Level Design

For all levels in this game I used the following iterative process:

  1. Creating “paper prototypes” using our in-engine tile system

  2. Once I’m satisfied with once of the designs, make the white-boxing

  3. Perform test among the development team and do changes to the design until satisfied

  4. Perform tests with external player to obtain fresh feedback, do changes to the design if needed and continue the process from step 1

This process is itertaed over and until we are staisfyed with the player response.

For most levels I used methodology of diving the level in 4 sections. The first section introduces the core theme of the level without any pressure. The second section section is the first real challenge with the introduced idea. The third section is a bit of a pallet cleanser, used to reinfroce an old mechnic that hasn’t been used so far or to just give teh player the space to process what they have learned. The forurth and final section is used as the hardest challenge to test what the player has learnt.

Once very important aspect for us was to make levels that were easy to undesrstand and that teach the mechnics of the game by using as little text as possible.

If I found an issue that require me to go back to any other previous step I would do that, no matter in what moment of the I was in.

Level 1

Objective: Get to know the controls and understand the “buttons & doors” mechanic

Setting: abandoned city corner

Components

Rhythm Challenge
Follow the rhythm for the first time through a short and straightforward road

Tutorial
Understand how the controls work, understand the UI to follow the rhythm and understand that the buttons can be pressed to open doors

Narrative
The pigeon started its vacations from a safe and standard side of the city but at the end you can see an indication that old architecture is still present

Puzzle
Block the players progress with doors while placing their corresponding buttons near them. The second door is to be placed further away from its button than the first one.

Reward
None

Details

This is the first interaction the player has with the game, introducing most of the core mechanics. For this reason it is important that it is as focused as possible, removing all elements that might distract or confuse. This guided the type of environmental art in the level, the level composition and the puzzle design.

The level is composed of 4 sections:

  • The introduction area is a wide square designed to give the player the space they need to learn how to move. The payer starts at the top left corner of the area while the exit to the next area is on the bottom right. This is to ensure that only once the player is used to moving at the rhythm of the music, they can progress with the rest of the level. To isolate the player in an organic way I used a fence which makes sense for the environment, allowing the player to see that there is more beyond this space but obscuring it enough to help the player focus on their current task.

  • The first puzzle is simple, presenting the player with a road blocked by a door and a button right next to it. To make it clear that the button is interactable we made it animate when the player gets close and also we made its colors pop-up from the rest of the level. Finally, this is the only element that has animations at the moment, ensuring it is the focal point for the player.

  • The transitori hallway exists to give the player some space to take in all they have learnt so far. Though the mechanics the player has learnt aren’t that complex in theory, the fact that they learnt them without any text explaining them and that a big part of the moment is actually executing correctly, can be a bit overwhelming. For this reason I considered it important to add a short space for the players to process everything.

  • Finally, the second puzzle presents the same situation as the first one, but now the button is placed far away from the door, while keeping both elements within the player’s field of view. This simple mix-up works to reinforce the “door & button” mechanic by keeping it fresh while being the same type of challenge.

Level 2

Objective: Introduce the “single directional tile”

Setting: In the liminal space between the modern city part and the old city


Components

Rhythm Challenge
None

Tutorial
Understand all the mechanical aspects of the “Single Directional Tiles” (SDTs)

Narrative
The new town was built on top of the old town elements.
The player starts next to a modern “mom & pop” restaurant. There are other small businesses and apartments around the block (maybe the same from level 1 but from a different point of view).
Column pieces are sticking out of some structures.

Puzzle
Reach the button which most direct road is blocked by a single directional tile

Reward
none

Details

In this level we present the player with what seems at first glance the same kind of challenges as in the 1st level, which makes them think they got this and motivates them to do it in a rush. I used this mindset to introduce the SDTs and make them memorable by surprising the player with them.

The level is composed of the same 4 sections as the 1st level but what is achieved with this iteration is a bit different.

The sections are:

  • In the introduction area I guide the player's vision towards the stairs which are the objective of the level. This time this section is composed of a short area as the player is already used to the controls and more likely than not, eager to get back to the action.

