游戏邦在:
杂志专栏:
gamerboom.com订阅到鲜果订阅到抓虾google reader订阅到有道订阅到QQ邮箱订阅到帮看

设计“完美的”游戏关卡的秘诀

发布时间:2015-10-28 15:47:36 Tags:,,,,

作者:Yowan Langlais

本文将集中讨论《Toto Temple》这款游戏。

如果你想要拥有更深入的理解或者你对这款游戏充满困惑,你便需要阅读本文!

现在让我们谈谈这款古怪的小游戏的关卡设计吧。

toto_dashing(from gamasutra)

toto_dashing(from gamasutra)

开始前,请别被文章的长度所吓到,你可以看到这里有很多很多图片。是的,这能够帮助你们更好地阅读。我将把文章分解成一些较小的部分。以下便是本文的大概框架。

1.创造我的设计计划

1)我的工具箱

2)从零开始

3)为什么要网格?

4)第一个关卡

5)全新游戏方向

6)全新关卡

7)小总结

2.基于上述步骤设计所有关卡

1)关卡1.Toto Temple

2)关卡2:Tiger Trap Tantrum

3)关卡3:Mini Miney Moles

4)关卡4:Canopy Contraptions

5)关卡5:Bubble Babble

6)关卡6:Giga Geysers

7)关卡7:Rabid Bats

8)关卡8:Goat Gate Galore

3.额外的完善

1)关卡1:Toto Temple

2)关卡3:Mini Miney Moles

4.总结或“TL;DR(太长了不看了)”或“WTL;DR”

让我们开始吧

首先让我们回到最开始,即当《Toto Temple》还是一款没有“冲撞”功能的简单的平台游戏。等等,什么是“冲撞”功能?

在最初版本中,这款游戏都是关于收集货币,销售货币去设置陷阱,然后教唆其他玩家进入陷阱中偷东西,如此你便能够设置更多更多的陷阱!

就像你所看到的,我们一直尝试着创造一款2D平台游戏。这没问题,但我们应该从哪里开始?

就我个人来讲,我总是从这一问题开始:我拥有怎样的工具,我该如何最有效地利用它们?

在这里这个问题的答案非常直接:

向左和向右移动。

跳跃与双跳。

推动/猛击

设置陷阱。

尽管你还不确定这些是什么,但相信我,它们都很重要。

就是这样!小菜一碟吗?让我们接着看看。

从零开始创造

让我们拿起手绘板。首先,我需要勾勒出这个新世界中的元素有多大。《Toto Temple》是基于16:9的纵横比进行设计,所以我总是会先画出一些可能的关卡草图以明确自己希望这游戏是怎样的。我经常与别人合作并确保所有人对这款游戏都拥有相同的看法。在这个步骤中,我并未专注于创建一个真正的关卡,我只是想得到一个有关世界的简单理念。

mockup(from gamasutra)

mockup(from gamasutra)

一旦我们所有人都明确一个基本框架,我便会转向下一步,即从中创造一个网格。是的,我喜欢网格。为此我使用了Adobe Flash的网格系统。在创造网格的时候我想要确保网格能有效匹配游戏的比例(那时候我们的计划是1280×720),这也是非常接近草图最小元素的一个大小。一旦完成网格,我便会将早前的草图置于一旁并创造一个更清楚的版本。

grid(from gamasutra)

grid(from gamasutra)

然后我意识到自己的网格太大了,从而让我不能按照想要的方式去塑造关卡(即就像你在上面所看到的那样)。虽然看起来很像,但却不够相近。我知道现在网格太小了,从而导致我们很难去创建关卡的几何结构。所以我反复进行调整直至达到99.99%的满意度。最终我创造了一个40×36像素的网格。就像你所看到的,这比之前的版本更加精确。

mockup(from gamasutra)

mockup(from gamasutra)

一个网格?但为什么呢?

拥有这个网格让我能够使用一些基本的设计规则,如定义跳跃高度。我并不想在毫不了解的情况下创造一个遥不可及的平台。同样地我也能够定义冲突间所需要的最小空间,以确保玩家能够自在地移动。保持对称是非常简单的,因为我们已经确定了所有元素的像素。基于这一方法,我所创造的内容都将能够保持一致。

mockup(from gamasutra)

mockup(from gamasutra)

是的,网格真的很方便,至少对于我来说是这样!但是为什么我要使用Adobe Flash呢?以下是4大理由:

网格非常适合设置与调整!

创造临时资产很简单。

对齐网格功能非常强大。

根据网格去调整并移动资产非常有帮助。

因为我已经使用Flash一段时间了,所以我可以说它就像我的手心手背一般,总是能给我带来更高的工作效率。

所有的这一切都让我能够轻轻松松创造出无数关卡原型。尽管现在的游戏只有8个关卡,但这对于我来说这真的很重要,因为为此我已经创造了许多内容了。

第一个关卡

现在让我们回到关卡设计,随着准备的完成,我将开始设计第一个真正的关卡,即将用于《Toto Temple》的TOJam版本中。我希望你能记得我之前提到的“工具”,因为这时候你便需要使用它们。前两个工具并不像它们在任何2D平台游戏中那么重要,但最后一个却为这整个关卡创造了灵感:陷阱。

如果我想起自己的黄金法则,它应该是这样的:我该如何将陷阱应用到这一关卡中呢?

当我想到陷阱和2D平台游戏时,我总是会想到狭窄的过道和密封区域,即能自然让人想到安置陷阱的地方。在这里我想到了一些布局的点子:

grid(from gamasutra)

grid(from gamasutra)

我真的很喜欢设置一个较大的中心区域的电子,如此我便可以选择最后一个进行更深入的完善。不管你相不相信,基于此我创造了那时候人类能够创造出的最棒的关卡。

tojam_final(from gamasutra)

tojam_final(from gamasutra)

也许在你看来并没有特别惊人,但是我想指出这一关卡设计中一些特别的地方:

tojam_final(from gamasutra)

tojam_final(from gamasutra)

1.较大的中心区域。有许多可设置陷阱的地方,从而使这里变成一个很难控制的区域,因为这里可能有来自所有玩家设置的各种陷阱。

2.小型地下道。出于安全原因,你可能至少需要控制一个地下道。

3.顶端的祭坛,这是你从上方跨越到另一边的唯一方法。

4.狭窄的凹点意味着你更有可能在这里抓到别人,所以这也是设置一些陷阱的好地方。

5.从那里掉下来等同于掉进一些充满陷阱的区域。

6.你可以轻松避免到达那里,但这也是一条绝佳逃跑路线,所以你最好能够控制这些区域。

7.如果被带到那里又碰巧掉进陷阱的话你一定会死的!加上这还是一个狭窄的平台,所以你知道该怎么做。

8.不是非常重要,但却是值得关注的,这将迫使玩家从4号下到1号中心区域。

9.封闭区域。不管值不值得,如果你想办法将某人带到这里,我敢保证他一定会掉进你的陷阱。

就这样。你可能拥有更多关于我的设计的问题,如为什么我在7号创造了一个2×1的平台,而我本来可以将其设定为3×1?

我之所以选择2×1是因为我并不希望玩家在从9号跳往8号的时候栽在7号上。这里有很多很难解释的东西,而下图可能能够帮助你们更好地理解。

drawing(from gamasutra)

drawing(from gamasutra)

你们可能还会问我:为什么我们在9号创造了一个封闭区域?

这个问题的答案与之前类似。很多时候我会基于环境做决定。即提高给玩家足够的空间让他们自由移动是我的优先选择。是的,我本来可以将死路填满,让玩家不能到达那里,但我认为保持它们的开放能够创造一定的乐趣。虽然我并不是很喜欢这些死路,但有时候自己也需要作出一些改变。

在这里我想要传达的是,当你在设计一个关卡时,创造一些玩家能够有效利用你提供给他们的工具是最重要的。而这一关卡是否让这些工具物尽其值呢?让我们来看看:

1.向左和向右移动。

是的,这个关卡中存在足够的空间让玩家能够自由移动。

2.跳跃与双跳。

是的,你有效设置了每个平台,并且还有将玩家引向这里的路线。

3.推动/猛击

是的,这里存在许多让玩家能够推动/猛击其他人的机会。

4.设置陷阱。

是的,许多主要区域都是围绕着这点而设计的。

我认为我们一切设置妥当了。设计中还有一些我并未注意到的其它问题,而我们将通过尝试关卡去发现它们。在第一次迭代中便敲定一个关卡是很少会发生的事,除非你是个天才。

漂亮得不真实了

尽管顶着压力开发并测试游戏,我们还是能从彼此追逐与拍脸中获得乐趣。比起放置陷阱并仔细引导着玩家在关卡中前行,我们添加了一个无尽方向猛冲功能以及运送山羊的游戏机制。

misc_goat_pole(from gamasutra)

misc_goat_pole(from gamasutra)

你可能会认为这是一种无关紧要的改变,即这对于关卡设计不会产生多大影响。但是你错了。这一改变改变了整体的内容。现在,比起小心翼翼地移动和跳跃,玩家可以毫无顾忌地穿越关卡了。这并不是我们事先计划好的,时间也快用完了。这时候再对关卡做出一些重要的改变几乎是不可能的事。任何一个调整都意味着插画师需要重画背景中的某一部分去匹配全新布局。更糟糕的是,你们甚至需要重新开始。

我们没有其它选择了。所以最终我们创造出一个带有导航问题的关卡,但对于游戏jam版本来说,这还是可以忍受的。以下是我们最终创造出来的内容。

TotoTemple(from gamasutra)

TotoTemple(from gamasutra)

TOJam结束了,让我们开始创造一个新关卡

这一次我非常清楚自己的工具:移动,跳跃,双跳和猛冲。我不会再犯傻了。我们的下个关卡一定会更好,我已经感受到了!

这一次我们迎来了一位优秀的实习生Marion Esquian,我们将一起利用猛冲功能去设计这个新关卡。Marion创造了许多有效的关卡布局,而其中一个布局吸引了我们的注意力。

tiger(from gamasutra)

tiger(from gamasutra)

让我们做些修改从而让这个关卡能够符合我们的黄金法则:我该如何在这个关卡中有效利用猛冲功能呢?

tiger02_compare(from gamasutra)

tiger02_compare(from gamasutra)

从上图中你可能很难理解为什么我要做出这些改变,但我敢保证你一定能在下图中找到答案。

tiger02_all(from gamasutra)

tiger02_all(from gamasutra)

很聪明吧?你可以无需行走或跳跃便前往你想去的任何地方!我知道,这很让人惊讶,你可以感谢我和Marion。

但实际上这一改变对于玩家来说也没有什么区别。最后,尽管关卡是围绕着这一全新猛击功能进行设计,但却没人去使用这种便利。为什么呢?这是否意味着你的黄金法则毫无价值?

