Level Design: the LEGO Method
See also: Level Design - LEGO.com -
Updated February 11, 2004
Lego © 2003 The LEGO Group.

First off, grab yourself as many LEGO bricks as you can. The more bricks you have, the more detailed you can make your "maps".

If there's not a lot of bricks, you will have to use them at a lower scale. I have enough LEGOs to buid at the "Lego mini-figure=72 units" scale. You might have to use a smaller piece of bricks put together as your player size.

Grab a plate for the floor, or lots of little plates for a more Hammer-ish feel.

Do things as you would in Hammer. That is, make the main wall shape first, fiddle around with details later. and remember, it doesn't really matter if the bricks don't match, as long as you get a good overview of your level and use your player-size brick (figure) to sort of role-play through the level.

Try to imagine what a real player might think when walking through the level. No, I don't mean he weird coloration. I mean, is the level pretty straightforward? does it have a puzzle of some sort? maybe some monsters?

Another excellent idea is to make monsters out of Play-Doh and then bake the figures until they are rigid. then place the monsters all around your map and have fun. Take care, have fun, and kill monsters!

- Andrey Bolgov