How can level designers transition into leadership roles in game design?

By understanding what you want in a long term, can help a lot in pushing you in the right direction besides just having the opportunity opening up to you. There are usually two routes that a level designer (or game developers in general) can take, the Expert and the Lead/Management. For the expert route, it usually means that you are expert in that specific field which are usually more hand-ons, but also sometimes require to mentor and guide the juniors/mid-level people too. And for the lead/management, it is usually means you will be dealing with high level topics and people. Sometimes, depending the company, you may require to look into the career progression of your team managers too.

A good way to expand your skillset is to look for ways to be involved in other areas of work that you are interested in. For example, maybe some level mechanics need to be designed or made and there isn't capacity in the game design team for this. If you volunteer to do the work you can learn about the other role and build experience in it. This is great because it helps you understand colleagues' work better. It's also useful if you want to transfer, for example from level design to game design - it shows you can do the job and it allows you to check if you enjoy doing it.

Especially being a lead level designer, you need to understand how other departments work within themselves, and also with the other departments (including yours). This way, when you are negotiating and requesting support, you are actually stepping into their shoes, to ensure there is some form of compromise that can be made to allow your requests to go through at times. Soft skills play a major role for you as a lead, and learning to delegate effectively is a key skill you need to acquire over time. A lead shouldn't feel overwhelmed if you want to set a good example for your team member to follow, learn to ask for help early is the first step to gain the trust from your team, and vice versa as a team member too.

Don't forget to talk to the people you work with every day. At your current studio, take the time to learn from the people you work with. What tools and techniques work for them? What doesn't work? Just like you probably keep a level or game design journal, keep a similar leadership journal. When faced with an interesting challenge, write down how you'd like to handle it. Write down how the responsible party actually handled it. Did it work? How successful was their method? Did it match your proposed solution? All of this builds your future leadership toolset!

In hopes of being a lead designer, I've tried applying my skills to develop a game entirely on my own- Art, Level design, writing, programming, and everything in-between. This helps me develop an understanding of all categories of work in making a game.

Being proactive in reaching out to all the different department is crucial, as a level comprises of many dependencies ranging from tech, gameplay and art. Having the necessary visibility of the workload and what each department can do within the limited timeframe, can allow you to make certain decision better. And it is also important to see what recommendations/suggestion you can provide to other departments to improve on the way they work, in return help you manage the different processes on your end much more efficiently. Getting early production support when it comes to visibility over dependencies and scope can help greatly as well.

If you're not sure how to take on more responsibility when opportunities aren't currently available, try to take as much ownership of your vertical as you can. It's a risk - if you're wrong or make a mistake, it's on you. Be honest about it. Most importantly, ensure that you're continuing to record how you would do it better. If you succeed right out of the gate, figure out why. Can you duplicate that success again and again? Can you teach that to another team member, team leader, and the rest of the company?

Learning from others is always great. As a general rule, you should always be proactive in reaching out to people who you think can help you, regardless whether is it online or people you can rely on in your company. I find listening to podcasts and reading articles help me alot during the past few years about leadership and how to manage a team effectively. Another tip is to find a mentor, I would say stay within the company first, it doesn't need to be your manager, but someone who you think may be able to help you in the challenges you may be facing, to see what sort of insights that person may be able to provide you. If you know there is an online outlet where you can potentially find these people, look into that too.

Being a leader is by far a soft skill over all. It takes empathy to be a solid leader who can not only direct and delegate, but also be a shoulder to lean on when times are tough, both inside and outside of the workplace. When I first started as a leader at amazon, I felt like my soft skills were my best foundation when it came to leading such a large staff. The hard skills were easy enough to learn from that point. I’ve translated that to each leadership role I’ve held since.

We need to understand that things are always going to change in the most unexpected way in this industry, the key is to be open and adaptable to these changes, taking a step back to see how we can go about solving the issues at hand. It is always important to note that you are not alone in this and if you do require help and guidance, you should definitely reach out to others for assistance. We are not superhumans who can do everything by ourselves. As a leader, you have to show that you are capable of tackling challenging and overcoming them with what you have even during difficult times, and having that positive outlook and motivation is important to keep the team going as well.

Interpersonal and strategic skills are crucial when moving into Leadership. You can be the best level designer in the Universe but leadership is about empowering others to do their best work, often at the expense of performing hands-on creative work yourself. As a prospective level design lead I'd recommend: - Being able to critically review peer's levels and deliver feedback in a constructive and collaborative manner, avoiding negativity and blame. - Understanding how to look at a level objectively: using player feedback, playtest data and peers' critique to scope and rebuild levels successfully. - Knowing how to balance the needs of your studio: player retention, revenue models and long-term product goals with your own creative goals

Leadership is a skill that is learned. While some people may have talent in leadership, you are absolutely capable of becoming a highly successful leader!