Demo level redesign

This entry will be organized in the following sections:

• General design considerations: Details the level objectives and some conclusions to take into account.
• Macro structure: Defines the main parts in which the level will be divided and the immediate objective of each one of them.
• Micro structure: Details each challenge of every section of the level.

General design considerations

The general layout for the demo level was well received, but there are some flaws that must be addressed:

• The relation between speed and jump height doesn´t seem to be very evident. I should redo the very first part of the level so there are more simple parts and the player learns that building speed before a jump helps getting higher. I could also put the variable jump height tutorial in this part, it also serves as a nice introduction for semisolid platforms.
• The entry points for the secret paths must be made harder to find and beat, so players don´t get into them thinking it´s the normal path like happened to Pehesse.
• Keep the count of the Dragon Coins used, this should be more like a training for myself so I keep the count low and more importance is given to each of them (5 per level). There shouldn´t be any Dragon Coin in the normal path.

It may be a good idea to divide the level into smaller ones and focus the first one just on teaching the basics.

Macro structure

The level will be divided in 4 thematic groups:

• Jump button: Teaches the player all the different jumping techniques.
• Run button: Teaches all the uses of the Run button.
• Up & Down directions: Teaches all the uses of UP & DOWn directions.
• Final test: Throws everything together in a series of small challenges.

The first 3 sections will define different challenges to teach the basic skills and the last one will be a real challenge mixing everything:

1. Basic jumping skills (Jump button)
   1. Jump
   2. Speed and distance relation
   3. Speed and height relation
   4. Bouncing on enemies
2. Running (Run Button)
   1. Run
   2. Running jump
   3. Variable jump
3. Vertical actions (Up & Down directions)
   1. Crouch
   2. Slide
   3. Look up
   4. Look down
   5. Stomp
4. Final test (put everything together)

This makes, at least, 10 challenges, which is a pretty big number and could be a level itself. Note that we have left out skills like breaking blocks as with the new PUP system the player won´t be able to do so and we won´t be using any PUPs in this level.

The layout of the level will be very linear as there won´t be any hidden paths in this level. However, we will be using verticality and forcing the player to go left in between some challenges to spice it up a little, but without givng him the chance to get lost or backtrack too far; in fact the player will mos times be locked in the current challenge with no chance to go anywhere else.

Micro structure

These section will detail the specific challenges in the order in which they are found.

1 Basic jumping skills (Jump button)

1.1 Jump

The first thing to do is to teach the player how to jump (well, the first thing in fact would be to teach him to walk, but that is too simple). We´ll start with a flat floor with some coins leading the player to the right until he faces a wall with an explanation right before it that tells the player to use the Jump key. One simple jump (even steady) will allow the player to get over the wall.

1.2 Speed and distance relation

The horizontal speed is related to the jump distance, so we must explain this to the player and force him to learn this concept by heart, as it will be a required skill everywhere throughout the game.

We can do this with 2 simple challenges:

• A simple jump straight ahead from a standing position, so the player fails the jump.
• The same jump with a little space to build up speed, so the player can complete the jump.

It is important that the player misses the jump so he can see the different outcomes. Coins will help to guide the jump and highlight even more the difference. We can set the challenge so that the player falls straight vertically onto a 1 block ledge. The left part is blocked by a barrier and the right part requires the jump to cross through. The floor is not visible and coins will describe an arc, so the player will be enticed to take the jump and fail. When he falls to the bottom, a tip box will show 2 drawings: one of the player failing the jump from a standing position and other completing it with built-up speed. The player will make his way back through some low platforms and through a semisolid platform, hitting a button along the way to remove the barrier. As this is the first button in the game, it needs to be visible and not missable, so the player has no choice but to activate it. We can place another barrier next to the button so the player sees how it dissapears, just in case the original barrier was too high and goes off camera. Both of these barriers will stay off once the player presses the buttons, even if he later dies and has to come back through this part.

Once the player reaches the top, coins will guide him to the right so he can get through the part that the barrier was originally blocking. A simple walking jump should be enough to cross the gap and beat the challenge.

We´ll end the challenge with a series of simple challenges on 2 and 1 block wide platforms where the player needs to use the recently learnt technique.

1.3 Speed and height relation  

One thing that players without much experience in Mario games have difficulty grasping is how the horizontal speed before a jump affects the jump´s height. We must think of a way to make players deduce this by themselves, so the concept becomes firmly ingrained in their minds.

A nice way to do this could be to present the player with a situation where he´s forced to jump from a still position, then repeat the same situation but allowing him to walk before jumping. A collectible just of reach could help to highlight the difference in height reached. Visual effects could also enforce the feeling that the walking jump is higher than the standing one.