我并不会说它“毫无价值”,但肯定的是这里存在一些误会。

在思考关卡设计时,有一点是我未考虑到的,即山羊运送者。的确,玩家会特别关注于追逐山羊运送者并尽快偷走他的宝物。他们不会浪费时间为了寻找一个急冲路线而四处晃荡。并且也没人有时间去做这些。加上你也不可能基于一种不可预测的方式去追逐某些事物。你最终能够做的事只有奔跑,跳跃并朝着目标猛冲过去,而不会去使用任何巧妙的设计。

path(from gamasutra)

path(from gamasutra)

所有的这些让我们认识到了许多。像根据一个规则去设计一个关卡并不是一种好方法。当我们移除了陷阱去添加猛冲功能时,我是否准确更新了自己的工具箱?看起来我并没有。我忘记了在此添加山羊运送者,这是真正需要考虑的内容。

misc_TheGoatAndTheCarrier(from gamasutra)

misc_TheGoatAndTheCarrier(from gamasutra)

这让我们意识到拥有多个关卡布局并不能为游戏带来更多帮助。我们真正需要的不只如此。我们需要一些能够让玩家对一个关卡难忘的独特元素。

是时候完善体验了

既然我们知道围绕着猛冲功能调整关卡并不是最佳方法,我们便可以开始考虑能够完善体验的新元素。上帝知道我们思考并测试了许多理念但却只保留了其中非常少的一部分。

警示!

如果对于本文你已经有很大的收获了,那么你便可以止步于此。

而我将继续完成我们在《Toto Temple Deluxe》的每个关卡的设计过程。

misc_level_mosaic(from gamasutra)

misc_level_mosaic(from gamasutra)

第一个关卡:Toto Temple

首先我们拥有在TOJam期间所创造的Toto Temple(是的,这就是该关卡的名字)。我们想要为了那些在游戏jam期间玩过这个关卡的人保持关卡不变,让他们能够在之后回到游戏中时想起自己经历过的时刻。也就是说,我们只对关卡布局作出了少量的调整,即去修改了一些出现问题的区域。

layout(from gamasutra)

layout(from gamasutra)

是的,我们只改变了向下的一条小小的通道。这主要有两个原因。

首先,因为它足够长且狭窄,所以如果能够进到那里就说明你所喜爱的山羊会被偷走。

其次,如果在一开始玩家的头部未撞击到上方角落位置,他便很难进到里面去,从而在这个过程中丢失了一些宝贵的时间。

layout(from gamasutra)

layout(from gamasutra)

最后,如果因为某些原因使你成为唯一一个喜欢基于环境而使用猛冲功能的人,你将因此获得更多方向机遇!

layout(from gamasutra)

layout(from gamasutra)

现在就是这样了,但一定别失望,请继续读下去,你将会发现更多惊喜。

第二个关卡:Tiger Trap Tantrum

我们知道自己想要在游戏中执行一些移动平台,所以我们决定在第二个关卡上执行这些内容。幸运的是,我们拥有执行这些内容的绝佳位置。几乎不需要做出任何改变,我们创造了3个小小的组块!

blocks(from gamasutra)

blocks(from gamasutra)

这一陷阱是随机开放与关闭的,所以你永远都不知道它是如何运行的。不过游戏会提供一个提示。即在开始移动前,一块石头会开始抖动,如果你眼睛够敏锐的话你便能够猜到顺序。

这里只有一个较为麻烦的内容。即当陷阱完全关闭时,玩家如果跳到一堆石头上便会将挑战呈现在一些人面前。

tiger06_jumps(from gamasutra)

tiger06_jumps(from gamasutra)

我们对这一内容进行了适当的挑战并取得了不错的效果,但它还是不够完美,因为新玩家们很难跳到上面去。不过我还是对结果很满意的,并希望你们也是这样。

tiger07_trimmed(from gamasutra)

tiger07_trimmed(from gamasutra)

你总说不希望自己掉进陷阱中,除非你拥有山羊和足够的技能能够确保自己走出陷阱。因为当玩家待在陷阱外部时,他们总是能够自由行动。

以下是现在我们的关卡的样子,我们优秀的美术师还添加了一些颜色:

tiger_art_final(from gamasutra)

tiger_art_final(from gamasutra)

第三个关卡:Mini Miney Moles

我们的全新关卡突出了一些可打破的组块!在充斥着一些你能够击破的物体的关卡中真正让人觉得激动的是,每当你进入该关卡时,其配置便会发生改变,所以玩家将不会反复走着一些相同的路径并面对一些相同的组块。

首先我们尝试了一些较小且脆弱的组块以及一些较大且坚实的组块。是的,当玩家猛击时这些褐色的组块便会被摧毁。

mine(from gamasutra)

mine(from gamasutra)

但是那些小型组块和大型组块根本不能有效整合到游戏中。打破一个小型组块能够创造一条玩家几乎不能通过的狭窄通道,从而阻止你在运送着一只山羊时不能进入其中。你了解那种以为自己能够到达任何地方,但是游戏却阻止了你这么做的心情吗?这肯定是非常沮丧的。不过这也是很好解决的问题,因为我们可以删掉这些较小的组块。

mine(from gamasutra)

mine(from gamasutra)

如此我们便只拥有一些较大的组块,你将只会看到极少量的狭窄走道。而这时候你也只需要谨慎面对那些走道的放置便可。不用为此担忧,因为垂直放置的狭窄走道不会对你构成任何威胁。我们会尝试一些布局上的想法。

layout ideas(from gamasutra)

layout ideas(from gamasutra)

你可能会好奇为什么在这些设计进程中会有这么多白色空间?当我们在设计关卡时,我们需要牢记两个重要内容。

首先,如果你记得《Toto Temple Deluxe》的101速成课内容,你便清楚运送着山羊意味着你不能撞击任何内容,所以你便不能进行挖掘。相信我,在1对1的比赛中,比起挖掘,玩家总是更专注于偷取山羊,所以我们将一直看到玩家们在一些较小的廊道上进行对抗。而这一点都不刺激。所以我们能做的便是创造更多空间。

mine_9coins(from gamasutra)

mine_9coins(from gamasutra)

考虑到所有的这些内容,我既需要为运送着山羊并想要逃离的玩家提供更多空间,也需要提供足够的组块让玩家能够对布局产生实际影响。虽然说起来容易做起来难,我还是努力去实现这一目标:

mine08_coins(from gamasutra)

mine08_coins(from gamasutra)

对此我们都很高兴,但是对于货币的安置我们却没有信心。首先,我们希望这些区域能够用来储存宝物,但是在经过一些测试与思考后,我们认为这并不是一个好主意。对此有许多原因:

mine08_coins_what_to_do_after(from gamasutra)

mine08_coins_what_to_do_after(from gamasutra)

1.更快速到达山羊位置的路线,这里拥有额外的货币,如果你足够幸运或走得够快的话便能获得它们。这是最佳选择。

2.你可能会认为自己能够得到与路线1一样的奖励,甚至更多,但有99.99%的可能性显示在你到达山羊位置前别人将会先得到它,因为在你的前进路上会有更多组块,所以一般情况下你只能获得一个货币奖励。除非你正在对抗的是一个非常坏的人!

3.没有什么更重要的事。

这一设置的真正意义在于:获得山羊并在你所创造的区域内战斗。在那周边进行挖掘并没有什么乐趣,因为你没有这么做的价值。

这也将我们引向全新的设置:

mine08_coins_what_to_do_before(from gamasutra)

mine08_coins_what_to_do_before(from gamasutra)

1.这是最长的路线,所以你不大可能选择它,除非你真的想要获得特定的货币。

2.这是获得山羊最快速的路径,但是这里没有黄金货币。

3.在到达山羊位置前你可以绕道而行,但当你这么做时,别人可能会选择第2条路径,而那里将有山羊等着他。

就我个人而言我总是会选择第2种设置,因为从长期来看,山羊能够为你带来更多分数,所以尽早拥有山羊是好事。再加上如果你能够第一个获得山羊的话便会拥有250个点数奖励。而我会选择第3种设置的唯一原因便是自己搞砸了一切并清楚别人一定会比我先得到山羊。我永远都不会选择第1种方法。除非我真的是发疯了。

左右分配货币的真正好处在于它们将诱导玩家去参加最初的山羊竞赛。这意味着他们都有可能获得山羊,并深入挖掘关卡,为之后的战斗创造更多空间(再加上他们也会因为如此努力获得更多奖励)!