  • The first puzzle presents the player with the familiar setup of a button close to a door, but also has some new tiles with arrows on the floor. As the player continues to solve the puzzle as they know how, they are surprised when the button can’t be accessed from the front, which is the way most players interact with the buttons at first. After this, they attempt iterating with the button from the only tile not containing an arrow and see that it works. This way they are introduced to how the behavior of the SDTs and that the buttons can be interacted with from all sides in case they hadn’t learnt that already.

  • This next section is a room that connects to the objective and to another section to the north. This room has some obstacles in the middle to keep movement engaging and by default only allows the player to progress towards the north section from the middle entryway. This room serves as a space to process the new mechanic and to introduce the second puzzle.

  • For the second puzzle the player has to understand how the arrows work, as these block the direct way towards the north section as soon as they enter the transitory hallway and also block the way north when close to the door. Finally, as the way to the north section has an SDT in it and it prevents the player from going straight to the left it again reinforces how these tiles work. With the puzzle solved the player can gain access to the objective.

Level 3

Objective: Reinforce what has been learned about the directional tiles with a harder challenge

Setting: In a touristic location with statues and ancient pillars

Components

Rhythm Challenge
Player needs to change direction more often that they had to until now

Tutorial
None

Narrative
A beautiful garden maze is in between a parking lot made inside ruins and some business. Also, At the destination is a unique statue with flowers.

Puzzle
Small maze made out of interconnected circles that have “directional tiles” to make things difficult

Reward
Vista of first statue

Details

The composition of this level is different from the 2 previous ones as instead of teaching anything new, this level is focused on reinforcing the last mechanic taught. Now the level is composed of the following 2 sections:

  • The introduction area is short to quickly set up what the level is going to be about and let the player start at once. There is a door near the start to ensure the player stops for a second to analyze the level before entering the maze, and also to reinforce the mechanic of doors & buttons.

  • The main puzzle itself starts simple with the first DTs perfectly visible and separated from one another. The second part is far more dense in the amount of DTs, with some of them hidden behind bushes. In the end the challenge isn’t that difficult, only requiring that the player understands how the DTs work. Even with the low difficulty the fact that the level is short, that the player is engaging with a unique level setup and that the mechanic being tested is still a novelty to the player, keeps the level engaging.

    To make the level easy to understand and allow the player to focus on the DTs, the objective of the level is made clear from the start with little to no distractions. This is achieved by surrounding the level with tall bushes and using small bushes as the obstacles inside the maze. As bushes occupy the majority of the environmental assets, the use of pillars with contrasting colors and lights behind them guide the player's view towards the objective. Finally the objective was placed in the upper middle section of the map, with the lines created by the lamp at the center, the small bushes and the tiles on the floor guiding the player’s view.

Level 4

Objective: Introduce the patrolling enemies

Setting: A tourist river harbor with a telescope as the destination

Components

Rhythm Challenge
Coordinate you movement to avoid the enemies

Tutorial
Understand the patrolling enemies mechanics

Narrative
The city has rivers crossing through it and ruins under some of the rivers. The player is passing through some of these views between two areas of different heights. At the end of the taller area they find a nice telescope view.
Because this is the first tourist attraction this is the first area where people are found.

Puzzle
None

Reward
First outfit for the bird

Details

As the challenge introduced in this level is hostile towards the player for the first time, I decided to make the level straightforward and simple in composition. I want the player to be able to focus on understanding how the patrolling enemies work and to learn how to work to overcome them. Also, this is the level where we introduce the HP pickups which are an important part of the player’s strategy against the enemies.

We decided to introduce the HP Pickups only once the enemies appear to help create the connection that these pickups help the player survive the enemy.

The level itself is composed of 2 floors, starting the level in the lower floor and then proceeding with the rest of the level in the higher floor.

