Creating Level Design Pillars for 108 Levels

• Creating the core level design structure based on direction from senior management to account for the creation of 12 Worlds with 12 Stages within each totalling to 144 planned Levels. 36 of these levels were subsequently removed from the final version of the game resorting in the 9 World structure we have in the current build.

• Creating the Level design pillars and designating key design focuses for the 9 Worlds focusing on constant ramp of difficulty and complexity as the player progresses. This also helped to breadcrumb the mechanics as the player progresses through the game helping to avoid them being overwhelmed from the get go

• ​Overall Level Design Pillars
  -Predictable Orbits: I wanted to ensure that all orbits are predictable to the player. Depth perception in Mixed Reality games can cause a lot of issues for players so from a level design viewpoint I aimed to help alleviate this by designing levels with consistent orbits that can be anticipated by the player
  -Reward Experimentation: I aimed to encourage multiple different approaches to levels where possible although limited by time and budget constraints. Allowing players to feel additional satisfaction for completing levels in more and more optimal ways
  -Precise  / Chaos: Having a balence of levels where precise timing is required followed by all out chaos to disrupt the pacing and provide increased player satisfaction

  • World 1​: Reds Rumble

    • Getting the basics right:​

    • Simple and Intuitive:

    • Consistent Orbits:

  • World 2: 

    • Introduce Shields

    • Increased difficulty due to the obstacle to overcome

    • Simple at start complex at the end

  • World 3:

    • Introduce the Splitter Stone

    • Introduce new puzzles with the Splitter Stone And Shields

    • Simple at start complex at the end

  • World 4: Boingtopia

    • Introduce Bounce Pads

    • Create levels that use a mixture of Bounce Pads and Shields to complete puzzles​

    • Simple at start complex at the end

  • World 5:

    • Introduce the Boom Boulder

    • Highlight the risk reward factor of the boom boulder

    • Simple at start complex at the end

  • World 6: 

    • Introduce Exploding Barrels

    • A combination of Splitter Stones and Boom Boulder

    • Use exploding barrels as a way to destroy targets whilst also providing a risk for the player to do so

  • World 7: 

    • Introduce the Pause Pebble

    • Introduce Asteroid Ammo

    • Highlight the risk reward of pausing the pebble at incorrect moments

  • World 8: Potent Portals

    • Introduce Wormholes

    • layered levels with increased complexity

    • Use a combination of environment effects from previous worlds

  • World 9: Hyperlane Vortex

    • Introduce the Super Speedy Asteroid

    • Introduce Black Holes

    • Complex and layered levels requiring additional planning from the player

• Organizing weekly teamwide feedback session to achieve targeted Qualitative and Quantitative feedback to allow for data driven Iteration. Feedback was collected via forms and MS Teams and then collated in matrix's within Miro to help determine grouped themes and target areas to improve within the feedback.

• Creating target levels for to set the bar for mechanical complexity and fun factor to guide other designers in creating levels.

• Creating all Smoke test levels for QA, Code and Art to run through when testing specific gameplay mechanics and features speeding up the regression and other testing methods.

• Cooperating closely with the Code team to create a robust set of tools to facilitate the streamlining of creating and testing new levels.

• Designing and Iterating on Levels throughout the development of the game

Designing Compelling and Addicting Gameplay Mechanics

• Designing All Launcher and Asteroid manipulation mechanics

  • Launcher Controls​

  • Asteroid Ammo Behaviour

  • Player Feedback requirements

  • Special Ability activation mechanic

• Designing the core functionality behind each of the 5 Asteroids

  • Red Rumble​: The default asteroid the player begins the game with no special ability activation fire it and deal the base damage of an Asteroid

  • Splitter Stone: The first unlockable Asteroid, hold a fist to charge the prediction lines these show you where the mini Asteroids will go. After Activating the Asteroids splits into 6 mini Asteroids dealing less damage over a wide area, like a shotgun.

  • Boom Boulder: This asteroid charges as you hold your fist emitting a radius effect when you release it deals massive damage to everything nearby

  • Pause Pebble: This asteroid manipulates time upon activating the ability the asteroid is frozen in place and becomes protecting by a damaging electric bubble. Anything that passes into this bubble is destroyed

  • Super Speedy: This asteroid charges when you activate an ability then on release it zooms off at super speed dealing massive damage for gravity negating shots.

• Designing the core functionality behind all of the games environmental objects

  • Debris​

    • Used to provide score to the player but also block shots in some situations​

    • Used to help guide the players eye and contextualize the space in Mixed Reality

    • Used to help improve depth perception in more complex levels

  • Shields

    • Used to block shots of asteroids and provide a challenge to the player​

    • Can be countered by Boom Boulders and Boom Blights

  • Bounce Pads

    • Used to reflect shots and bounce across the levels​

    • Bounce pads increase asteroid duration allowing for more complex levels

  • Boom Blights

    • Used to provide a risk reward puzzle, players can detonate them at the correct time for lots of destruction and points or in the wrong situation cause a level failure​

  • Asteroid Ammo

    • Players destroy these to regain shots which allows for tiered puzzles where players must first gain enough asteroids to complete the puzzle​

  • Wormholes

    • Acts as a linked portal allowing players to shoot their asteroid through the wormholes for increased difficulty and score​

  • Black Holes

    • Acts as gravity absorption points providing level wide zones where shots will be curved requiring additional thought and planning from the player to complete​

• Designing the Core mechanics and behaviours behind all of the games enemies

  • Basic Witherite​

    • Standard enemy across the game destroyable in most cases with a single shot from a standard Asteroid​

  • Shielded Witherite

    • A standard enemy but with a shield for added protection requiring more creative approaches to destroying them​

  • Big Witherite

    • A bigger stronger witherite taking more shots to destroy​

  • Strong Witherite

    • A metallic witherite requiring specialized asteroids to deal with effectively​

  • Boss Witherite

    • A hive mind enemy with orbiting witherites creating an invulnerable shield till they are destroyed​

• Designing the behaviours for Planets 

  • Planet Personality​ / Face behaviours

  • Planet Health and Gravity based on Scale

  • Planet Distribution across worlds

Documentation and communication