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- Steezy Beat Up -

Team Size : 5

Role : Game Designer, Producer

Engine : Unity

Time : Sept. 2020 - Jan. 2021 (4 months)

Level Design

I was initially unsure about the proper direction to take for the Level Design : a discrete and highly symmetric one, or a more organic one with every room connected by some sort of corridors ? Each had it's pros and cons, but I finally settled with a compromise : organic rooms with discrete connections. I did not knew it yet, but this choice would prove to be very helpful for the Macro, while the Micro would lean a bit more toward symmetry.

For this project's Level Design, when it comes down to the Micro aspect I only helped the other designer to come up with a design language (negative vs positive spaces, repulsive zones and flankings) but he did most of the crafting. I essentially focused on the Macro aspect : pacing, golden and alternate paths, level duration, encounters scaling and navigation. Let's take one variant as an example.

The Beach - Double Helix variant

Capture d’écran (1096).png

  • For pacing purposes, a level always starts in an empty room so that the player can see what powerups he got. There can't be more than 3 combat rooms in a row, and the room before the boss is always a reward one

  • The Golden Path (yellow) is always the shortest, and the hardest combat rooms (who provide the more cash) are not on it

  • Every Level has 16 rooms, and the Golden Path never exceeds 8 rooms

  • The difficulty of each combat rooms rises. It can't differ by more than one between two rooms, and the first combat room difficulty tier cannot be more than 2 (out of 5)

  • There are 3 types of player navigation : one-way (green), two-way (blue) and warped (red). The Gold Path is always two-way

As I hinted before, choosing to go for discrete connections instead of corridors allowed me to play with space perceptions. As you had no map in the game to indicate your position, getting warped between two room that were physically separated by one or more others was not a problem. Thus, I could create more paths and make the navigation less linear for no additional space usage.

Main Problems

Every powerup must have a goal

The playable character should feel clunky but not frustrating

  • Very early during the concept phase, it became clear that our game could easily lean toward a highly systemic one, filled with dozens of cool mechanics that overlapped each over for added nuance and synergies. And we knew it would become unmanageable for such a short project and team

  • Thematically and aesthetically, we wanted to tell the story of a character that was the perfect archetype of a badass boy from the 90s. But how to integrate this into a fast-paced combat system, inspired by bullet hells, in order to still ensure a fair and engaging gameplay ?

And their solutions

Come up with a clear  Language for Combat

Balance risky decisions with safe bets

  • By now, you may have noticed that I only care a lot about Design Language : I truly believe that having one is key to consistency and coherence, though it must never hinder creativity. For Combat, it was about keywording every action we though would be important in the game, and each powerup ended up embodying one and only one of it.

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headache.png
compromise.png
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  • This one was a headscratecher for quite some time, before I realised that the Level Design could  become a mirrored image of the playable character. Basically, even the clumsier character feels ok if he doesn't touch anything. This provided stimulating challenges for micro level design but, with the choice of freeform aim & shoot, solved one of the major problems.

Social improvements

  • Adapting tasks according to team needs, without losing focus of milestone's requirements

  • Understanding the importance of an environment where everbody feels agency

  • Sharing tasks in the right way in order to avoid too much dependencies between team members

Technical improvements

  • Procedurally generating a level layout and powerup combinations

  • Using node-based data structures for player navigation

  • Using a more event-based approach and some programming patterns (Decorator, Observer)

  • Scripting my own pathfinding for enemy AI

Creative improvements

  • Thinking AI in a more systemic way to build strong synergies between NPCs

  • Working on Level macro layout to offer non-linear navigation and good pacing

  • Reworking the game's design from the ground up when straying away from the desired experience.

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