For this level I divided it into these 4 sections:

  • In here the player sees immediately a HP pickup and an enemy. The HP Pickup is near the starting point, calling the player’s attention by playing a hovering animation and being highlighted with a shader. After this the player can focus on the enemy which is doing a simple route that doesn’t interrupt the player’s path in any way. This initial section is long, using all of the lower floor to allow the player to get used to the enemy, first by looking at them from far away and then by walking alongside them but always being safe.

  • At the entry of the second floor the player finds the first challenge, having to pass through an enemy for the first time. This enemy’s patrol route is long and has safe spaces in the middle of it to not overwhelm the player. Also, creating these safe spaces guide the player towards them which allows me to control the pacing a bit more and also sets up the next area more effectively. To ensure the player takes this center path I also placed the second HP pickup in there, which also lets the player know that they can pick up more than one item per level.

  • This area exists to let the player process what they have learnt and as the name says’ to cleanse their palate so they don’t start getting bored with the level. In addition it also helps to reinforce the DT mechanic.

  • The Final challenge is composed of an enemy with a shorter route and no safe spaces once the player starts attempting to pass through them. It isn’t super hard but it is an increase in difficulty that asks for the first time of the players to move at the rhythm of the music for several consecutive tempos.

    Once they overcome this challenge they are rewarded with the arrival at the telescope and being able to take in the environment design after an stressful yet engaging challenge.

Level 5

Objective: Reinforce the patrolling enemy mechanics

Setting: A chaotic street market

Components

Rhythm Challenge
Coordinating movement between intersecting patrolling enemy routes

Tutorial
None

Narrative
Doing some shopping for the first time.
Walking around a shopping area that is a mix of old buildings with new elements. The entrance of the area is via a bridge that goes over other buildings.

Puzzle
Open the route to the objective but the direct route to all buttons is unavailable

Reward
None

Details

This is the moment where I started making the levels bigger, which was the plan from the beginning but we felt the player needed some preparation before being dropped in a large space. Having bigger levels allows me to create more interesting level compositions, also, it gives me the space to create levels where the player has freedom to tackle the challenges as they see fit. This is an aspect that we liked since the first prototypes and wanted to incorporate it as much as we can.

This level is composed of four sections and two of those sections are composed of subsections themselves. These are:

  • This section is the shortest section of the game, introducing the player to the type of challenges they are going to encounter, while still being easy to overcome. Also, this section presents the crossroad between the north and south section. The visual composition of the level is made to call the player’s attention towards the north section but if the player chooses to go south, they can still complete the level, just with a more steep difficulty curve.

  • This was designed as the easier route for the people playing it for the first time or who just want to take it easy, for that reason it is important to make it clear that this is the suggested start point. The visual components that call the player attention are the two stair steps, the HP pickup at the start of the section and the enemies moving in the background. The objective with this challenge is to start increasing the difficulty to the type of challenges introduced in the introduction. Here there are two enemies with patrol routes very close to one another, similar to the setup in the introduction but without the safe space in the middle of the routes. Instead, the safe space is on the to the side of corners of the routes to force the players to traverse a longer path to get to safety. Thanks to the camera angle the setup of the enemy patrols and environmental obstacles guide the player's view and give them a clear path they can take to avoid the enemies.

    After that challenge there is a short hallway without any enemies to give the player some space to breathe before the next challenge. Also, here the player can find another HP Pickup semi hidden. It works as a reward and as reassurance for the challenge ahead.

    The final challenge in this section has two enemies close to each other with shorter routes than those before. The pressure of seeing the enemies so close to each other and finishing their routes much faster than in the previous encounters keeps it engaging. After it the player finds a button and door combo but is unable to access the road to the door from their current position. From here they can continue to the south path by a bridge near the button.

