Level 6
This week I worked on the 6th level of the game and by far this has been the level that proved to be the hardest to design. This has been the only level I had to work during the weekend to have it ready, which I did in order to test the 1st city from beginning to end. I want to check how it feels playing through a whole city, how well the levels flow from one to the next, how good is the difficulty curve and to see if we are creating a good interest curve. Also, This gives me a chance to revisit the previous levels and see if with the knowledge I’ve acquired they can be improved.
The reason this map proved so difficult to design was due to its size, shape and its open nature. My partner and I agree that from this point on we want most levels to be at least of the size this map has. This size allows for an experience with a nice interest curve once the player understands the controls and basic mechanics. Still a larger size necessitates that more parts are being paid attention to, both to check they work as individual sections and together with the other parts. The second issue, the shape, was the one we could have solved the fastest by just choosing to abandon it and try other shapes, but we liked the hollow square motif and wanted to make it a centerpiece in this level. The reason for this is to make it memorable and bring back the fact that it is present in all previous levels creating a feeling of identity for this city. The last issue, the open nature of the level, proved to be the biggest difficulty factor. Genuinely creating a space that was engaging regardless of the order the player tackles it, while still trying to guide the player and have a clear objective felt almost contradictory at times. I think I felt like this for this game in particular as the levels don’t change enough to adapt to the player action and increase the difficulty in previously easy areas. This led to situations where the player would complete a hard challenge first to have to backtrack and do a somewhat long and easier challenge creating very weird and not engaging at all experience.
Due to this last issue I thought back to other games where the player is open on how to approach the levels like Metal Gear Solid 5, Dark Souls or Hitman, and how they tackle these same issues. After analyzing how others had done it I found the following answers. The first one is how the player is guided to a simple to understand strategy but they can choose to ignore it and make their own plan. In these games the mechanics and systems allow the player to complete the objective in more than one way. The second answer is that if the player chooses to start in a harder section first, the game reacts to this decision by unlocking a shortcut to avoid doing challenges that no longer would be engaging, making the easier areas harder or different enough to be interesting. Alternatively it could have an interesting “collectable” in the easier area as well as it being possible to cross the “easy area” quickly .
With the mechanics we have at the moment it would be very hard to make a concise level that allows multiple independent ways to reach the final area, also we don’t want to fill the levels with several collectables, nor do we have the resources to achieve that. For these reasons I chose to focus on making a level that had shortcuts to each area to avoid backtracking. Also, the new road to the suggested initial area will have a higher difficulty, this way avoiding padding while still delivering an engaging experience.
After many iterations I managed to create a level that had the size we wanted and use it to create a nice and balanced experience, as well as use the overall shape we wanted in interesting ways. Finally, it offers the player freedom in how to tackle it while never feeling too easy or too hard.
The initial area starts slowly with no enemies near to allow the player to process the possible choices they have in front of them. From the descending flow of the level the player gaze if guided towards the ending area even if it isn’t completely visible.
Once they exit the start area they find themselves in a crossroad, the first choice of where to go. The area to the west is the one recommended for first time players of the level and I guide them there by being in the direction the player is moving after exiting the start area. Also, I placed a “life pick-up” near the start of that road to call the players attention. If the player completes this road they will find 2 life pickups and would have seen both the ending as well as the 2 doors that need to be opened before they can reach it. The area scales in difficulty in 4 sub sections with the first being a warm-up challenge that shows a patron in this road, the presence of the 2 enemy types next to each other. The next subsection is a harder version of the initial challenge to increase difficulty. The next subsection is a short empty space to breath and prepare mentally for the last subsection. This 4th and last subsection has the hardest challenge and offers the player the choice of taking the quick way out and starting the journey through the east road, or face the complete challenge and obtain the second “life pickup”.
The next area is the central section of the level that has no enemies and works as a transitory space to take it easy and plan the next move. From there the player can choose to start from the beginning if they want to do the complete east area or find and take the shortcut to there. The shortcut is short but challenging and leaves the player right in front of a life pickup. Then they go through the rest of the east area.
The road on the east area is harder than the west area by providing a different type of challenge. In this area the challenges are based on the coordination of two rotating enemies. The first challenge exists only to set up the expectation on the level of difficulty but the coordination of the enemies doesn’t elevate the difficulty, it only is there to look intimidating. The second challenge really starts using the idea of taking into account the coordination between enemies. Then there is a small space to rest before taking on the final and hardest challenge of the area. After completing all these challenges the player is able to open the first door. Then they reach the middle area of the map and if they haven’t done the west area they can take a shortcut that is short and hard.
Once the first door is open they can do the challenge in the final area. This is the hardest challenge of the game so far, asking the players to coordinate their movement with 2 rotating enemies and a patrolling enemy. By completing this challenge they can open the final door and finish the level.
For my final thoughts I will limit myself to say that the process of making this level made me reconsider and polish what makes a good level for this game. I think next week I will be testing how the first city feels to play as a whole. Also, I will be revisiting all previous levels and polish them to work better as individuals. Another thing we want to test is how the height looks with actual solid objects to block the player view and create depth. Once we have this ready, if I plan to start planning what level 7 and the next city will be.
