievably it was all a Community effort - Wow!