You want me to design what?

by William Terlop

One thing I never really considered when I was thinking about my game is my level design. Now I know what you are thinking.. How can I not thing about my levels? It’s not that I didn’t see brief glimpses of my games level in full glory.. action packed, explosions, enemies rushing the player and all kinds of beautiful camera angles. When I really sat down to think about the levels the other day.. two questions came into my mind. How do I design levels to make them interesting to the player, and how do I make them interesting to the player while still fitting into the world. It’s interesting that when I saw my levels in my mind my player wasn’t the focus. The polish and coolness was. Which isn’t great…

The Molten Metal Factory

 I started to really consider what kinds of things I would like to be challenged with in a level like the Molten Metal Factory. This was going to be the platforming stage so there needs to be lots of tight platforming. I don’t want it to feel cheap if you fall off the ledge, but I also don’t want it to feel like the staircases are narrow for the sake of being difficult. I’m trying now to tie all this into the actual story.

Level Design Blockout and Result

I sat down in photoshop and blocked out a 3 tier level. I made sure to include all of the ubiquitous level design aspects of 3rd person action games (moving platforms, elevators, narrow jumps) and I also tried to create a flow to the level that made it feel functional as an actual molten metal factory. It took some research to see what kinds of tools go into a factory like that but I think I got  a good idea. I’m still working on making the level fun but the prototype is fun to play around in. In an interview about the design of Super Mario World, Shigeru Miyamoto said “A video game should be like a park you like to visit over and over again” meaning that the level should be fun and players should enjoy exploring it. That’s what I’m aiming for with my design. Although I can’t say I’d personally enjoy vising a molten factory over and over again.. but alas that’s not for me to decide! It’s up to my players!