Please Remain Seated
This was the first major group project I was a part of in the Unity engine. It was a difficult project as we were all still learning, but in the end, we managed to make something good for our skill at the time.
We had two limitations going into the project: the game had to have controller support and be related to something historical. With these in mind, we wanted to make a game that would feel better on a controller. After some discussion, we settled on making a platformer, due to the controller and its simplicity for a group with little experience. For the historical aspect, the decision was made to set the game in the local castle in Falmouth, Pendennis Castle.
The castle setting was unique, but we needed something more as a unique selling point. Whilst sitting in a room full of swivel chairs, we got inspired to make the player movement based on the chair. If you try and move around on a swivel chair, it is very difficult to move forward, so instead you have to push yourself backwards and try and keep momentum to keep going. This makes for an interesting movement system that we could use as our USP.
At this time, I was still unsure as to what I wanted to specialise in as a designer, so I took odd jobs including some art, until I settled on level design. From that point onwards I focused on sketching out ideas to later be implemented into the game. The picture on the right was how I got started. Myself and two other designers collaborated on this inital level to get us all into the mindset, which I found very engaging.
With my mind now engaged in level design, I went off and started sketching as many ideas as I could. My main consideration for the levels was thinking about how to get the player into a flow state.
As the chair movement was about maintaining momentum, I tried to make levels encouraging that. I settled on making downward vertical spirals that would allow the player to gain momentum, with limited horizontal movement so that they could focus on speed. I figured that in the grander scheme of the game, these sections would act as good endpoints after more intensive challenges.
When it comes to level design, I often think about it in terms of pacing. As I mentioned, I considered the spirals as good endpoints for levels, as a way to cap off a difficult challenge. I also often view levels as scenes, like in a film. Prior to games, I originally wanted to enter the film industry so I often apply film techniques to game development. Viewing levels as scenes was a good way for me to consider factors such as length and pacing, hence the spirals as capstones of what is meant to be an intensive scene.
I continued making levels with a similar focus on momentum. I wanted to experiment with the idea of having near-infinite momentum, so I would give the play a circle to hopefully do just that. Unfortunately, we had to put a cap on the speed, long before I ever go to implement this level, which was a good idea for the game as a whole, even if I thought the idea would be quite fun.
I also began to look for inspiration from real-life sports focused on momentum, such as snowboarding and skateboarding. The picture above shows a series of slopes that I was planning to have the player jump between. This didn't quite pan out but the idea was remade into something similar later.
The picture to the right was not meant to be a level, but instead more so as a tutorial for how the physics may work. I envisioned the ability to move between jumps like in vert skating, but the physics never allowed for it.
The game had a shift in focus at one point, wherein the idea was inspired by puzzle platformers as opposed to just platformers as a whole. This led to a shift in level design to incorporate puzzles. The sketch circled in red became the last puzzle in the game, which was then followed by the one in blue. The blue sketch was inspired by the ski slope idea from before.
Unfortunately, the only level I made that was in the final game was the last one. The puzzle of pushing a block down a hole, led into the slopes which were then the end of the game. My team and I were still quite inexperienced at the time, so we weren't use to using Unity nor were we use to the flow of development. We had to remake levels numerous times due to the physics breaking repeatedly so we weren't able to move on to otehr levels. In the end, the game had one level from each designer, with mine chosen as the last one to leave the best till last.
I was uncertain of having made the best level, but reception from within the team and playtesters were positive enough that I began to feel confident about it. Now when I look back it seems quite simple compared to what I know and can do now, but I still appreciate it as it made me settle on level design as my expertise. After this, I have begun to prioritise level design practice for future projects.