Hire an AI game level designer

Everything it can hand back

Your task sets the actual outputs. The specialist picks the methods that cover them.

• A level document with intent, layout type, play time and an encounter table
• A pacing chart that shows each beat and how tense it is
• A spec for each room with size, cover, lighting and exits
• A navigation checklist to run on your grey box
• Assumptions and playtest questions to answer next

How it does the job well

• You cannot open a game engine or watch a playtest. Say Not run for any check you could not do. Never say a check passed when you did not run it.
• The profile's targets (for example "100% of playtesters navigate unaided", "pacing within 20%") are aims for the user's playtests, not results. Never report them as achieved.
• Times and distances you write are planned estimates. Label them "planned".
• If the user supplies an existing layout, review it first. Keep what works and change only what the checklist flags, unless they ask for a redesign.
• Do not invent a fact about the user's project. If a figure is not from the user, label it as an assumption.
• Start from the user's task and the content, then the layout. Decoration comes last.
• Design every state: empty, loading, error, long text and mobile.

Mistakes it avoids

• Relying on a minimap to make a layout readable.
• Planning art dress before the grey box has been playtested.
• Placing an enemy the player cannot see before it can damage them, unless it is a telegraphed ambush.
• Designing only the happy path at desktop width.
• Copying a reference's logo, text or claims instead of learning from its structure.
• Handing over a picture without the sizes, tokens and behaviour a developer needs.

What a good result looks like

An example, not your task: You have a level idea and need a plan before you build the grey box.

• Level intent. The feeling, the one moment to remember, the pacing arc and any new mechanic.
• Layout and flow diagram. Layout shape, planned play time, the main path, optional areas and a text flow diagram.
• Encounter list. Each fight with enemy count, tactical options, a fallback position and how the player sees it first.
• Pacing chart. Planned time, activity and tension for each beat.
• Room specs. Size, cover, lighting, entry and exit and a story clue for every room.
• Navigation checklist. Each readability check marked Pass, Risk or Can't tell, with the reason.

How the work is checked

• Every screen has its states, breakpoints and interactions written down.
• Colour pairs and type sizes pass the stated contrast checks.
• The handoff names components, tokens and open questions.
• States which checks passed, failed or could not run, and names missing inputs.

These checks have not been run against a model yet. Your AI uses them to check its own work.

A second opinion

Before it hands back, your AI reviews the draft the way Milton Glaser and Paul Rand would. This is a way of reviewing the work. It does not mean they wrote or endorse it.

Capabilities

• Fix the brief. It confirms the feeling, the game type, the player's tools and the play time. It asks once about gaps, then marks them MISSING.
• Write the intent. One paragraph on what the player feels, the moment to remember and how tension rises and falls.
• Lay out the path. It picks a shape, then marks the main path and the optional branches before it draws rooms.
• Plan the encounters. Each fight gets time to read it, two or more ways to win and a fallback spot.
• Spec the rooms. Size, cover, lighting direction, exits and a story clue for each room.
• Check and hand off. It runs the navigation checklist on the plan and writes the playtest questions for your grey box.

How the role works

1. Checks your task, context and available tools.
2. Picks the methods needed and prepares a work plan.
3. Carries out supported tasks, with each method's limits and review gates.
4. Checks the real deliverables and corrects supported faults.
5. Hands back files, evidence and unresolved gaps.

Your specialist's working setup

Download the base specialist without a task form or account. README.md and SETUP.md explain how to use the folder. SOUL.md defines its scope. INTAKE.md asks missing questions inside your AI. PLAYBOOK.md, SKILLS.md, BEST_PRACTICES.md, CHECKS.md and HANDOFF.md guide the work and its checked deliverables.

Complete associated skills, supporting files and licences are included. Choose only the methods needed for the actual task. Keep context, working files and accepted feedback in your AI project.

Use this specialist through MCP or the API

Call prepare_specialist with role_id level-designer only. No task is required to load it. Your AI asks what job you need done, what you want back and which relevant context it can use.

For task-led hiring, call find_specialist, explain the suggested specialists and let the user accept or change the team.

Complete ZIP: Download base specialist. API: GET /api/v1/specialists/level-designer/pack. The host AI supplies its own model, tools and execution; a pack does not connect accounts or run a task.

Inputs and helpful context

The specialist starts from the task brief. Only active methods require their inputs.

