Level Design Pt.1 and a Disturbance in the Force…

The Level Structure

So as we were building up, knowing that our game had some neat concepts already, it was the next step to start building some structure. How would we develop the Level?

It was time to create a structure so we would collectively know what our players would be doing.

So with that I decided to develop a general structure to follow to clear up any misunderstanding we would have we the project. Firstly, we all collectively understood some of the abilities the Aliens, one being doors that lead into traps, which is where it was considered, continuing implementation of balance in the game leading to the question ‘Where could this trap door lead to?’

I came up with an ingenious idea which was inspired by Death Run from Gmod. Creating a small pathway with traps inside this twisted pathway of destruction, whether these pathways had some type of interaction with the Aliens of if was done automatically; I don’t know yet but this is something to consider later on.

So the Rangers would start from Point A and make their way through puzzles whilst our Aliens would start at Point B to at least add some symmetrical level design to our already asymmetric game, but these spawn points are all for the sake of balance.

The Cutting of Bosses

After explaining the development choices to the Development team, there were some concerns, particularly if in regards to the idea of Bosses being added to the game.

They regarded it as being maybe a bit too much to add to the game because we already have the idea of puzzles that were to be implemented alongside the interaction of the Aliens which would effect the environment, seem like a bit much and I agreed it’s something that needed cutting. I like the idea of bosses to give even more challenge, but this might be a frustrating for players as once they have completed Puzzles in the game and then having another obstacles to beat after going through so much already.

So it was a decision to cut from the game, because I too did agree this maybe too much to add to the game.

Next Steps

One thing, one member of the development team did mention to me was he was able to create dynamic levels, which did get me thinking about how we could do that, so I took the time to research how that is done, for now, I wanted to focus on refining the ideas already created for the design, to develop a better understanding between the teams.