We just designed a challenge really similar to what we need to demonstrate the speed and jump distance relation , so maybe we could just repeat the layout, but this time raising the target platform´s height. This approach has the advantage that players will immediately recognize it and some may find the solution to the challenge without failing first. By allowing this, we are risking that some players can´t identify the real purpose behind the challenge so it becomes useless. On the other hand, advanced players will feel bored with all this, so we need to change something to make it interesting for them too.

Instead of putting the barrier vertically we´ll place it horizontally and away from the block where the player lands on. The left part of the block will be filled with spikes so the player can´t fall through this side and must jump to the right following the coins, which will take him to the next tip. This way the barrier will block the way upwards when the player falls, so he has to step on the button to make it move to the right. The barrier will then allow the player to pass through and will also act as a barrier against the spikes on the floor, providing ample space to build up speed and make the jump. The barrier will stay off once the player deactivates it, even if the player dies later and has to come back through this part again.

A small section upwards will follow with the following jumps that require what´s just been explained:

1. Jump to 3w platform.
2. 3w platform to 1w platform directly above.
3. 1w platform to 1w platform directly above.

1.4 Bouncing on enemies

This challenge will have 4 parts:

1. Isolated enemy: The player lands on an isolated enemy and kills him. We can just force the player to fall vertically on a trapped enemy.
2. Bounce to reach higher: The player must bounce on an enemy to reach a higher platform. We can repeat the layout of the demo, it explains everything pretty well.
3. Link bounces: The player must bounce on 2 enemies to cross a spiked pit. We need to use red armored enemies for this, so they don´t die upon jumping on them, stay on a block and can be easily jumped on. The jump will be really easy to achieve by just holding the jump button and right direction.
4. Moving targets: The player will need to bounce on a steady enemy, then on a moving enemy to get to a higher platform. The floor will be covered with spikes and the enemies won´t respawn, so we´ll use a red armored enemy for the static one and normal armored enemy for the moving one.

This concludes the section of basic jumping techniques for now. Next, the player will learn the running techniques.

2 Running (Run button)

2.1 Run

We can repeat the layout of the demo, dividing the challenge in 2 parts:

1. Approach: A series of gaps will make the player fall when trying to walk over them. An initial part will use a resizable platform with an unused style so the player can later recognize it. We´ll also use a different coin pattern to enforce this.
2. Running over gaps: A tip at the bottom of the tip will teach the player the command to run. The player can now climb back to where he fell from and run through the series of gaps to the other side.

2.2 Running jump

This will be a pretty straightforward challenge. Using the resizabe platform style and coin pattern we just used for the running training, we will lay out a long platform leading to a long pit, so the player has to make a running jump to cross it. If the player fails we may put a tip box in the bottom of the pit.

2.3 Variable jump

Up until this point all jumps have required the player to use the maximum jump height by holding down the jump button during the jump´s duration. This time, we´ll force the player to use a running medium jump. For this challenge we´ll use the same setup as in the demo: running resizable platform and coin pattern over a small gap, with a wall and a normal resizable platform to trap the player if he jumps too high.

We can end this section with a series (2 or 3 will do) of short, simple jumps with a resizable platform above to force the player to jump carefully. A sakilled player will be able to breeze through this part running and making short hops.

3 Vertical actions (Up & Down directions) 

3.1 Crouch

A tip will teach the player that he can press the Down direction to crouch. This is a very basic action, so the challenge will be really simple: an horizontally moving platform passing over one wall, in a way that if the player doesn´t crouch he´ll fall from the platform.

3.2 Slide

By running and then crouching the player can slide and get under low ceilings. We´ll use the resizable platform and coin pattern we used in the running challenges to layout a flat floor for the player to build speed and slide under a 1 block wide ceiling. There´s no fail state here, so we´ll have to trap the player so that he doesn´t start running around looking for ways to bypass the challenge.

Checkpoint

There is certain risk of the playing dying in the next challenge until he discovers the look mechanic, so we´ll be usign checkpoint here.

3.3 Look up

Even though continuing with the down direction mechanics seems like the most natural thing to do, it maybe too hard to introduce the look mechanic without using a tip box for it or overcomplicating the layout. Using the Look Up mechanic justifies the use of a tip box to let the player know of the new input and also allows us to vary the layout a bit more, without making it too complex.