For the primary method, when used

• What the level is for: the feeling, the story beat and any new mechanic it teaches
• Your game type and camera, for example third-person shooter or 2D platformer
• What the player can do by this level: moves, tools and enemy types
• Target play time and how skilled the player is by now
• A sketch, map notes or playtest notes (optional)

Helpful context (optional)

• A photo of your top-down sketch
• Notes from your last playtest, such as where people got lost
• Names of levels you admire, so it can say what makes them work

Tools and access

• Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini: It writes tables and flow diagrams as text, so any chat AI works. Pick one that can read a photo of your sketch.

Functions and deliverables

• Game level designer: Plan a game level with a pacing chart, encounter list, room specs and navigation checks, ready to build as a grey box from your brief.
  • A level document with intent, layout type, play time and an encounter table
  • A pacing chart that shows each beat and how tense it is
  • A spec for each room with size, cover, lighting and exits
  • A navigation checklist to run on your grey box
  • Assumptions and playtest questions to answer next
  Source: Michael Sitarzewski and Agency Agents contributors.
• Emotion-led design brief writer: Write a design brief from the feeling you want. Get colour, type, imagery and layout choices a designer can use, with reasons for each.
  • A colour direction with reasons
  • Type and spacing guidance
  • Image style guidance
  • A layout approach in a short brief
  Source: sickn33.
• Design brief rules writer: Turn a loose design job into a design brief with three to five firm limits and room to play. Give it the job and the audience.
  • Core facts: what, why, when and where
  • The one idea the work must carry, in a sentence
  • Three to five firm limits and what is left free
  • A collecting step and a plain statement of the need
• Empty-room photo ad brief writer: Turn a story ad into an empty-room photo brief. Get three story objects, camera direction, a caption and an image prompt.
  • The room, the hour and the light
  • The trace, the clock and the gap, with where the camera stands
  • The line under the image, and flags on anything taken from the story alone
  • A 60 to 120 word image prompt, ready to paste
  • Any of the skill's five checks still missed, one line each
• Brand profile builder: Share your website. Get a reusable profile covering your products, customers, voice and approved claims, with sources.
  • A folder of eight plain files, from a start file for your AI to a claims list and a change log
  • A tag on every fact, and every claim marked approved, pending or banned
  • A two-sentence diagnosis of your biggest gap, and a list of what's missing and who can answer it
  • A short slice for your next step, if you name one
• Milton Glaser: Review a design message using Milton Glaser’s recorded approach. Name the audience, sketch one clear idea and check that every claim is true.
  • Your problem worked on the way Milton Glaser would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Milton Glaser's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step
• Paul Rand: Review a logo, identity or layout using Paul Rand’s recorded approach. Find one clear idea, simplify the form and check practical use.
  • Your problem worked on the way Paul Rand would: their questions, their method, their push-back
  • The answer or the work, in Paul Rand's voice, using their ideas by name
  • Anything that goes beyond their public record, marked
  • One suggested next step

Tasks you can use it for

• You have a level idea and need a plan before you build the grey box.
• Testers get lost, miss the exit or say a fight felt unfair.
• An artist needs room sizes, cover and lighting direction to build from.
• A new mechanic needs a first level that teaches it without text.

Limits to check before starting

• You need the core rules, loop or progression first. Use the Gameplay designer.
• You need the story, dialogue or choice paths. Use the Game narrative designer.
• You need streaming and landscape set up for a huge Unreal world. Use the Unreal world designer.

Best way to use this role

Give it one clear outcome, the actual files and a definition of done. Keep the work in one AI project so it can reuse checked context and earlier files.

• Download the pack and add it to your AI as a skill. If you cannot, paste SKILL.md, then references/source-agent.md, then your brief into a new chat. Claude, ChatGPT and Gemini all work.
• Paste your brief using the list above. Name your engine, or say you have none. The agent does not open it.
• Say "Plan this level. Ask once for anything missing." Answer its questions, or let it mark gaps as MISSING.
• Read the pacing chart first. Check that the beats and tension match the feeling you want.
• Build a grey box from the room specs. Run the navigation checklist with someone who has not seen the level.
• Pass the room specs to your artists only after the grey box works. Art will not fix a layout that fails.

Read it as data

Read the complete role setup as JSON. Connect your AI to the AI Blocks MCP library and read aiblocks://roles/level-designer for its role instructions and pinned sources.

This is a prepared AI role. No task has run. Your AI carries out authorized work using its available tools and reports the actual deliverables and checks.