Designing a Great Platform Level - A Language Toolkit
There are so many discussions in the Help and Tutorial threads on logic because there is a common language for the pieces. To offer someone logic help or in a tutorial I can say "hook an AND gate into the selector" and it translates to others easily.
There are also several threads that address making a level look good, again, using a common language "Try to pick three (3) materials and build with these"
I have been trying to grasp the ideas behind great level design and it's really difficult to find information on HOW to make a stage. A lot of it has to do with the 'feel' of a stage and can therefore be quite abstract.
This thread's intention is to extend some common terms into the more abstract world of making a stage 'flow'. The following paper and associated resources seem to be the most relevant and give an excellent language toolkit to talk about how to make a stage better. By using the following ideas I plan to break down elements of great stages to see if there is anything to be learned about a better thought process for other budding creators.
I should also stress that the stages I have chosen to critique are by no means bad, nor am I suggesting that I could do better, what I want to do is build an understanding of creator's choices (conscious or subconscious) behind building a stage and hopefully help myself get to a point where I can build my own platformer that has a natural enjoyable flow.
A Framework for Analysis of 2D Platformer Levels
- Platforms
- Obstacles
- Movement aids
- Collectible items
- Triggers
- Rhythm Groups
- Cells and Portals
The Art and Science of Level Design - Cliff Bleszinski
Specifically
- Controlled Freedom
- Pacing
- Risk Incentive
- On Revisiting (doubling back)
- Supply And Demand (pickups)
- Scene Composition and Contrast
A Detailed Cross-Examination of Yesterday and Today's Best-Selling Platform Games - Daniel Boutros
Quite a long article but Specifically
- Location of First Power-Up - p22
- Power-Ups Per Level - p23
- Ending (Game Completion) Rewards - p23
- Hazards - p25
- Score and Pick-Up Bonuses - p25
- Task Types Present in First Five to Ten Minutes - Optional and Mandatory - p28
Terminology Break down
Platforms
Any object that the player runs across on jumps on as they move through the level
Non lethal Materials and objects from your Goodies Bag
Platforms can have different properties like friction, slope or could be grabable.
Different Material choices and the Material Tweaker will give you these options.
Platforms can also be moving or temporary, by using objects like piston, emitter and Destroyer
Obstacles
- An object that will kill or hurt the player
- lethal objects from you Goodies Bag, like the knife, throwing star etc.
- Lethal Function tweaks like the Flame Tool
- Things from the Gameplay Kits like
- Explosives and spikes
- Projectiles (except for water)
- Custom Creatures
A platformer’s challenge comes from moving between two platforms while avoiding the obstacle or danger. An obstacle could also be a pit that doesn’t necessarily hurt the character but does set the player back.
A door blocking your path isn’t an obstacle in this language, its actually a Trigger element.
Obstacles can be static or have a emitter location or movement path, like custom creatures.
Movement Aids
Objects that help the player get through the level
Powerups and Bounce Pads
Custom Objects
Movement aids change the normal motion of the player in a level. So a Bounce Pad that gets you to a higher point than jumping would, a Jet Pack or the Grapple Hook are examples of these
Movement aids could be incorporated into platforms and made moveable, like a Bounce Pad on wheels.
Collectable Items
- Score bubbles
- Prize bubbles
- Powerups
Custom items could also be made as a collectable in-game item to track secrets found.
Satisfying rewards in Little Big Planet come in two different types In-Game and Out-of-Game Rewards; or points in a level to get the high score, collectable items or points that unlock Prize Bubbles packaging something that the player may want to try and win, a custom object to look at in Create Mode perhaps
Prize Bubbles may be used to hold stickers to be used with a Trigger to change the stage.
To be considered rewarding they should be subject to supply and demand, as well as placed in areas that convey a risk/reward.
This means a long line of Points or mediocre Prizes in a line will never ‘feel’ rewarding.
Triggers
Objects that change the levels state
The player walks past a player sensor and the level fills with water, or maybe a switch turns on more Obstacles (electrified floor) when the player makes a mistake.
A great example of this in story mode (and in the Toy Story Level Kit) is the Global Gravity settings cycling.
Rhythm Groups
This is how a platform stage is broken down into elements, so when people say ‘make chunks’ of your stage and then put it together a better phrase may be ‘build your rhythm groups separately, by building and testing a group at a time to fine tune the elements.