The player will be facing a spike pit with no way to go. There will be some hidden platforms with coins over them and describing the jump arcs between them. The tip box will tel him to look up, which will spawn the platforms. From this platform, there will be another one to the left. This one must be located more to the left than the place where the player uses the look mechanic to spawn the first platforms, so it doesn´t get triggered by that first look (we may need another intermediate platform for this). We do it this way so the player may start finding a relation between the direction he´s facing and the area of effect of the look mechanic. We may add some kind of visual effect to highlight the area under the effect, but we must make it subtle, so when the look mechanic is used in action environments where the player has to keep track things outside of it, it also works.

Finally we put another platform to the right (again, we may need an intermediate platform so it stays out of the area of influence of the look mechanic before now). When the player looks up, the platform will spawn, but the wall to it´s right will despawn too (or maybe the ceiling, depending on what works better for the layout), opening the way forward. 

3.4 Look down

The player will be now again trapped, but a single row of blocks will hint with a line of coins at the path going downwards. The player has to crouch to make the blocks disappear and unlock the path forward. In the previous demo KooopaKid complained that this mechanic wasn´t very clear, as it also depends on which way Kitsune is facing. For example, the player could sit on top of the disappearing block and look downwards, so nothing would happen. To avoid this, we´ll fill the floor with spikes, so the player can´t stand on the blocks that can disappear. We´ll make these blocks and spikes vanishable, so when the player looks down everything goes away. Better yet, we´ll use a row of hidden blocks right above the spikes, so the player can recognize them.

To try to somehow explain the horizontal functions of the look mechanic, we´ll spawn the player at the center of the spike filled pit. If he looks down to the right, only the blocks from that side will apeear. If he looks to the left the blocks from that side will appear instead. There will be a row of coins above the hidden blocks and only one block in each side can disappear, marked with a column of coins below it, so the player can despawn the spikes, get the coins and jump through the gap from the block that disappeared.

3.5 Stomp

A tip will teach the player the command to trigger the stomp. There will be a column of flying armored enemies so if the player jumps on the top-most one he will just bounce in place. When using the stomp attack, the player will destroy all enemies in the column. There´s another use of the stomp attack, which is to activate PUP blocks from above, but as we´ve removed the simple PUP and the other 2 won´t be in the demo, we´ll leave it out for now.

4 Final test (put everything together)

The final test will be a small level around a simple obstacle that forces the player to use the recently learnt techniques. This mechanic will be vanishing platforms with intercepts:

• Vanishing platforms (VP): When the player lands on them a small timer starts counting. Once it reaches 0 the block disappears and starts another timer. When this second timer is finished, the block will reappear.
• Intercepts (I): We´ll use flying armored enemies. As they´ve already been introduced in the Stomp tutorial, they won´t need a presentation challenge.

Other elements used in this section are:

• Static platform (SP)
• Hidden platforms (HP)

This minilevel will be divided in 4 sections:

1. Presentation: Simple jump to a VP and to a static one from there. No penalty if failing. The second jump requires running.
2. Development:
1. D1:Jump with 1 I to another VP (2 or 3x1). Another jump with I1 positioned in such a way that it forces the player to stop and use up all the time of the VP to relocate himself before jumping . Bouncing on I1 allows the player to reach DC1. End on static platform.
2. D2: 1 block tall gap on a VP, jump with 1I, running jump to another VP. The last jump will have a resizable platform above, so if the player uses a full jump he will be sent to the higher path. If he manages to make the low jump he´ll get DC2.
3. Twist:
1. Critical path: Let the timer go out to fall to a lower platform. VP1 with a column of flying armored Is (I1) surrounded by walls that doesn´t allow to jump to the right. DC3 is located inbetween the walls amongst the individual enemies that form I1. The player must wait until VP1 falls, ride it downwards a bit then jump to VP2 on the right. Then another jump with I2 to VP3, then jump to safety.
2. Optional path: There is an alternate route: before starting the challenge the player has to look up to spawn HP3A and down to spawn HP5A. Then, after landing on VP2, the player can bounce on I2 to reach HP3A. From HP3A the player can jump to VP4A (check if it´s really necessary to gain height) and jump above I1. Using a stomp in this location will get the player through I1, get DC3 and make him land in HP5A, from where he can jump again to VP2 and continue through the critical path. Players who look down before attempting the challenge will unlock HP2 that will negate the challenge, but this can be a way to reward exploration.
4. Conclusion: Jump with I1 to VP1, followed by a jump with I2. The player must wait for the right moment to jump on VP1, then wait for the right moment to bounce on I2 and reach the goal. Failing the jump will make him fall down and end the level without the completion token. It´s important to synchronize I1 and I2 correctly, so when I1 allows passage I2 is blocking the last jump, forcing the player to wait a bit on VP1 before attempting the last jump.