CAGD 270 - Unit 2
MegaManLVL1 - V1
The very first level version featured a level in which the player would traverse through the surface of the jungle and the caves that were beneath them. My mentality when designing this tutorial level was to try to get the player to be slowly eased into each obstacle or mechanic. I attempted this by creating simple spike jumps at the start as well as quicksand that would land you on a falling block which fell directly onto an enemy.
Early Spike Jump
This allowed the player to visually see how each of these obstacles and blocks interact. The first iteration did not feature doors and keys or any sort of sliding. Some of the feedback I received was that some of the spikes were hard to see until you landed on them, the picket man enemy placement was too obtrusive, and the transition between screens was done incorrectly.
Bad Picket man Placement
MegaManLVL1 - V2
The second iteration cleaned up and expanded on certain mechanics. This time a sliding portion was added to the beginning which required the player to fall into quicksand instead of being able to voluntarily skip the visual tutorial. It also gave the player a key which they now know they will have to look for later in the level.
Forced Quicksand Fall
The second iteration also further eased the pace at which players were introduced to new items by placing them more spread out. The ending portion of the level was also made more challenging to test the player's game knowledge. Some of the feedback I received was that the merging was messed up for the vertical section of the final area, the spikes were hard to see on some of the edges, the jump at the end was hard to make, and to add more health pickups towards the end.
Incorrect Merging of Tiles
MegaManLVL2
Unfortunately I wasn't able to playtest in class due to illness, but I did have some friends download the file and was able to take notes virtually. Adding keys/doors allowed me to be able to carve out spaces in the level for the player to have to deviate from the main path. It allowed for the level to have much more character and depth to it. The weapons I chose to add to the final version were O.Slider and C.Kick. O.Slider allowed for the player to be able to surf across certain tiles including water. I placed an impassable section of water that required the player to grab O.slider to be able to get past. This taught the player that they could use this to slide and get across certain obstacles.
Impassable Water
C. Kick I placed further into the level in an underground section that required the player to use it to make certain jumps. The player would use it to slide across certain sections they couldn't make before. The next section of the level was unreachable as the jump was impossible without the weapon.
C.Kick Jumps
The mechanic that was the biggest success was C.Kick because it was used so often that it became ingrained in the player's memories to use it in numerous situations. The mechanic that was my biggest failure was O.Slider because it was rarely used and was difficult for players to get a hang of early on. As for what went right, I'd say the implementation of weapons, tile mapping, enemy and obstacle placement, and difficulty elevation throughout the level. As for what went wrong, some weapons could've been utilized more, players had a little trouble figuring out where to go at times, sometimes the level would spawn you at the very end instead of at the start when you first boot it up, and there needed to be more energy and health pickups.
Wrong Player Start Spawn
Next time I would consider adding more pickups to make it slightly easier on the player as well as try to find more use cases for certain weapons. The overall flow of the level was fairly consistent except the section where players had to backtrack. Although, players did quickly understand that the jump was impossible and you needed to drop below. Overall, I think this level is far better than its predecessors and makes use of a lot more mechanics that flowed well together.
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