也就是说,也许你仍然热为我们并未添加真正的新可能性让玩家能够在最后获得山羊,而第2条路径也将是玩家始终的选择,但我还是希望你们能够继续阅读下去。

mine04_final(from gamasutra)

mine04_final(from gamasutra)

第四个关卡:Canopy Contraptions

对于下一个关卡,我们将尝试找到一些能让玩家阻碍追随者并成功获得山羊的方法。这时候的我们会想到什么呢?一个门系统!于是我们便开始进行尝试,并发现这一系统非常有效。它的运行方式是,一旦玩家穿越一个特定区域,他身后的一扇门便会关闭,并在一段时间内保持关闭状态,然后再自动打开。

canopy_stop_chase_take2(from gamasutra)

canopy_stop_chase_take2(from gamasutra)

我们的第一次测试是将该关卡垂直分成一半,即在上方和下方各设置一扇门,从而让它们能够阻隔玩家并且不只是作为一条小小的便道。我们已经在中央用一棵大树呈现出了整体的内容。我们决定在此使用森林/丛林主题。

canopy(from gamasutra)

canopy(from gamasutra)

但是很快地我们便注意到这一设计存在一个大问题。即只拥有两扇门的设置(游戏邦注:这是玩家走向另一边的唯一方法)在遇到1对1的游戏模式时会引出一个大问题:

运送山羊的玩家将穿过上方的门,随后门便会关上并阻碍追随着他的人进入。然后玩家将保持不动,这时他的追随者将面对两个选择:

1.追随者会选择便道并前往下方的门,但当他这么做时,上方的门也将重新打开。这将保护运送山羊的玩家安全地来到另一边并逃离危险,如此反复,直至他最终获得胜利。

2.追随者会耐心等待门的开启,但在他等待的时候,运送山羊的玩家将开始朝着关卡中心移动。根据追随者的下次移动,山羊运送者会选择与之相反的路线,并再一次获得安全。

这都意味着除了对于山羊运送者来说,这根本毫无乐趣。我们需要谨慎思考如何设置这些门去阻止这种情况的发生。

于是我们回到了手绘板,创造并测试了不同的布局。我并不打算在这里谈论更多细节,但我想说的是之所以决定终止这一关卡是因为它并不有趣,或者未能真正发挥作用。

layouts(from gamasutra)

layouts(from gamasutra)

虽然最后一部分有点乐趣,但我们还是决定作出一些额外的调整。考虑到我们选择的主题,我们希望玩家能够多待在关卡的上方部分。我们决定将“底部像笼子一般的东西”移到上方并添加一些内容为其增添乐趣,如此游戏内容便不会太难。

layouts(from gamasutra)

layouts(from gamasutra)

现在的设计会让玩家觉得自己应该在地面上游戏!这要多亏我们所谓的“推进器”。它不断移向关卡的每一面,并推动着那些害怕站在这里的玩家跟着自己前进!现在你可能会问为什么我们要添加像这样让人讨厌的内容?我想你应该比我更清楚答案。是的,这些内容可以将你推向任何你并不想去的地方,但同时如果你选择了正确的时机,你也可以将其作为一种免费工具带自己前往另一端。

你必须清楚,Canopy Contraptions是一个很难应对并精通的关卡。它的设计包含了精确且棘手的跳跃,你能看到:

canopy_art_final_trickystuff_gray(from gamasutra)

canopy_art_final_trickystuff_gray(from gamasutra)

1.你会被推向另一面并不会碰到头地跳过一个小小的缺口,然后再回到地面上。

2.如果太早跳跃你一定会撞到头,并掉落下去而受到推进器的攻击。

3.在两个方向跳跃,先向左然后向右,或者反过来(有些人做不到这点)。

4.沿着Z字形跳到上方。

5.准确地跳到平台上。如果你没有山羊的话做到这点并不轻松,你最好能够使用猛冲功能到达那里。

不管怎样,一旦你精通了这一关卡,我敢保证你一定会喜欢上它!

canopy_art_final(from gamasutra)

canopy_art_final(from gamasutra)

第五个关卡:Bubble Babble

设计这一关卡真的让我们很头疼。我们做了各种尝试希望能够带给所有玩家乐趣。Alex在他的文章《Odyssey of a Bubble》中谈论了一个重要内容,即“气泡”。

我并不想在此重新解释这一内容,所以我将其分解成两个最重要的部分:

在设计危险时,我们知道任何让玩家失去对自己角色的控制的事都不会有趣。结果便是具有惩罚性的“地雷/球/气泡等等”会变成充满活力的鱼,并且玩家能够坐在它们的肚子上,从而以一种正面的方式改变自己的前进方向。

我们希望所有玩家都能尝试这一全新的交通系统,所以我们认为可以利用山羊去引诱玩家。获得山羊同时也意味着玩家将面对小鱼们!我知道这很疯狂。

underwater_goat_full_quality(from gamasutra)

underwater_goat_full_quality(from gamasutra)

让我们说说现在的关卡。使用小鱼进行导航需要更多空间。当然不是关于由墙组合起来的迷宫。我总是想要创造一个能够同时移动的巨大关卡组成部分以迫使玩家在一个有限区域内进行临时战斗,而现在便是时候落实行动了。再加上在鱼群中被一些大墙推着前进听起来很有趣,所以我们可以大胆地尝试看看。

在经过一系列思考,测试与反复试验后,我最终想出了这个理念。即一个基于巨大表面的关卡,并且玩家的印象也会随着坍塌的那一面关卡而发生改变。我知道单单阅读这些文字你很难理解我想要传达的内容,别担心,我会提供一些图像帮助你进行理解。

underwater(from gamasutra)

underwater(from gamasutra)

也许上图还是不够明显,但你应该耐心等到自己看到上面的一些颜色,显然,你已经知道小鱼是这个关卡中的一个重要资产,所以你也不难猜到它的主题。是的,这是在水下进行的关卡!所以在经过多次调整后,最终结果如下:

underwater_art_final(from gamasutra)

underwater_art_final(from gamasutra)

final(from gamasutra)

final(from gamasutra)

因为在Bubble Babble中有很多空隙空间,所以只通过跳跃是很难到达一些平台。你还需要进行各种撞击,否则你会遇到许多麻烦。最麻烦的区域可能是那些突出的部分。(在下面两张图中,左图是玩家应该做的,右图则是玩家真正做的。)

timing and skill(from gamasutra)

timing and skill(from gamasutra)

玩家未能成功跳过缺口,反而撞到了墙上。然后他们冲向相反方向,并再次失败了,并且一而再再而三地失败,所以他们最终只能放弃并选择另外一条路。

timing and skill(from gamasutra)

timing and skill(from gamasutra)

大多数时候直接冲向目标也是很难的,因为玩家总是会出现某种偏差,并导致最终的失败。

我本来可以通过改变布局去阻止这种情况的发生,但是就像我在之前所说的那样,在一个关卡中让所有内容都有序地一起运行是很无聊的。特别是在这个关卡中,因为在这里许多内容都是同时发生的,所以这会引出许多问题。

第六个关卡:Giga Geysers

灼热的熔岩!灼热的爆炸!灼热的间歇泉!灼热的火!灼热的恶魔!灼热的红色!灼热的灼热!

你知道这个关卡是关于什么了吗?这是一座灼热的火山!这份功劳应该归功于我们的程序员Alex。你知道吗,他不仅是我们所知道的最出色的程序员,他还总能想出各种疯狂的游戏玩法理念。

让我们先从他想出的第一个理念开始,即不断上升的岩浆。在这里岩浆会在关卡中慢慢流动。碰到岩浆便表示你遇到麻烦了,所以你会始终尝试避开它。而控制岩浆流动的唯一一种方法便是激活分散在关卡中的一些开关。如果做得好的话,所有人有可能同时激活开关,而岩浆也会暂时流干。但是如果玩家不能及时找到开关,火山便会最终爆发并伤害到所有人!

volcano(from gamasutra)

volcano(from gamasutra)

太可怕了吧!我也迫不及待想试看看这个疯狂的关卡!但是因为整个理念很难控制,并且多亏我们在开发Bubble Babble时想出的规则,我们还是毫不犹豫地放弃了它。同时我们还有一个关于间歇泉的想法。

volcano_geyser_arranged(from gamasutra)

volcano_geyser_arranged(from gamasutra)

等等,这是最终产品了,但请你相信我,它们已经变成完全不同的内容了。如此不同甚至让你忘记它之前是什么样了!在测试游戏中一个新理念时我们遇到一些很难克服的内容,即较丑/并不清晰的占位符图像。可能你听起来会觉得奇怪,但相信我,当你在玩一些自己并不确定是否可行或者未接收到任何帮助自己理解它的反馈的内容时,你总说找出它所具有的全部潜力与乐趣。

volcano_early_geyser(from gamasutra)

volcano_early_geyser(from gamasutra)

是的,你在此看到的是间歇泉的动态和静态面。这是不言而喻的。就像你在上面的gif中看到的那样,为了使用一个间歇泉,它需要基于动态面。一旦如此,你便能够冲向它并摧毁它,从而让自己能够以一种疯狂的速度穿越关卡与碰撞。

我们需要花些时间进行调整,但这都是值得的!此外,间歇泉还有一个很酷的地方,即一旦被激活,它们便会喷出火焰,并弹走任何碰到它的人。如果你足够聪明的话,你便会运送着山羊在它旁边保持不动,并使用盾牌能力让它爆发,然后挥着手对被弹走的对手告别。

volcano_geyser_burst(from gamasutra)

volcano_geyser_burst(from gamasutra)

接下来让我们说说这个关卡本身。为了有效利用这一机制,我们需要使用一种有利的方式。于是我们便想出一些这样的布局。

canopy(from gamasutra)

canopy(from gamasutra)

这的确是一些不错的想法,但是实际行动起来却非常困难。大多数情况下,我们根本不可能确保间歇泉与关卡布局达到有效平衡。

将关卡分解成两个或四个部分的主要问题在于,如果没赶上,间歇泉的推进力便会贯穿整个关卡,你便会被卡在原地好一会。这时候你的唯一选择便是等待间歇泉再次被激活,或者离开这里。不管是什么情况,你都很难再追上山羊运送者了。

就像上图那样,蓝色玩家远远走在红色玩家前面。因为缺少障碍(碰撞),所以玩家很难执行猛冲功能,所以他将很难再追上山羊运送者。

不管怎样,为了删减故事,我们最终选择了最后一个理念,并作出了一些调整,从而获得如下的有趣内容:

volcano(from gamasutra)

volcano(from gamasutra)

你知道吗,之前Alex将这个关卡叫做“Panda of destruction”。我想我们中的有些人应该能在设计中看到一张熊猫的脸。但当JP开始绘制时,这只“熊猫”便消失了。

volcano_art_final(from gamasutra)

volcano_art_final(from gamasutra)

此外这里还有一件值得我们关注的事。即我们该如何教授玩家使用这些间歇泉呢?我的意思是,他们可能会基于纯粹的审美去看待它们。我知道我们不应该强迫任何人去做任何事,但再一次地,我们又鲁莽了。我们使用了一个额外的岩石层盖住了整个关卡,并只留下一条通向一个间歇泉的路径,同时它也指向了山羊(游戏邦注:它正处于一个封闭且很难接近的区域),即玩家只有使用这一特定的间歇泉才能获得山羊。看看下图你就知道我说的是什么意思:

volcano_8_start_paths(from gamasutra)

volcano_8_start_paths(from gamasutra)

是的,我们正在强迫玩家去理解间歇泉机制,但因为这是关于获得山羊的比赛,所以我不认为这是以一种不好的方式在进行。加上当玩家获得山羊时他们还会获得一个小惊喜,而关于这点我就不在此剧透了。

第七个关卡:Rabid Bats

这个关卡是由两个不同部分所组成。一部分是来自Alex,另一部分则是由我所创造的。

让我们先看看Alex的创造。这一次他提议创造一些有关鸡蛋和鸟巢的东西,即这里的要点是获得鸡蛋并将它们带回鸟巢以获得额外分数。多直接啊,又很好理解,但前提是你忽略了自己只能在运送着山羊的时候才能收集鸡蛋。

rabid_egg_and_nest(from gamasutra)

rabid_egg_and_nest(from gamasutra)

当你盘腿坐在鸟巢上时,这些鸡蛋便会快速孵化。我知道这超有效!在整个关卡四周共散落着5颗鸡蛋,如果你能够找到所有的这5颗鸡蛋并将其带到鸟巢,你便能够获得许多点数。别担心,当它们全部孵化好时,鸡蛋便会回归到它们原来的位置上。

看着玩家运送着鸡蛋前进的画面真的很有趣,就像《耀西岛》似得。

但是这时候我们又要面对一个不避免的问题。首先,偷取山羊也意味着偷取鸡蛋。虽然这听起来很酷,但因为你只能将它们带到一个鸟巢,并且你也不需要知道自己的下个移动目标,所以这便成为一个非常容易实现的目标。更糟糕的情况是,你有可能在获得所有鸡蛋的时候失去山羊,并看着小偷获取你辛辛苦苦所得到的分数。这时候的你一定会非常抓狂吧!

