We're almost at the end.
Week 7 was all about prop placement and touch ups for me. I placed props throughout the first jungle level, replacing the existing blocks with platforms and poles, in an attempt to make the jungle level feel much better. I also placed a lot of the jungle blocks, as well as torches, and tried to make the temple feel as dark and mysterious as possible. Feedback from Dylan when he was playing through the level involved navigation - he continually got confused between the paths that he had taken, and the paths that he hadn't been down. To fix this, I added in some of the cobwebs he had used in his gauntlet-style level, to make sure that players didn't have as many problems navigating. I put the finishing touches on the first level, making sure that everything was good both visually and mechanically, before moving on. I spent the start of week 8 on fixes to the audio manager, as well as adding sliders into the canvas interface. Players can now adjust the game's volumes - both sound effects and music - separately. I have also adjusted some of the sound values again, to make sure the audio is more appropriately balanced. I feel like we're ready for submission today, and looking forward to finishing it up in a nice little package.
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Over the weekend, the entire group (save Dylan) jetted over to Melbourne, where we exhibited at PAX Australia, courtesy of Media Design School.
The 3 days on the booth provided a huge amount of information for us - namely, that the first level actually serves as a poor introduction in a convention space. Players want to get into the game quickly, spend a short while playing, and then move on to the next booth or stand. The first level only has movement around and jumping, so it is not that great for showing off what is unique about KLEPTO. From Saturday onwards, every time I reset the game, I would set it to one of the later levels (3/4/5) because players found it way easier to get into the title and play for a while, because the first level was not only boring but weirdly designed. Some other issues I found included explaining the pressure plates to players - explained in the second level and very few actually played that - and general mechanical mastery. I expect that if players had to play through all 5 levels sequentially, they would not have an issue progressing eventually. The convention setting means that many players simply don’t ‘get into’ the title as much when they are pressed for time or eager to go and see another stand. Smaller-scale playtests with other students result in the majority of them pressing through the first two levels to get to the more structured and interesting levels - much like a properly structured title. Another issue I noticed was the way that the levels were presented - currently the jungle levels we are working on look much better, because of our usage of assets. The transition to closed-area environments definitely helped the presentation of the next world, and pending the move into accelerator we will certainly be changing the different ways that we approach level design - mainly looking at it from an environmental perspective first, before diving in and adding puzzles in each area. Weeks 7 & 8 should be all polish polish polish, and make sure that we're ready for the final submission, which we are on the verge of already. This week has been jungle work and preparation for PAX. Considering we leave tonight, I've written this prematurely to make sure that I actually do a post this week.
Jungle scenes 1 and 2 have been my primary focus this week, debugging and replacing puzzles that I didn't feel were appropriate or worst case boring. Having an entirely symmetrical level with puzzles on each side is a goal this time around, but it was starting to feel too formulaic and boring without some variance. I changed up the puzzles, as well as adding in a 'laser gate' that blocks progress for the crate. This was already planned, I just set it up and added a side passage that players must move down in order to activate it. The puzzles at the end of the level have been finished as well, with a rotated 'electric fence' on one side and a moving platform puzzle on the other. These puzzles are different enough to be interesting while also requiring a differing level of skill. I'm not hugely happy with them but they should suffice as an ending to the first jungle level. Next week we'll incorporate some of the feedback from PAX into the work that we're gonna be doing, and make sure that the jungle levels are being 'prop-ulated' in preparation for submission around end of week 7/ start of week 8. This week was all about level design for me.
In preparation for moving into the jungle scenes full-tilt, I blocked out the entire second jungle level this week. The 'gimmick' for this level is rotating platforms, which come in two different flavours - rotating constantly and 'staggered' rotation, which stops every 90 degrees. The two different platforms are intended to introduce a bit of a timing mechanic, rather than the sometimes careless jumping that we encourage. This level is unique because it represents the first time that i have designed an entirely enclosed level from scratch. All of the previous levels that I have designed previously were designed in an open space, laying pathways and creating open areas within the scene. I like this form of limitation; it keeps the level focused and within scope, and is a challenge to create puzzles and activities for. I have created the entire level mechanically, save for the portal at the end of the level. Either next week or the week after I will decorate it, and it should be fully integrated as part of the jungle world by the start of week 7. I'm pretty happy with the similarities between the first and second levels - both of them use pressure plates as the main facilitator of progress, and the second level also includes some new quirks. I have been experimenting with using 'jump-cut' camera scenes to show players things like transitions, opening/closing doors, etc. I think it makes the level a little more explanatory, and allows the player to quickly understand if they've opened a door. In the future i'll probably use this kind of system in other levels as we move forward. This week I junked an entire level concept.
