The art of a Pass: Planning

It all starts with Planning. This is even before layout is thought about, and should be simple and short but lead into the actual building of the layout. You need to be able to summarize what is special about the level: history of the place that may not be surfaced to the player, main kit and size. This will help focus and ground the design, as the summary will do as I said it will: answer questions. If your summary is not a good reference to figure out whether you should put a specific room, then it is either too broad or too specific. (And if you are following the 1-2 paragraph limit, chances are it is too broad) This also stops making any design decisions in any other part of the project which would be harmful in taking up not only your time to then stitch into what is on the screen, but also other team members who then have to create any art or code, should it require it in a different project.