如果我们添加更多鸟巢的话会怎样?这也不好,因为这会让所有内容失去刺激感,因为这时候就没有人会想要同时收集5颗蛋了。这里存在的唯一解决方法便是移除所有鸟巢,这也是我们所采取的方法。这时候你便会问那要在哪里孵化这些鸡蛋?我们想出了一个很棒的理念,即你可以让其他人偷走你的山羊,然后你便能孵化所有鸡蛋,并且根据你所运送的数量你将获得相应的分数。

虽然我们深陷这个问题好一会,但最后还是抛弃了部分内容。我很讨厌当玩家在面对一场势均力敌的比赛时,他们只是想孵化鸡蛋去获得分数而偷取山羊,因为这么做只会让对手不断超越自己。更糟糕的是,因为那些额外的“不可预测的”分数,有时候偷取山羊意味着注定的失败。虽然我们进行了一些尝试,但是还是未能找到有效的解决方法。我们并不想放弃玩家在身后运送着鸡蛋的设置,因为这不仅看起来很有趣,同时也能让玩家清楚看到自己还需要收集多少鸡蛋,并阻止山羊运送者捡起剩下的鸡蛋。

虽然万分不舍,但是为了游戏,我们还是决定放弃鸡蛋路线。于是我们又想出了一种通过收集鸡蛋而获取奖励的新方式。比起跟着玩家,这些鸡蛋会在玩家碰触到它们的时候就变成分数,而剩下的鸡蛋也会变得越来越大,从而告诉玩家他们价值更多分数。基于此,我们觉得阻止山羊运送者收集所有鸡蛋变得更加迫切,同时我们也要避免同时孵化5颗鸡蛋所创造的大量分数而生成的问题。这真的是一趟非常有趣的旅程!我甚至还未提到我们决定让玩家能够使用山羊去换取一颗巨大的鸡蛋。

接下来说说我的创造。这个想法是我在一开始便想到的。即主要理念是创造一个在两个配置间每隔15秒便进行切换的关卡。我将其称为“穿越”组块。从根本看来它们是会定期消失并再次出现的组块。下面是我所创造的一些带有这些组块的布局:

layouts(from gamasutra)

layouts(from gamasutra)

这是一个不错的开始,但这里也存在一个烦人的问题,即我一直在思考它们之间的变通。因为在游戏中不存在死亡设定,所以组块回到固定的碰撞中可能会让里面的玩家陷入困境,而因为这些组块并未经常变化,所以陷入困境10秒左右并不是一个好主意。我们也想出了一些解决方法,如透过组块看到自己的光环你便能够知道如何走出去,但其实这也不是很合理。还有一种解决方法是推迟组块的变化,直至没有人待在它所发生变化的区域中,说实话这一方法虽然是可行的,但我们却还未进行测试。

后来在开发过程中我再次尝试使用了之前的移动组块。我让它们能够从外墙中出现,并且基于某种较特别的方式它们并不能压住玩家。这只是关于时间的问题!

然后我决定将Alex的鸡蛋主意与这个全新关卡和BOOM!New关卡布局相结合。

layouts(from gamasutra)

layouts(from gamasutra)

是的,上图并未呈现出这些设计中的全部内容,但我们可以看出蓝色组块可以在两个配置间交替变化。创造一个双重布局关卡最难之处在于确保这些布局足够有趣。大多数情况下你只能创造一个好的开始,而一旦关卡开始转化,它便会迅速变得平庸。或者你最终将只会创造一个以你未能预测到的方式压倒玩家的碰撞。也就是说我们还需要花时间进行尝试,但我们也创造了一些带有潜力的内容:

layouts(from gamasutra)

layouts(from gamasutra)

第一个配置是可行的。我们可以看出这里有足够的空间和可能性让玩家轻松移动,但如果你仔细观察的话会发现在上方区域中没什么可做的。

然后是第二个配置,我们可以看到下方几乎一半的空间都是死胡同。如下图。

layouts(from gamasutra)

layouts(from gamasutra)

幸运的是我们只需要做出少量的调整便能解决这些问题。这并不是针对于布局问题,而是关于一些“蓝色碰撞组块”开始的位置。现在的双重布局是这样的:

layouts(from gamasutra)

layouts(from gamasutra)

就像你所看到的,两个配置之间达到更有效的平衡了。在四个角落中最大的死胡同也还在,但它们也有了存在的理由。作为山羊运送者,你需要保持谨慎,不要在收集鸡蛋的时候在此冒险并陷入其中。

为了更好地呈现它们是如何在两个配置间转化,我们提供了另一个gif!

rabid_final_moving_gif(from gamasutra)

你可能会好奇鸡蛋去哪里了?我们用一些闪闪发光的宝石替换了鸡蛋,并改变了当前山羊运送者的颜色,让他知道自己是唯一能够收集这些宝石的人。够聪明吧?如果你问这是关于什么主题,我想我应该问问想出这些内容的人。

这是一段漫长的旅程,但最终你会发现这一切都是值得的。Rabid bats是一个非常有趣的关卡,鸡蛋/宝石为这一关卡添加了许多乐趣!

rabid_final_real(from gamasutra)

rabid_final_real(from gamasutra)

第八个关卡:Goat Gate Galore

这里只剩下最后一个关卡。这一次Alex提议创造一些大门。每次当我们创造一款游戏时,他便会谈到大门!因为我们并未在之前所有游戏中使用过它们,所以我认为是时候实现他的愿望了。

首先我想到的是《吃豆人》中的门,但我们并不认为这是利用它们的最佳方法。

gate(from gamasutra)

gate(from gamasutra)

然后我们想到了分离的区域,即使用了一些带有色标的门,虽然我们总是会避免使用一些有关颜色的内容,因为我们团队中有位成员是色盲,并且世界上还有其他色盲!尽管如此我还是决定继续下去,并进行一些测试去看看能否想出一些具有功能性的内容。

gate(from gamasutra)

gate(from gamasutra)

再一次地,我们遇到像Giga Geysers那样的问题,即将关卡分成两部分并不是一个好主意。

再加上设置多个门并不能带来什么好处,除了它会让在战斗过程中混淆玩家。所以如果所有门将引向同一个地方的话会怎样?这并不难理解,并且因为你知道自己会再次出现在哪里,所以你不会在这里迷路。

layouts(from gamasutra)

layouts(from gamasutra)

于是我们决定只使用一个中心门。我们添加了最后的修改到门系统上让它去混淆玩家。每当有人出现时中心门便会顺时针旋转,所以你需要关注于它当前的方向,否则你便会暂时搞不清楚角色在哪里。特别是当两个玩家同时从两个不同方向出现时。

这是非常有趣的设定,它能够将玩家引诱到门里。不过我们最终还是没有这么做。我们还有一个关于力场的想法。就像你所知道的那样,这些元素能够将你与不同区域阻隔开来。但是我们的力场却不是关于这样,虽然还是很相似的。当你在运送着山羊通过一个“催化剂”时,你身后便会出现你的颜色的激光。

所以拥有与你相同颜色的立场将不允许你通过它,这能够阻止你原路返回。所以如果玩家不想频繁地陷入困境的话最好提前规划好路线。

你可能已经注意到,这一关卡有点未来派,这也是我们为什么选择外星人作为游戏主题的原因。

以下是我们的最终设计:

gate_final_force(from gamasutra)

gate_final_force(from gamasutra)

就像在Giga Geyser关卡中,我们想要告诉玩家这些闪光的东西是什么以及你将与门进行怎样的交谈?聪明的我们使用所有颜色的力场将山羊团团围住,避免玩家轻易获得它们,并迫使玩家需要通过另一面的门才能进入里面。

这可能是我们到目前为止在《Toto Temple Deluxe》创造的最复杂的关卡。

gate_final_start_race_arrows(from gamasutra)

gate_final_start_race_arrows(from gamasutra)

结论吗?还没呢!

现在你已经阅读了所有的这些内容,你可能会想:我完全掌握了《Toto Temple Deluxe》的关卡!但事实上我却还没完成本文的描写!我们进行了一些调整,所以请继续阅读下去。

重访:带有一个金库的Toto Temple

在经过漫长的讨论去决定是该保留最初设定不变还是该添加一些元素让它更吸引人后,我们最终选择了后者。

当然了,Toto Temple是这款游戏唯一的基础关卡。这里没有任何噱头或不可预测的功能,所以这是初学者的最佳选择。这些玩家已经因为鸡蛋和山羊而忙不过来了。然而我还想添加一些内容为其增色。我是在一场比赛过程中突然想到金库这一理念的,即打开金库,让玩家为了获得一些额外分数而去收集里面的宝物。

等等,除此之外这个金库还可以四处移动。所以在比赛过程中它会四处徘徊着,因为它有效地融入背景中,所以玩家往往不会注意到它。我们这么做也是为了避免新玩家觉得它的存在太唐突。在特定时刻god便会醒来并激活该金库(虽然他只是朝着金库尖叫,别问我为什么要这么设置),然后金库就变成金色并掉落出许多货币。这时候玩家就应该快速收集它们!