  • The south path has an HP Pickup near the start and immediately after the player is presented with two enemies with intersecting routes. There are no safe spaces once the player enters their routes but these are long, giving the player some space to make mistakes. At the end of the challenge there is a simple door & button set-up to slow down the player so they can take a breath. Beyond the door the player can see the door leading to the objective but can reach it from there so they take a path to the right where they find another two enemies with intersecting routes but now, the routes are shorter. To prevent the challenge from becoming too difficult, the enemy and object placenta is made so the player can see them both at all times to be able to plan and respond. After this the player finds a button that opens two doors, one towards the end of the north section and one towards the objective. The reason for this is to ensure that no matter what path the player took first they can finish the level. If they have already done the north section, they can progress towards the objective as the door to the objective is already open. If not, they can complete it by taking any of the two different paths now open towards the north section. The one open by the door asks the player to overcome the challenge normally while the other one, placed beside the door to the objective, is a shortcut placed there to reward those that paid attention to the level layout.

  • The end section is a single tile wide road towards the objective which is highlighted by server graffiti and lights.

Level 6

Objective: Introduce the ½ tempo tiles

Setting: Entrance to the garden maze

Components

Rhythm Challenge
Getting used to move using the ½ tiles

Tutorial
Teaching what the ½ tiles are and how they work

Narrative
Graden build around the buried and damage ruins of the old city

Puzzle
None

Reward
None

The ½ tempo mechanic is one of the least intuitive ideas in the games, for that reason I designed this level to start simple and focused on just teaching them, with the level opening a little by the end to give the player some difference in kind.

The section of the level are:

  • The introduction presents the ½ tempo mechanic by showing how the enemy in front of the player moves faster while walking on the new tiles. This enemy’s route is short allowing the player to see multiple times how the tiles affect the enemy. It also has a safe space in the middle of the route, making it no real threat to the player by this point. At the end of the section there is a door to ensure that the player stops for a few seconds before proceeding with the next section.

  • This section has two challenges, the first one is short and a bit more difficult than the previous enemy encounter. Then an area free of enemies but full of ½ tempo tiles to allow the player to test them now that they have an idea of how these work. As an extra motivation I placed an HP pickup there. After this, an enemy patrolling a long and narrow path with no safe space until the end. In the middle of this path there are a couple of ½ tempo tiles. Due to the enemy positioning, the player can see the whole patrol route to prepare the challenge from becoming too hard. At the end of the path the player finds a door & button next to each other to force them to slow down.

  • In this section there are no enemies, just a long path from west to east with several patterns of ½ tiles placed along it. This works as a palate cleanser and as an opportunity for those that have mastered the rhythm of the game to challenge themselves and go faster.

  • Here there are two distinct short paths. The one to the west has a short but hard enemy encounter that leads to the last HP Pickup. The one to the east leads to the button to open the door to the goal and presents the hardest challenge in the game.

Level 7

Objective: Introduce the rotating enemies

Setting: Garden maze monuments area


Components

Rhythm Challenge
Getting used to move around the rotating enemies

Tutorial
Teaching what the rotating enemies are and how they work

Narrative
None

Puzzle
None

Reward
Beautiful vista of fountain

Details

To introduce the rotating enemies I knew that I had to do it with care even if most players are pretty used to the game by now. The reason being that these enemies proved to be the hardest challenge for most players since the first prototypes. As I didn’t want the level to become too linear or simple, I added small moments of non linearity and made the level in a spiral composition to give it an unique feeling.

The level is composed by the following sections:

  • The introduction shows the player the new enemy type in an area where they can go around them without any real danger. The enemy is placed in the middle of the area to intersect the player's path and force them to learn about their behavior before progressing.

  • The first challenge is a simple encounter with one enemy. An HP Pickup motivates the player to take some risks but it is still as simple an encounter as is possible with this enemy type.

  • This space is here to allow the player to process all the new information. Is wide to give them a sense of safety but is short to prevent affecting the pacing.

  • The second challenge is composed of three obligatory encounters and one that is optional. The first encounter offers the player two optional routes that lead to the same point to engage the player a little by making them make a simple decision. In both routes the player finds a rotating enemy doing a full circle. Next they find the optional encounter, this time a patrolling enemy to keep things from becoming too repetitive. This enemy can be completely avoided if the player stays on the main path, but if they take the optional route they will have to deal with them. In this extra route the player finds the second HP Pickup. After this, there is the second obligatory encounter which is composed of a patrolling enemy that walks over several ½ tempo tiles. The third and last encounter in this section gives the player the option between two paths, though they have to make the decision of which to take while avoiding the previous enemy. Bothe enemies on these paths are rotating between only 3 positions, making them harder.