The revolving platform idea that I came up with last week didn’t seem to be particularly interesting or allow me to do interesting things, so I decided to dump it. This was after spending the first two days of the week continuing with the concept, which I then decided was neither intuitive or fun and dumped it. This process was rather unusual - it represented a decent amount of work, and I had to come up with a replacement level that offered the same type of interesting mechanic. My plan over the next three days was a level that was built around rotating platforms, with different types planned. This will be used alongside pressure plates, gates, and the other mechanics that we already have present ingame. I’m pretty happy with this process to be honest, because it’s a case where I have been happy replacing content I have worked on with new content, if it doesn’t feel like it is up to the same level (or above) as the reset of the content in our game. Although the change took time, I wasn’t happy with how the level slotted in among the rest of our levels. In addition to this, I also altered the second level in the first world, removing some platforms that moved in-out and replacing them with static platforms. Some other platforms and walls have been added to force players to finish puzzles, as there were exploits that allowed players to move past the gate in the second half of the level. I fixed some other bugs in platform systems, like making sure that crates moved along platforms (an issue that is interfered with the first level in the jungle). Next week should be hugely productive, as I have the blueprint for the level (as well as the basic blockout) ready for puzzles to be dropped in and tested. Next week should be all of the time needed to develop the rest of the level, and then by week 5 the first two levels on my side should be done. At the beginning of the week (Monday/Tuesday) I went back and corrected some issues with the first level - namely, the pipe puzzle that I had created initially was not entertaining at all, so I removed it and replaced it with a smaller, concise platforming puzzle. I also adjusted timing values and platform placement to fix one of the puzzles in the later area, which was far too time consuming for the reward that the player received at the end. I’m generally happy with the result of this level, but I will probably revisit it in the third week and correct some issues that It has regarding how mediocre it feels currently.
Part of the issue that I have developing levels currently is the grappling hook. While the hook is fun to use and traverse the environment with, it limits level design somewhat in terms of how the environments have to be created. If the grappling points are present in the level, they generally change how the level is set out. Because the points allow players to traverse distances quickly, the distances are usually quite large. This means that larger levels have to be created, which leads to larger, emptier areas that are devoid of content ( somewhat more than I would like, in a lot of cases). In some levels, the grappling points are used quite well (such as the descent in level 3) but on the whole those areas should be rare, and make the player feel like they are set pieces to be enjoyed at particular stages. It is worth remembering that while it is our core mechanic, it should not be overused (for fear of all levels feeling the same) and instead should be used sparingly (such as the first part in the current level that I am building) to allow the player to traverse gaps or move around before going back to platforming. After that, the rest of the week was more about developing my level design skills than anything else. After the first week’s level, I was ready to improve the techniques that I was using to make sure the level did not feel similar to many of the Wild West ones. The result by Friday was something that I was very happy with - a revolving platform centre that leads the player further and further up the tower, requiring them to repeatedly walk across the centre section. This section took a while to get right, and I tried multiple different combinations - a multiple stage climbing structure that required the player to rotate it was not only too complex but also felt very samey, with the player looking at floor tiles for the majority of the time as they climbed up. I have plans for the rest of the level, which will include more creative and interesting platform applications, and a bit less of the grappling hook mechanics. In addition to this, I also fixed the Application.quit() bug that we have had for a long time, which prevented us from closing the application properly. The fix involved contact with the developers of obirope, who provided us with a patched version of their dll files that fixed the bug. After returning from our break, we decided to rescope the work that we had planned as we move into the gold build. The goal initially was to create three worlds, each with 5 levels present. We decided to cull the scope down to only two worlds, to make sure we can complete all of the content in the time we have left.
The remaining 8 weeks include two key appearances for us - appearing at both Armageddon and PAX Australia; we will be making sure to get feedback and opinion from as many people as possible while we are out in the public eye. The entire team is looking forward to this information, as we will use all of these new perspectives to make the game even greater. For this week, I worked on the newest level - our first jungle level. This level introduces the ‘megapad’, a pressure plate that is twice the size of a normal pressure plate - and requires twice as many crates. The megaplate will always require only two crates, and allows us to create puzzles where the player understands their objective immediately - that they require two crates to proceed. The two-plate puzzles will remain, and we will be able to use these independently to create solutions to puzzles where the plates are in completely different locations. This level has four side areas, which forces players to move around the level, solving the different puzzles. The plan for the second week is to create another level - and this time to change the approach to design - the first level is linear, with a group of different side puzzles hanging off the main corridor. The level in the second week may contain a linear approach, but avoid so many of the side areas in favour of creating a more concentrated experience. |
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