秘密笔记1:金库会四处散落货币,而金色磁铁非常厉害。秘密笔记2:但你最好等着黑色磁铁的出现!

重访:带有强硬组块的Mini Miney Moles

跟往常一样,这一关卡中也有一个让我烦恼的内容。大多数情况下玩家总是会发现自己是从最低端开始摧毁所有组块,并在比赛结束前从别人手上成功偷取山羊,但其实这一关卡不只这些内容。

mine08_donotdothatitsmakingmecry(from gamasutra)

mine08_donotdothatitsmakingmecry(from gamasutra)

我决定修改这一关卡的布局以纠正这一问题。我想出了两种不会太可怕的可能性:

mine_newcol(from gamasutra)

mine_newcol(from gamasutra)

mine_newcol_2(from gamasutra)

mine_newcol_2(from gamasutra)

这是一个艰难的选择,但经过一些测试,方案2最终获胜了。现在我们不会再看到许多玩家在整款游戏中都只是在地面上战斗了。

你还记得这一关卡的主要理念是关于每次比赛都会因为玩家选择不同路线而创造出不同布局吗?但是到最后结果几乎都是一样的。为了强化我们最初的想法,我们决定添加“难以击破”的组块。玩家将很难击破这些组块,如此便提到了每场比赛是不同的可能性,因为它们会持续更长时间。我们创造了一些模式去确保所有内容足够公平,并且结果也会让玩家感到满足。

此外,这些全新组块也会改变你开始一场比赛的方式。现在每当关卡开始时,所有内容都是不同的,而玩家也必须判断哪条路线才是获得山羊的最佳路线。执着于摧毁组块将只会拖延时间并导致玩家输掉比赛。

尽管存在两条路线能将玩家带向山羊,但是在这里真正的乐趣是找到这两条路线,这是在比赛开始前的内容。

到现在为止我便告诉了你所有我能想起的有关《Toto Temple Deluxe》的关卡设计内容了!

结论

在阅读了所有这些内容后,你可能仍然对设计完美关卡的秘诀感到疑惑。如果你问我的话,我可能会跟你说根本不存在“完美的”关卡。因为始终存在等着我们去完善的内容。我们总是可以基于某种方式将一件事做得更好。

你真正想要提供给玩家的是一个理想的环境,即他们能在此享受到你希望他们享受的内容。不管是一个可击破的组块,小鱼,门,间歇泉,特殊事件或任何其它东西,你的目标都是创造一个能够利用这些元素为玩家创造乐趣的关卡。

你必须记得在创造出真正让自己感到满意的内容前你需要经历许许多次的迭代。你会进行反复的试验,并且可能会尝试一些让自己不得不从头开始的全新机制,但要知道,这就是创造过程的一部分,你应该去适应它!

显然,我在本文中所写的内容都是来自我作为设计师的个人经验。这主要是针对于《Toto Temple》这款游戏,并且可能不能完全适用于其它游戏。这也并不是一种绝对的设计方法。也许之后再回头看这篇文章的话我会觉得自己过去怎么那么愚蠢!但不管怎样我都希望你们能真正喜欢这篇如此长的文章。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转发,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

The secret to designing the perfect level?

by Yowan Langlais

First of all, if you’ve never heard of the words “Toto Temple”, you’d better watch the following video because this article will be exclusively talking about this game.

Pretty intense, and chaotic wasn’t it? If you’d like a deeper understanding, or probably because you’re totally confused about what’s going on in this game, you might want to read this article!

Great, now that your Toto Temple Deluxe 101 crash course is completed, we can get into how levels were designed for this weird little game.

Before I start though, don’t be afraid of the scroll bar length, it’s misleading… Sort of… Lots of big pictures in there. Yes, it will still be quite a read, BUT, the article can easily be split into small reading sessions. Here’s some quick links in case you need it!

1.Creating my design setup

1.My toolbox

2.Starting from nothing

3.Why grids?

4.1st level

5.New gameplay direction

6.New level

7.Mini conclusion

2.Designing all levels using the above

1.Level 1: Toto Temple

2.Level 2: Tiger Trap Tantrum

3.Level 3: Mini Miney Moles

4.Level 4: Canopy Contraptions

5.Level 5: Bubble Babble

6.Level 6: Giga Geysers

7.Level 7: Rabid Bats

8.Level 8: Goat Gate Galore

3.Additional improvements

1.Level 1: Toto Temple
2.Level 3: Mini Miney Moles

4.Conclusion or TL;DR or WTL;DR (Way Too Long; Didn’t Read)

Let’s get started

First of all, let’s go back to the very beginning, back during TOJam when Toto Temple was a simple platformer with no “Dash” ability. Wait, what’s a “Dash”?

Back in that version, the game was all about collecting coins, consuming them to place traps then push other players into them to steal their belongings so you could place more traps and more and more!

As you can see, we were trying to make a 2D platformer. No problem, but where do I start?

Personally, I always begin with this one and only question: What tools do I have, and how can I exploit them best?

The answer is pretty straightforward in this case:

Move Left and Right.

Jump and Double Jump.

Push / Punch

Set traps.

Still unsure what they are yet, but trust me, they are important.

That’s it! Short list, this is going to be a piece of cake? Well, we’ll see about that.

Creating from scratch

Let’s get to the drawing board. First of all, I need to figure out how big the elements will be in this new world. Toto Temple is designed on a 16:9 aspect ratio so I usually start with a quick sketch of a possible level to have a slight idea of what I’d like the game to look like in term of sizes. I usually work with the other guys to make sure everyone has the same vision of the game. During this step, I do not focus on building an actual level. It is solely about getting a rough idea of the world.

Once I have a base that everybody agrees with (size wise), and since I can’t leave a masterpiece like that go to waste, I proceed to the next step, which is making a grid out of it! Yes, I love grids. Grids are amazing. To achieve the impossible, I use Adobe Flash’s grid system (don’t jump the gun, I’ll explain why in a moment). When doing this, I want to make sure the grid fits perfectly within the game ratio (in this case, the game was planned to be 1280×720) and that a single square size is close enough to the smallest element of the sketch, usually the edge of a platform. Once the grid is done, I just put the old drawing aside and make a clean version.

Then I realise that my grid is too big, preventing me from shaping the level the way I want, like you can see in the above. It’s similar, but not close enough. Next thing I know, my grid is now too small, making the level’s geometry too complex and tedious to build. So I basically scale it up or down over and over until I’m 99.99% satisfied with its size. I ended up with a grid of 40 pixels per 36 pixels by square. As you can see, it allows me to be much more accurate than the previous version.

A grid? But why… Just why?

Having this grid allows me to apply some basic rules of design like defining the jump height. I wouldn’t want to make unreachable platforms without knowing it. I can also define the minimum space required between collisions to make sure players can comfortably move around. Doing symmetry is fairly easy as well because everything is placed pixel perfect. That way, everything I do is consistent (or at least, is supposed to)!

So yes, grids are that convenient, at least to me! But why do I use Adobe Flash for this? Well, here’s my top 4 reasons (nah, not going for the classic top 5 thing):

The grid is a snap to setup and adjust (I know, that was an excellent pun).

Creating temporary assets is easy.

The snap to the grid feature is very powerful (when you learn to work with it properly).

Scaling and moving assets according to the grid is very useful.

Oh, and since I’ve been working with Flash for quite some time now, I can almost say I know it like the back of my hand, allowing me to work really fast with it!

All these things allow me to prototype countless of levels in a blink of an eye, or two, but certainly not three! This is crucial to me as, even though the game currently only has eight levels, I made more than a hundred just to get these.

First level, here I come

Alright, back to level design now. With the preparations now completed, I can finally start to design the first real level, the one that was going to be used in the TOJam version of Toto Temple. I hope you remember the “tools” I mentioned earlier because this is where we need them. The first two are not that important as they are the basics of any 2D platformer but, the last one is what will inspire this whole level: Traps.

If I recall my golden rule, it would go something like: How can I exploit Traps best in this level?

When thinking about traps and 2D platforming, I imagine narrow passages and enclosed areas, the kind of places where it would feel natural and rewarding to place traps. Here’s some layout ideas I came up with:

I really liked the idea of having a big central area so I took the last one and refined it a bit. Believe me or not, I made THE best level ever created by mankind with it, period!

It might not look that amazing to your eyes, but wait, let me point out some specific places in this level design.

1.Big central area. Lots of room to place traps, making it a tough spot to control as there would be traps from all players.

2.Small tunnels. You probably want to control at least one for safety reason.

3.Top altar, a must as it’s the only way to cross to the other side from above.

4.Narrow pits means higher chance to catch someone, making it a good place to set some traps.

5.Falling from there would probably mean something bad as you would fall into the most trapped zone.

6.Easy to avoid going there, but can also be a good escape route so it’s worth controlling these areas.

7.Get pushed in there and it certainly means death, if a trap there is! Plus, it’s a narrow platform so you know what to do there.

8.Not super important, but could be worth it, forcing a player falling from #4 to go down the big #1 central area.

9.Enclosed area. Might or might not worth it, but if you manage to push someone in there, I’m pretty sure he’d fall into your trap.

There you have it. You might have some more questions about my design, like why did I create a 2×1 platform at #7 when I could have made it 3×1?

I decided to go with the 2×1 because I didn’t want players jumping from #9 toward #8 to bump their head on #7 and miss their jump. Lots of numbers sorry, hard to explain, but the image below will help.

Another question would be: Why did I create an enclosed area at #9?

The answer is similar to the previous one. Most of the time, my decisions are based on the environment. Giving enough room to players so they can move comfortably is one of my top priority. Yes, I could have filled the dead end, making it inaccessible, but I thought it could create some funny scenarios if left open. I’m usually not a huge fan of dead end by the way, but sometime, I make small exceptions.

Anyway, what I’m trying to tell here is that when designing a level, it is all a matter of creating something in which players can make the best out of the tools you’re giving them. And would this level qualifies for these tools you ask? Let’s see:

1.Move Left and Right.
1.Yes. There’s enough room to move freely in the level.

2.Jump and Double Jump.
1.Yes. Platforms have been carefully placed, with an obstacle free path leading to them.

3.Push / Punch
1.Yes. There’s many opportunities to push / punch people off platforms and more.

