This Game is About Robots
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A large aspect of TGiAR is backtracking through rooms that have been completed before. It is important to keep these room interesting so each room has multiple paths that the player can take. They first time through a room the player will take the easier path, but as their skill and abilities expand they will be able to take the more difficult path.
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3 Pillars of Level Design
Give Players Space To Move
Give Them Paths of Varying Difficulty
Keep Their Energy From
Reaching 100% or 0%
All the abilities that the player can unlock give the player more movement. Some of these abilities are strictly vertical movement and others are more horizontal. Creating rooms to incentivize specific abilities can make them feel stronger then they really are, which is more fun. Unless it serves a very important specific purpose no room should be small enough to restrict all of the players abilities.
A large aspect of TGiAR is backtracking through rooms that have been completed before. It is important to keep these room interesting so each room has multiple paths that the player can take. They first time through a room the player will take the easier path, but as their skill and abilities expand they will be able to take the more difficult path.
All of the player's abilities either consume their energy or give them energy so if they are at zero or full energy then they will not get the full benefit from the abilities. As the player goes through the level they should naturally be able to keep their energy somewhere in the middle, if that does not happen then that should be a mistake on the player's part and not the level failing to give the player the correct amount of energy.
The Process of Making Rooms
The process of making TGiAR starts with a sketch of the room to get an idea for its identity. Then a block out of the room that is easy to change and move around. Once the block out is complete I put the artist walls and floors into the level, and (often retroactively) place basic shapes where the art might go. I would hand the room over to the artist, answer any questions they might have, almost like magic the room was lit and art assets appeared.
Vertical Slice
The final level of the vertical slice went through four major iterations, but the most noteworthy was the change from the first one. In order to test out the new approach to TGiAR's level design I made a 'playground disguised as a level' where the player had a many large spaces that they could navigate through with the semblance of a goal. Once the team knew that is the direction we wanted to head, I began work on iteration 2
Room Diagrams
Before All That
Before making any actual level for THiAR I made small playgrounds that tested how some of the mechanics interacted with each other, these are modules. This helped us iterate on the mechanics of the game and see how they interreacted with each other, and decide if the game was entertaining or not.
What we learned from these modules was used to make a level, now called the horizontal slice. This version of the level started the player with no upgrades and slowly gain them over the level. Making the vertical slice very slow and gimmicky since every room had to teach the player one mechanic. There was a lot here but it was very shallow hence: Horizontal Slice