  • The final challenge is composed of a patrolling enemy along a long route but with no safe spaces in it, and two rotating enemies. Each of the rotating enemies is rotating between 3 points and are placed next to each other increasing the sense of tension due to the lack of space. After passing through them the player finds a nice vista of a unique statue to make the moment memorable.

Level 8

Objective: Provide the final challenge using all mechanics shown so far

Setting: Large ruined Pantheon building complex

Components

Rhythm Challenge
The hardest challenges of the game so far, a lot of mixing enemy types

Tutorial
None

Narrative
This is the area where the last temple stands and the complex that surrounds it

Puzzle
Open the 2 pairs of doors that block the way through the stairs

Reward
Grand temple vista with distant view of the mountains and the city (*if possible to show so much)

Details

As the biggest level so far it is important to guide the player correctly, indicating the direction of their objective and which are the side paths. To ensure this clarity I designed the level in a vertical ascending pattern, where the camera position, the lines of the tiles and the narrowing of the areas guide the player's view towards the central path. The side paths are all tangential to the main one and have narrower looking entrances, as well as being partially hidden. Also, the blocked parts of the main path are teased to the player as they explore the tangential paths to keep in their mind where they have to go.

To make sure the level is easy to explore while being entreating, I made each section unique both in aesthetics and in game-feel. This is extended to the areas that compose each section, all which are made to be easy to differentiate while making sense for the context of the game. By conceiving the level like a cognitive map the player can keep themselves oriented and maintain a sense of progress at every moment.

The main level sections are:

  • The introduction is made to create a sense of anticipation on the player by slowly revealing the bulk of the level. This is made to both achieve the objective of guiding the player but also to create the feeling that this level is going to be an awesome conclusion.

    In the second floor area the player sees at the center of the northern border a set of stairs being blocked by a pair of doors, giving the player their main objective. This area works as an introduction but also as the rest space between the other areas. It is wide to allow the player to rest and to process what they have done as they progress along the level. Finally, the two enemies patrolling around keep a slight sense of danger without being an active danger.

  • This is designed to be the suggested start point as it has the easier challenges. It starts with a long narrow corridor where the player can focus on the button on the other side of the bushes, becoming their first mini objective. This section is composed of challenges increasingly escalating in difficulty. To promote and reward exploration, the HP Pickup of the section is somewhat hidden in the early areas. In case the player missed the HP pickup they can open an optional path to quickly retrieve it and continue with the rest of the level.

  • The west section is a bit more complex than the east section. To start with, it can be entered by a southern path and a northern path. The southern entry path is closer to the direction the player starts in, meaning that if a player takes this path it is more than likely because this was their starting direction. To aid them a little bit the HP Pickup is found pretty easily in this path. This is done because the difficulty curve of this path is harsher than on the east section. On the other hand, if they enter by the northern path this is likely because they have already finished the east section. This means they are already warmed up and is very possible they already have 2 HP pickups. These two paths join soon after entering them, rewarding the players that enter up north but decide to explore the south area with the HP Pickup.

    The next area in this section is a maze that works with the same principle as the one in level 3, only that this time it is longer, there are enemies and the bushes are taller. The maze itself is even easier to decipher than the one on level 3 but the presence of the enemies make it a more intense challenge.

    After the maze the player walks by a short but isolated path where they can breathe and take in their victory over the previous challenge.

    Finally, they arrive at the last area of this section, a challenge composed by a single enemy rotating between two points. Though simple in principle in execution it is rather challenging and is short enough to be a nice final challenge for the west section.

  • The final section is a set of short consecutive challenges to end the level with a bang. The last of these challenges was made so that only a player that has mastered moving at ½ tempo can pass through it without losing a HP Pickup. After the challenges there is a hallway illuminated by torches that eventually leads to a pantheon with a large statue as the last great vista for the player to remember.