4.Set traps.
1.Yes. Many crucial areas have been designed just for that!

I think we’re all set then. There might be some other issues that I did not see in the design, but we’ll have to play the level to discover them. It’s very rare to nail a level on the first iteration, unless you are a pure genius of course.

That said, if you still have questions unanswered about anything you’ve read so far, write them down so you can ask them later in the comments, once you are done reading the whole article!

Way too beautiful to be true

Just when I thought I had an amazingly well thought level, what was meant to happen happened [Dramatic music playing]. While developing and testing under pressure (remember we are in a game jam right now), we figured out that we were having fun just chasing each others and faking to punch us to the face (the punch feature wasn’t even implemented yet). To cut story short, this is when we deliberately changed the gameplay completely. Instead of placing traps and carefully navigating through the level, we added an infinite directional dash and a goat to carry (wut?) [Dramatic music stops playing]!

You might think that this is an insignificant change and it has nothing to do with level design, but guess what? Wrong. It actually changes the whole thing. Now, instead of carefully moving and jumping, you can recklessly dash across the level. That was not planned at all and time was running short. At this point, making major changes to the level was nearly impossible. A single modification would mean that JP, or illustrator, redraws parts of the backgrounds to match the new level layout. Worse, it could even mean starting all over.

We did not have much of a choice but to leave it as it was. We ended up with a level in which it is a bit troublesome to navigate using the dash ability, but for the game jam version, we would have to stick with it (fortunately, it was not that bad of a problem). Here’s what the thing looked like in the end.

TOJam is over, let’s make a new level

This time, I know exactly my tools: Move, Jump, Double Jump and Dash. I won’t be fooled anymore. This next level is going to be so much better, I can already feel it!

At the time, we had the privilege of having this excellent intern named Marion Esquian (go see her stuff seriously, she’s amazing!), and together we designed this new level that was going to make good use of this dash ability! Marion made many potential level layouts, but here’s the one that kept our attention, well, my attention!

Let’s make some modifications so this level pair with my golden rule of thinking: How can I exploit Dash best in this level? … Some moments later:

Fine, it might be hard to understand anything in the image above and why would I make all these changes, but rest assure, the answer lies within the next image.

Pretty clever isn’t it? You can go anywhere you want without even having to walk or jump! Yes I know, this is amazing, you can thank Marion and me later for that one.

Well, the answer is: Again, NO. In fact, it’s not really making a difference to players. In the end, even though the level was designed around this new dash ability, nobody ever uses these conveniences. But why? Does that mean your golden rule is worthless Dom (that ”Dom” is me btw)?

I wouldn’t say “worthless”, but it sure was misleading this time. But why is that?

There’s one thing I did not take in consideration when thinking about the level design overall, and that is: The goat carrier. Yes, players are especially focused on chasing the goat carrier and stealing its precious as soon as they can. They don’t fool around scanning the environment for an optimized dashing path. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Plus, there’s no way you can chase something moving in an unpredictable manner using defined paths. What you end up doing is basically run, jump and dash straight to your target and NOT use the cleverly designed level.

Yep… What a bummer… All this thinking for not much in the end. Well, not necessarily. It made us realise quite a few things actually. Things like designing a level according to a single rule is not the way to go. Speaking of which, did I update my toolbox correctly when I removed the traps to add the dash? Seems like I did not. I clearly forgot to add the goat carrier in it while I was there and it really needed to be taken in consideration.

It also made us realise that having multiple level layouts would not add much to the game. What we really needed was much more than that. We needed unique elements that would make every single level memorable!

Time to improve the experience

Well, now that we know revolving levels around the dash was not the best direction to take, it was time to think about new elements to improve the experience. God knows we thought and tested lots and lots of ideas and kept only a small amount of them.

! WARNING !

If you’ve already had enough of this article, NOW might be a good time to stop! Else, there’s no coming back…

I’m going to go through all the design process we went for each level presently in Toto Temple Deluxe, at least, from the best I can remember.

Alright, here we go then, no backing out now!

First Level: Toto Temple

First of all, we have Toto Temple (yes, that’s how the level is named), made during TOJam. We wanted to keep this level as it was, for the sake of those who played it during the game jam and would recognise it, remembering all the amazing time they had back then. That said, we only made a minor adjustment to the layout to fix a problematic area, but nothing really extravagant.

Yep, that small tunnel down there, that’s what we changed. It was changed for two reasons.

First, because it was just long and narrow enough that going in there would, most of the time, means getting your beloved goat stolen.

Second, for some reason, people had some difficulties getting inside without first bumping their head on the top corner, losing some precious time in the process.

And lastly, if for some reason you’re that one guy who loves to dash using the environment, it also gives you more direction opportunities!

That’s it for now, but don’t be so disappointed, keep reading and who knows, you might discover great surprises later on!

Second Level: Tiger Trap Tantrum

We knew we wanted to implement moving platforms in the game, so we looked into implementing them in the second level (and only other one anyway) we made. Lucky us, we happened to have the perfect spot for that. We would make a trap out of the middle zone! With pretty much no change at all, we gave life to three little blocks!

The trap opens and closes in a random order so you never really know how it’s going to behave. There’s a hint though. Just before moving, a stone block will shake so you can sort of predict the order if your eagle eye is sharp enough.

There were only one annoying thing left. When the trap was fully closed, jumping above this huge pile of rocks could prove a challenge for some people.

We trimmed the thing a bit and it helped, but it’s still not perfect as newer players can have difficulties jumping on it. Nevertheless, I’m happy with the result and hope you are as well!

One last protip before we talk about the next level, you usually don’t want to get caught up in the trap, unless you’re carrying the goat and are skilled enough to make it alone in there. Free points guaranteed while people are waiting outside powerlessly!

Here’s what the level looks like after JP, our amazing artist put some colors in there:

Third Level: Mini Miney Moles

New level featuring breakable blocks! What’s amazing (ok, maybe not that amazing, still, I think it’s pretty cool) with a level filled with things you can break is that the level configuration changes each time you play in it, as players won’t necessarily take the same paths and break the same blocks.

At first, we experimented with small, fragile blocks and bigger, stronger ones. Yes, these brownish blocks can be destroyed just by dashing into them.

You know what? Small and big blocks do not pair well at all in Toto Temple Deluxe. Breaking a small block creates a narrow passage that hardly allows you to go through, and prevents you completely from going in when carrying the goat (because you get bigger). You know the feeling you get when you’re pretty sure you can go somewhere but the game won’t let you? Very frustrating if you ask me. Easy fix, we got rid of the small blocks before you can say Jack Robinson (found this one on Google, still not really sure who this M. Robinson is, but I’m sure he was a nice guy full of talents).

Now that we only have big blocks, the narrow passages are pretty much gone. Just need to be careful on how they are placed. Don’t worry, narrow passages on the vertical does not pose problem. Let’s try some more layout ideas.

You might be wondering why there is so much white space the more these designs progress? Well, when designing the level, I had to keep in mind two important things.

First, if you remember some of your Toto Temple Deluxe 101 crash course, you know that carrying the goat also means you CAN’T dash anymore, which, in this level, prevents you from digging at the same time (no good). And trust me, in 1vs1 match, players are more focus on stealing the goat than digging around, leading to watching two players battle in a small corridor the whole time… Not so exciting. So yeah, not much of a choice but to make some space.

Second, we already knew what theme the level was going to be, a mine, so we had to put some hidden coins in there! Digging/breaking blocks to get riches, sounds pretty cool right? Indeed, but we also wanted to place 4 big golden coins in there so I needed to leave room for them as well.

Considering all of these, I needed to design something that would strike a good balance between leaving some room for the goat carrier to escape and enough blocks to feel like players have an actual impact on the layout. Easier said than done, but I managed to get something like:

We were pretty happy about it, but not sure about the coins placement though. At first, we wanted the central area to feel like a big treasure room so it was logical to set them up like that, but after some tests and thoughts, we concluded that it was a bad idea. And there is many reasons why, such as the lack of possibility:

1.Fastest way to the goat, with an extra coin and two if you’re lucky or fast enough. This is the best option. You should always do that.

2.You might think you will get the same rewards as path #1 and more, but it’s 99.99% positive that someone else will get the goat before you reach it as there’s more blocks in your way, so you basically only get a coin. No goat for you. Unless you’re playing against very very bad people!

3.Nothing else matter.

Here’s what this setup actually meant: Get the goat and fight within the area that you’ve created doing so. There’s not much interest to dig around as there’s nothing really worth it anywhere else.

Which leads us to the new setup:

1.This is the longest path to take so it’s would be absurd to choose it, unless you really want that specific coin.

2.Fastest way to the goat, but no golden coin.

3.A small detour to get a coin before the goat, but by the time you do that, someone probably took path #2 and already has the goat for him.

Personally, I’d always choose #2 because the goat will give more points long-term, so better have it as soon as possible. Plus, it is not said anywhere, but the first one to pick up the goat is rewarded with a 250 points bonus! So yeah, the only reason I would choose path #3 would be because I messed up somewhere and know someone else will get the goat before me. And I would never go with path #1… Unless I really really messed up badly!

BUT, what’s cool with having the coins split up left and right like that is they will tempt players after the initial goat race. Which mean they will most likely go grab them, digging the level in the process and making more room for the fight (plus, you are rewarded for your hard work so might as well do it)!

That said, maybe you’re still thinking that we did not add real new possibilities to go get the goat in the end as path #2 is always the way to go, but keep on reading. We have more coming up concerning this!

Fourth Level: Canopy Contraptions

For the next level, we were trying to find something that would allow players to stop their pursuers from chasing them and get away with the goat. What came to our mind? A door system! We started experimenting with that and turns out it was pretty effective! The way it works is once a player crosses a specific zone, a door closes right behind him and stays closed for a certain time, then automatically reopens.

Our first test was to split the level in half vertically, having a door at the top and another one at the bottom, so blocking a player was worth it and not just a small detour. We already pictured the whole thing with a big tree in the middle (well Alex did). We were clearly going with a forest / jungle theme there.

It did not take long before we saw the big flaw in this design. Only having two doors setup like that, which were the only way to cross to the other side, brought a huge issue when playing 1vs1.

Here’s what happened:

The goat carrier passes through the top door, which closes right behind him and prevent his pursuer from following him. He then stays still, leaving his pursuer with two choices:

1.The pursuer takes the detour and go for the bottom door, but by the time he does that, the top door is about to reopen. One well-timed shield coming from the goat carrier and he can safely cross on the other side and and escape danger, over and over, till he wins.

2.The pursuer waits patiently for the door to reopens, but by the time he’s waiting, the goat carrier starts moving toward the middle of the level. Depending on the pursuer’s next move, the goat carrier takes the opposite path and once again, he’s most likely safe.

That means, apart from the goat carrier, this is not fun at all. We needed to be careful on how to set up these doors to prevent situations like that.

We went back to the drawing board and made and tested different layouts. I won’t go in details with all of them, but, as usually, the reason I would drop a level is simply because it is not fun to play in or is just not really working well.

This last one was sort of fun, but we decided to make some additional adjustments. Considering the theme we went with, we wanted players to play more in the upper part of the level. We decided to move the “bottom cage like thing” to the top and add a little something to spice things up, as if things were not already hard enough.

There we go, now it feels more like you should play above the ground! Especially thanks to that thing down there we called “The Pusher”. It keeps moving to each sides of the level, dragging anyone who dare to stand in its path along with it! Now you’re asking why did we add something that looks this unpleasant? I thought you knew us better. Yes, this thing can push you somewhere you don’t want to go, but you can also use it as a vehicle to get a free ride to one side or the other if you’re well timed that is!

Beware though, Canopy Contraptions is hard to play and master. All its design involve precise and tricky jumping, as you can see:

1.Getting pushed to one side and jumping through the tiny gap without missing without bumping your head and falling back to the ground.

2.Jumping too early and hitting your head, making you fall down, vulnerable to the pusher.

3.Doing a double jump in both directions, left then right, or the other way around (some people have trouble doing that).

4.Jumping in zigzag all the way to the top.

5.Getting to the platform without missing. It’s pretty tight so if you’re not carrying the goat, better use a dash to get there.

Anyhow, once mastered, I’m sure you will love this level!

Fifth Level: Bubble Babble

Get ready for a headache because designing this next level surely gave us one. We’ve been through so much trying to find something fun for everyone that I barely wants to remember it at all. Alex talked about an important aspect in his article Odyssey of a Bubble, which is the “bubble”.

I’m not going to go over it once again, so I’ll just get to the two most important parts of it.

When designing hazards, anything that makes you lose control over your character deliberately is NOT going to be fun.
Turns out the punitive “mine/ball/bubble/whatever it’s been” became a vigorous fish, allowing you to ride it in its belly, changing the way you navigate around in a positive way!
We wanted all players to experiment this new and revolutionary transportation system so we figured it would be a good idea to hook it up with the goat and that’s what we did. Getting the goat also meant getting into the fish! Crazy stuff I know.

Let’s talk about the level now. Navigating with this fish was going to require space. Certainly not a maze of walls. I’ve always had this idea about making huge portions of a level move at once to force players to temporarily battle in a restricted area and now was the time to put it in action. Plus, getting pushed around by big walls while being inside a fish sounded fun so it was a good opportunity to test it all.

After a lot of thoughts, tests, time, trial and error, other tests, other errors, other others, I finally came up with this overkill idea. A level based on a giant face, that would change expression depending on which side of the level is collapsed. It’s a bit hard to understand simply reading these words, but don’t you worry about a thing because I also made these high tech images that will allow you to easily picture the whole thing… Maybe…

Ok, it might not be so evident just by looking at the aboves, but wait until you see the result with some colors on it. Obviously, you already knew about the fish being an important asset of this level, so the theme is not hard to guess. Underwater it is! So, lots and lots (and lots (and lots (and very lots?))) of tweaking later, here’s the result:

Since there is a lot of void space in Bubble Babble, platforms are somehow hard to reach only using jumps. You will need to dash a lot in there, else you’ll be in trouble. The most troublesome zone is probably the nose though. (In the following images, on the left, what people should do. On the right, what people actually do.)

Instead of successfully jumping through the gap, players miss it, bumping their head in the wall. They then dash in the opposite direction but miss it again, and again, and again till they abandon and take another route.

Dashing directly through it can also be troublesome as most of the time, players will be slightly off the target, resulting in a fail.

I guess I could have changed the layout to prevent this, but, like I said somewhere earlier in the article, it can be tedious to make everything works well together in a level. Especially in this one since so many things happen all the time, causing lots of issues.

Now be ready for some amazing gif action pack!

If you’re curious to watch how JP, our illustrator, drew this complexe level, well, it is your lucky day because he recorded himself doing just that! Watch it right here!

Sixth Level: Giga Geysers

Scorching lava! Scorching Explosion! Scorching Geysers! Scorching Fire! Scorching Devils! Scorching Red! Scorching Scorches!

There you go, you should know what this level is all about now? A Scorching Volcano! Pretty much all the credit for this one goes to Alex, our amazing programmer. Did you know that this guy not only is THE best programmer we know, he’s also outstanding at coming up with all sort of crazy gameplay ideas? Well, if you didn’t, now you know!

Let’s start with the first idea he had, rising lava. It was this idea where lava would slowly flood the level. Touching it meant you having a bad time so you definitely wanted to avoid all contact with it at all time. The only way to control this flood was by activating some switches scattered around the level. When done correctly, which mean everyone coordinating and activating them all at once (yes, we were that crazy), the lava would get drained for some time. But wait, we’re not done yet. In case players would fail to do this in time, the volcano would erupt and hurt everyone! Mwahaha!

SOOoooo awesome! Can’t wait to play this crazy level! So yeah, since this whole idea was kind of going nut and, thanks to the good ol’ rule we came up with when developing Bubble Babble, we dropped it with the least of hesitation. Meanwhile, there was this other idea about geysers…

Wait, this is the final product, but trust me, at first, they were something totally different. So different that you can’t even imagine what it used to be. There something really hard to overcome when testing a new idea in a game and that is ugly/unclear placeholder art. It might seems weird to hear, but believe me, when playing with something that you’re not quite sure how it works and you have zero feedback to help you understand it, it’s so arduous to see all the potential and fun in it.

Yes, what you see here are the inactive and active stances of the geyser. Self-explanatory I must admit. So, like you just understood in the gif above, in order to use a geyser, it needs to be in its active stance. Once it is, you can dash right into it to make it burst, sending you flying all the way across the level at insane speed, passing through collisions!

It took some time to get everything right, but it was all worth it in the end! Furthermore, what’s cool with these geysers is that, once activated, they will burst fire for a while, sending anyone touching it flying away. If you are wise enough, you can stand still next to it while carrying the goat and use your shield ability to make it burst, tricking people into the fire while you wave them goodbye!

Alright, enough of the geyser thing, let’s get to the actual level itself. To make good use of this mechanic, we needed to set them in an advantageous manner. We came up with a couple of layout like these.

Lots of good ideas indeed, but harder to put in action than we thought. Most of the time, it was nearly impossible to come up with a good balance between geysers and level layout efficiency.

The main problem with splitting the level in two or four is that if you miss the train, in this case, the geyser propulsion across the level, you are kind of stuck there for a while. Your only options are to wait for the geyser to reactivate, or to just get out of there. In both cases, it can be tricky to catch back up to the goat carrier.

As seen above, the blue player is long gone before the red one can reach him. Since dashes are hard to perform due to the abundance of obstacles (collisions), it is too hard to chase the goat carrier. There is just too many possibilities where everyone can go.

Anyway, to cut story short, we ended up choosing the last one and, with a couple adjustments, we got something pretty fun that looked like:

Did you know that Alex used to call this level something like “Panda of destruction”? I guess some of us can see the face of a panda in this design… Anyway, this “panda” soon disappeared when JP drew over it!

One last thing required our attention. How could we teach players how to use these geysers? I mean, they could be seen as pure aesthetic right? I know it’s not always right to force people to do things, but once again, we went overboard and made this big butt setup. We covered the whole level with an extra layer of rocks, only leaving a path to a single geyser, pointing toward the goat, who is enclosed and inaccessible area, only reachable using this specific geyser. Lost already? Here’s what I mean:

So yes, we are forcing players to understand the geysers mechanic, but since this is part of the race to get the goat, I wouldn’t call it forcing it in a bad way. Plus, there’s a small surprise awaiting when you get the goat, which I’m not going to spoil. You’ll have to see it by yourself!

Got some more time you don’t know what to do with? Watch the making of by JP right here!

Seventh Level: Rabid Bats

This next level has been created in two distinct parts. One comes from Alex (yep, Alex again, told you he is incredible), and the other one from me.

Let’s go with Alex first. This time, he proposed something about eggs and nests, where the point is to get the eggs and bring them back to the nest for delicious extra points! Pretty straightforward, and fairly easy to understand, if you omit the part where you can only collect eggs while you’re carrying the goat (sorry, no explanation for that one yet).

And no need to cover them, they hatch as soon as you lay your feet on the nest. Pretty effective I know! In total, there were 5 eggs scattered around the level, and, if you could catch all 5 of them and bring them altogether to the nest, you would make tons of points. Don’t worry, after they’ve hatched, eggs would grow back at their respective positions (sorry, no explanation to why eggs would grow back either… We live in such a strange world…).

It was really fun to watch a player carrying plenty of eggs behind him, similar to Yoshi Island!

But then came the inevitable. Problems. Lots of ’em. First, stealing the goat also meant stealing the eggs. Sounds awesome when I say it like that, but with a single nest to bring them back to, no need to be a genius to know exactly your next move, thus, making you an easy target. And what’s worst? Losing the goat while having all the eggs and seeing the thief get all the credit for your hard work… Almost makes you wanna cry inside, or hit your friend to the face (in real life).

Well, what if we add some more nests then? Not good, it made the whole thing lost all its excitement as nobody would risk picking up all the 5 eggs at once. Only solution left was to remove all nests, which is what we did. So how do you make these eggs hatch now you ask? We came up with a really outstanding idea where, upon losing the goat to someone else, all your eggs would hatch, and, base on how many you were carrying, you would make points accordingly!

We stuck with this for a while, but something was still off. I hated the way you thought you were disputing a close match when, all of a sudden, you manage to steal the goat just to see all these eggs hatch into a “great quantity” of points, which sets your rival way ahead of you… Worst, sometime, stealing the goat meant certain defeat because of these extra “unexpected” points. We had to do something about this, but the solution was slow to come. We didn’t want to get rid of the way you carried the eggs behind you as it was both satisfying to watch and a great indicator of how many eggs were left to pick up, thus, building up the urge to stop the goat carrier from picking the ones left.

