What is a level

Hi guys, I’m new to Unreal Engine and game developing. I want to know what a level is and why do we create them separately. I have a really vague idea of what a level is. My idea of a level is that of an open world game where if you enter some sort of building, a loading screen appears moving the player into another level which is the interior of the building. However this is probably not true. So if anyone can enlightened me, that would be a great help. Thanks :slight_smile:

Level (video games) - Wikipedia ?
In Unreal since it is an engine to make multiple games it is up to you to implement the many different aspects mentioned in the article, the open world example you had is correct but not the only way to handle such things.

The world itself is a level but can also consist of multiple levels streamed into each other (check out UE4 documentation level streaming) or cut apart with hard loading screens and gates, equally you can put an entire building into your worldmap with levelstreaming, loadscreen or neither, its all a matter of optimization and what you want your game to feel like, modern games avoid loadingscreens to feel more realistic and seemless and use levelstreaming, Even for example in Fallout 4 the Elevators are levels by themselves you are put into while the other areas of a building are prepared for you to play in.

Once you know the type of game you make you know what your playfield is and that is your level, if you have different playfields you need different levels :slight_smile: