While we were still getting the engine warmed up the level designers didn’t have much to do, so we decided to ideate on what the ship and beats look like at a super high level. This gave us some ideas on what rooms could be and where they could be placed.
Going up
A large module that used fans, elevators, and enemies to allow the player to climb to the top. The module encorparated elements that made back tracking easier so of the player fell at the end it wouldn’t take them long to get to back to the top. This module help us understand how often to place certain things and that verticality was important to the game in some way. Grapple points were also placed in the level to simulate the player getting an ability then having to navigate this room again, but doing so in a different and quicker way.
FanHallway
A small hallway where the player rode an elevator to the end while draining objects to power the elevator and prevent them from falling. Introduced the ‘doing things while something else happens’ that should be a bigger part of the game moving out of the vertical slice. It is a good way to combine mechanics that the player has seen before.
Elevator Escort:
An unfinished module where the player would ride an elevator while syphoning energy to keep the elevator going, and remove obstacles so they do not fall off. The module was no completed because if the player fell off then they would have to wait for the elevator to go all the way to the beginning and FanHallway did this concept but in a more efficient manner. Was the last of the ‘large’ modules to be designed as it was more useful to make a bunch of little ones.
TripleFanJump
Three fans placed in such a way that the player has to charge them in the air. Tested to see if it was fun to charge things in the air, and it was. This module was one of the reasons bullet time became a thing.
DoorToDoorSalesmen
A more puzzle-esce room that saw the player draining multiple batteries to drop doors that lead to a battery charging a spawner that was constantly spawning enemies. Doing a puzzle while in combat was an interesting thing to work with but this room only partially succeed at this as it was difficult to infer what batteries did what.
DoubleBackHallway
A simple hallway that can be completed in multiple ways in both directions. Needing to backtrack in a Metroidvania is very important and it must be interesting. This hallway is meant to be simple to approach and act as skill building in-between actual important tasks, which it does; however there is too many ways to solve it and they and up overlapping and making the hallway to confusing. An interesting example of giving the player too many options.
CorkScrew
A tall box that the player has to work their way up, once at the top they can power a battery at the top that opens a door on the bottom. Giving player the lock before they get the key is about the only thing this module does well, the combat areas and grapple placement hurt it a lot. There was no navigation wire telling the player where they needed to go so people would often get confused in this module. But it was an important step in making the 4-connected battery level good.