It’s been heartbreaking, but, for the sake of the game, we dropped the egg trail. Sorry Yoshi. We came up with a new way to reward points for taking the eggs. Instead of following the player, they would instantly hatch into points as you touch them, then the left ones would grow bigger and bigger each time to indicated they were worth more points. With this, we kept the feeling of urgency to stop the goat carrier from collecting all the eggs, as well as avoiding the issue with the enormous burst of points coming from hatching 5 eggs at the same time. Wow, that was quite a journey! And I did not even talk about the part where we decided to completely swap the goat itself for a giant egg.

Let’s get to my part now. This is something I’ve had on my mind since the very beginning, well, almost. The main idea was to have a level switch between two configurations each 15 seconds or so. I had these things I called “phasing” blocks. They are basically just blocks that periodically disappear and reappear. I made some layouts with them as you can see right below:

That’s a good start, but there was this one annoying issue I was trying to figure out how to work around. Since there’s no death in the game, a block phasing back to solid collision could trap a player within it, and since they don’t phase that often, spending 10 seconds or so trapped wasn’t such a good idea. We had a couple of solutions like seeing a halo of yourself through the block to let you figure out how to get out of there, but it didn’t felt really right. Another one would have been to postpone the block’s apparition until nobody was colliding with it’s spawn area, and to be honest, that one could have worked, but we did not test it. Anyway, we tried other ideas, and sort of abandoned the thing, or so I thought!

Later during development, I tried again using the good old moving blocks. I set them up so they came out of outer wall, making it impossible to crush players in some weird ways. It was just a matter of timing!

I then decided to merge Alex’s egg idea with this new level and BOOM! New level layouts!

Okay, it’s not really shown in these designs above, but the blue blocks all alternate between two configurations. The hardest part with getting a good dual layout level is making sure both layouts are fun to play in. Most of the time, you end up with a good start, then, when the level shifts, it become mediocre… Or it just don’t work as you end up creating collisions that crush players in some way that you did not foresee. That said, it took some tries, but we got something with potential that looked like that:

The first configuration was acceptable. There seemed to be enough room and possibilities to move around easily , but if you look closely, you notice that there’s not much to do in the upper area.

Then, when the second configuration comes, pretty much all the bottom half of the level is dead end, as shown in the images below.

Fortunately, only small modifications were needed to make everything right. It does not concerns the layout specifically, but only the position where some “blue collision blocks” start. The dual layout now looks like this:

As you can see, this is now much more balanced between the two configurations. The big dead ends in the four corners are still there, but they are meant to be like that. As the goat carrier, you need to be careful not to venture in there and get trapped in while trying to snatch the eggs. Better wait when it’s open and safe or about to!

To illustrate better how they switch between the two configurations, here’s another astonishing gif!

You might be wondering where did the eggs go? Well, we changed them for shiny gems instead, that turn the color of the current goat carrier, letting him know he’s the only one who can collect them. Pretty clever isn’t it? And if ask about the theme, I think it just, you know, kind of came out of the blue? Or I’ll have to ask the guys about it.

That’s been a long journey, but it was all worth it in the end. Rabid bats is a fun level to play and eggs/gems add a lot to the excitement! And wait till you hear the music for this one.

Oh, and before going on to the next level, here’s what carrying the gems à la Yoshi looked like:

Eighth Level: Goat Gate Galore

There’s one last level to talk about. Hope you’re ready cause here I go. I’m not going to surprise you by saying that once again, the whole idea came from Alex am I? This time he proposed portals. I think Alex really dig portals. Everytime we make a game, he talks about portals! I don’t think we’ve ever used them in all of our previous game, so I guess it was about time we grant him his wish.

First thing that came to our little mind was Pac Man’s portals but we don’t think it was the best way to make good use of them.

We then thought about isolated zones, accessible with color coded portals, even if usually, we tend to avoid color coded stuff as a member of our team suffers from color blindness and he’s certainly not the only one on earth! I still went ahead and made some tests to see if I could come up with something functional.

As you can see, it’s kind of problematic to obtain something not too cramped. And again, same problem as Giga Geysers, splitting a level in half is NOT a good thing to do.

Plus having multiple portals doesn’t add much, except for more confusion in the heat of the fight. So, what if all portals would lead to the same place instead? It wouldn’t be too hard to understand and you would not get lost as you would know exactly where you’re supposed to reappear.

So we decided to go with a single central portal and I lied a little about the “not getting lost” thing. We added one last modification to the portal system that makes it somehow confusing. The middle portal will rotate clockwise each time someone comes out, so you need to pay attention to its current orientation otherwise you might lose track of your character for a second or two. Especially when two players get in almost simultaneously as they come out in two totally different direction.

That was getting pretty fun, especially to trick people into the portals! BUT we were not done though. We also had this idea about force fields. You know, the kind of things that allows you to go through from one side but not the other? Well, our force fields don’t work like that, but I guess they are pretty similar. Once you pass through an “activator” while carrying the goat, a lazer-ish light of your color appears right behind you (okay, I also lied about the color thing).

So, a force field sharing the same color as you are will not allow you to pass through it, which happens to prevent you from backtracking. Yes, that’s how they work so plan you way ahead if you don’t want to corner yourself too soon.

As you may have already noticed, this level seems pretty futuristic style, and that’s pretty much why we decided to go with an alien-ish ambiance as the theme (I think so). It does not make that much sense with our universe but whatever, I guess!

Here’s the final design by the way:

Like in Giga Geyser, there was one thing left to teach the player: What are these flashy things and what are you talking about with your portals? As clever as we are, we surrounded the goat by force fields from all colors, blocking the easy way to reaching it and forcing people to take a portal on either sides to get inside. You know what they say, if you only have one stone, kill two birds with it! Or was it something else? Anyway, nevermind…

This is probably the most complex and sophisticated level we’ve created in Toto Temple Deluxe so far!

Conclusion? Not yet!

Now that you’ve read all these things, you might be thinking: There’s nothing I don’t know about Toto Temple Deluxe’s levels, mwahaha! Guess what? I’m not done! We made some improvements here and there so don’t quit already, keep reading, you’re almost done, I swear, it’s true this time.

Revisiting: Toto Temple, with a chest

After longs long discussions around leaving this level as it was or adding a small touch that would make it a bit more memorable, the second choice won, which I’m very happy about cause I’m the one who started it!

Sure, Toto Temple is the only basic level in the game. No gimmick or unpredictable feature thrown at you, which makes it a premium choice for beginners. They already have their hands full with this egg-laying goat anyway. Still, I wanted to add a little something to spice things up. Not in an obtrusive way though. I had this big chest idea that, at a random moment during a match, would unleash its riches, ready to be collected for easy extra points!

Wait, there’s more to this chest, it can move around, like magic! Isn’t it magnificent? So during the match, it will wander around and because it blends well in the background, you don’t really notice it. Yes, we did that on purpose so it would stay unobtrusive for new players. Then, at a given moment, the god down there will wake up and activate the chest (he just screams at it, don’t ask me why), making it turn golden and spread tons of coins around. Be quick and grab them!

Secret note #1: Chest spreading coins around + golden magnet can be ultra powerful. Secret note #2: But wait till you see what happens with black magnets! Quite the spectacle.

Revisiting: Mini Miney Moles, with hard blocks

Like usual, there was this one thing left that annoyed me with this level. Most of the time, players would find themselves breaking all the blocks from the bottom row and simply successively steal the goat from one another until the match was over, which was really painful to watch as there is much more to this level.

I decided to attempt the impossible and dared to bring modifications to the layout to maybe fix this problem. I came up with two not too terrible possibilities:

It was a tough choice, but, following rigorous tests, #2 won. Now I feel way better for not seeing too many people spend the whole game fighting on the ground.

One last thing, do you remember how the main idea of this level was that every match would create different layouts due to players taking different paths? Well, in the end it was pretty much always the same with 4 players… No block left, which kind of ruins the whole point.To reinforce the original idea, we thought of adding “hard to break” blocks. These blocks are simply harder to break, thus, increasing the probability that every match is different as they should last longer. I created some patterns (yes, with my two little hands) to make sure things were not unfair and the result was actually pretty satisfying I must say.

Even more, theses new blocks change how you start a match for real this time. Remember the premium path #2 (it was the only way to go back then)? Well, now everything is different as each time the level starts, you must figure out the best path to get the goat. Trying to pass through hard to break blocks will certainly delay you enough to lose the race so don’t do that!

So yeah, even though there might still be two real viable paths to get the goat, the fun comes from finding them first, right before the match starts!

Cool stuff Dom, can’t wait to hear more!

Not to disappoint you, but I’m done. This is it, I told you everything I can remember about designing the levels for Toto Temple Deluxe! I could keep going, but that would be pointless as other things are really just simple adjustments here and there that did not have any major impact on anything, or maybe I’ve just forgotten…

Conclusion (TL;DR)?

After all this read, you’re probably still wondering what IS this secret to designing the perfect level aren’t you? If so, you will be devastated to hear that there is no such thing as a “perfect” level in a game if you ask me. There will always be something to improve. Something that can be done better or in another way.

What you ultimately want to give to players though, is an ideal environment in which they can enjoy whatever you’d like them to experiment at its finest. Whether it is breakable blocks, fishes, portals, geysers, special events or anything else, your goal is to build levels that will make the best out of them and ease players into them!

And remember that you will probably end up creating way too many iterations of way too many levels until you get something that satisfies you (if not, you truly are a genius and I’d like to meet you). There is a lot of trial and error involved and bringing new mechanics will inevitably make you start over from the beginning, but hey, that’s part of the creation process, might as well get use to it!

Obviously, everything I wrote in this article comes from my personal experience as a designer (which I have no scholarship for so all advice are more than welcome). It is mostly specific to Toto Temple and might not translate wholly to other games. It is certainly NOT the absolute way of design so don’t only swear on this. I know I will probably stumble upon this article later in my life and tell myself: God, what an idiot I was back then…

Hope you enjoyed this way too long article. That said, if you have any questions or advice or comments or even insults for me concerning Toto Temple Deluxe or how I approach design, please let me know in the comments.(source:gamasutra)

 


上一篇:

下一篇: