Level Design Pt 5
Sketches for Puzzle 1
These levels have been considered Super Easy, so they have been designed with that in mind, with one basic obstacle to get past so it introduces the player to the general concept of the game. I mean you could argue that they learned that through the Onboarding, however, most puzzle games expect the player to learn by being taught the techniques and then applying it over and over again so they master the concept. which is the plan, but the objective for Puzzle 1 is for players to quickly breeze through the level as the knowledge they should possess at this point is exactly what they need to progress.
What each of the sketches needs to highlight is:
The Start and End Points for the particular puzzle
The Location of the Switch
Any small gaps need to be highlighted
The block for Ranger 2 to use Telepathy
The location of the Resource collection for the Aliens
The area of the level needs to be the same (Each puzzle is a different size, but if making a sketch for, in this case, Puzzle 1, it needs to be the same size throughout each design)
Now with that being made, it’ll be easier to create placeholder levels as all of the things are technically highlighted.
Level Layout
Now one thing I didn’t mention but always thought about was the spawn point of each of the characters, initially it was in the basis that both the Rangers and the Aliens would spawn opposite from each other however, once creating the first Puzzle levels for the game, it should seem really silly to keep that part of the game symmetrical. OUR GAME IS ASYMMETRICAL already so considering the Aliens will be moving slower they should be closer to the Ranger players so that they can interact with the Ranger players more easily and there would some depth to their meaningful choices being made for the Alien players.
However with this into consideration, now the level layout should have some finality to it. The Puzzles going from one to the next, the spawn points organised and the Start and End point for each level.
Now the next thing would
Next Step
To implement placeholder levels for the developers within Unity giving them an idea of where everything is. The Level Layout can only be changed in regards to the Alien Spawn location, as that part is the only thing that is uncertain and needs testing, as this is probably the only spawn point that can change. It’s crucial to get that spawn correct so that they have a good chance the multiplayer interaction to happen rather than it becoming a long-winded process.