In the best levels, the level design structure makes you feel like you are exploring areas you are not supposed to, while never being stopped in a dead end.
Continue reading “Exploration Feeling in Spyro the Dragon’s Level Design”Tag: Level Design
“Thank you” in Super Mario Odyssey’s Final Level
Fourth wall breaking reward acknowledging players who achieved something special.
Continue reading ““Thank you” in Super Mario Odyssey’s Final Level”Exploration in the WorldMap of Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion
Branches of levels (presented as metro lines) are connected to each other to add an exploration aspect while keeping some control on the order of discovery.
Continue reading “Exploration in the WorldMap of Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion”Rats Detected as Zombies in ZombiU
In the gamepad’s radar, crows and rats are detected (and emit a “beep”) as if they were zombies, creating tension and apprehension.
Continue reading “Rats Detected as Zombies in ZombiU”“Solving patterns” in Shift Quantum
As level designers on Shift Quantum, when experimenting with newly designed blocks (even before they were implemented) we identified and listed the different micro problems they could generate. Complex puzzles are built later by combining them. Each micro problem has a micro resolution pattern that the player has to figure out and learn. I call those atomic blocks of puzzle resolution “solving patterns”. Continue reading ““Solving patterns” in Shift Quantum”
Handmade vs randomized level design in Epistory
This is an old article that was written as a dev blog post for Epistory, a typing adventure game and the first project I worked on at Fishing Cactus.
The problem
As in most puzzle / adventure games, Epistory’s level design, is designed manually from the world layout to the smallest puzzle. But to save time and money, we need to automate everything else, like generic and repetitive patterns or effects that give life to the world. That is what this article is about: the level building of all the things that are not unique or designed for a specific purpose. Continue reading “Handmade vs randomized level design in Epistory”