Cells & Portals
A cell is a section of the stage that is liner in nature, but has an option choosing a different path at it’s boundary. The portal would be that choice. Maybe this is a bounce pad to a higher path, or two level links in a stage.
For the sake of LBP design each ‘chunk’ of your stage would consist of some Rhythm Group elements with thought put into the Risk Incentive of Collectable Items. Each chunk could then be considered a Cell that can then be linked together, Checkpoints would then be natural Portals between Cells, usually taking you back to the start or end of a Rhythm Group and potentially the start of a new Cell.
Breaking Down Stages For Better Understanding:
Roller Inc 2 by Comphermc
Comphermc has actually been quite generous with the stage this and has given out prizes of some of his Rhythm Groups within the game.
http://i0.lbp.me/img/ft/8b05a0bc8d05...dc4e63f221.jpg
The Prize Bubble is called Roller Inc - Prototype A and actually is two separate rhythm groups together, followed by a Revisiting of these groups, mirrored. So it has 4 Mandatory Rhythm groups and an Optional Rhythm Group that is tied into offering Collectable Pickups based on Risk Incentive.
It starts with a Static Platform that has you time a jump past a spawning Obstacle (the plasmafied roller) toward a grabable platform (Movement Aid) and you have to shimmy over a static obstacle (the pit) to another Static Platform.
This is the first Rhythm Group as the player can pause here and prepare the timing to jump onto two platforms, one that behave as a Triggered Temporary Platform as the moving Obstacle approaches.
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/8659/rhythmgroup.jpg
Image 1 - Rhythm Group The black boxes show the two groups.
http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/5209/platforms2.jpg
Image 2 - Paltforms Highlighted in Green
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/3698/obstacles.jpg
Image 3 - Obstacles Highlighted in Red
Successfully completing these has the player landing at a Checkpoint and being confronted by the reverse of what they have just completed.
There is an element or Risk Incentive here as the player could time their jump on the Triggered Temporary Platform and turn it into a Movement Aid to shoot up to collect a selection of score bubbles, the better they time it (meaning a more likely chance of death) the higher they will shoot and they then have the opportunity to collect a prize bubble.
http://img580.imageshack.us/img580/1...kincentive.jpg
Image 4 - Risk Incentive Outlined in Purple
The actual risk isn’t that great as the spawn point is infinite, so a player could bypass trying to get the points the first time, trigger the spawn gate and try again.
The groups are nonlinear in nature so there are no cells, but its collectable items can not all be collected in a single go.
It’s up to the player if they want to continue right away or try for more reward. It is Optional Rhythm Group.
This section is the first in the stage and it shows very quickly the two different task types expect of the player for this level, the Mandatory Task is correct timing and looking at the environment for safe areas and danger and the Optional Task of reward collecting based on the players assessment of the Risk/Reward ratio.
When looking at this section in the published stage it isn’t considered a Cell because it leads directly into another Rhythm Group (Roller Inc - Prototype B) but I’d personally consider this as a Cell - as in the LBP design phase and what is considered best practice of making levels in ‘separate chunks’ it is a complete section of clear Rhythm groups, and has the potential to allow branching into other Cells at the end even though there is no Portal.
Comphermc chose to attach another non-linear set of rhythm groups and the stage progresses in this nature, in fact the stage is very linear, the player can make choices to collect Prizes and some do require using Movement Aids to get to Hard To Reach Areas as Risk Incentive but the path never branches so they are considered Optional Rhythm Gropus.
Breaking Down Stages For Better Understanding:
Clockwork Ruins By Holguin86
This is another stage I’ll use as an example, but this time I am focusing on something that I am sure Holguin86 tested, but for the sake of the exercise I will discuss.
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/6...kworkruins.jpg
The Green is Platforms
The Red is Obstacles
and the Purple is a Risk Incentive
In this Rhythm Group the player approaches from the left and gets a glimpse of a secret Pick Up Bonus which is part of a Game Ending Reward so it is placed in a way to get an observant players attention.
Being one of the first they will see is just above the head of the player as they walk along a fairly long platform. This platform’s length actually helps the player see the gem as there are no immediate Obstacles they can look at the scenery.
To get past the first Obstacle (the pit of spikes) they need to jump onto platform A and then onto Moving Platform 1, jumping over the fire Obstacles,
From here they need to time a jump onto Moving Platform 2, missing this jump results in the player landing back on the platforms below. If they ride the platform around the can get go for the Risk Incentive, by choosing to do this they have to navigate the first Rhythm Section again.
I regards to handling failure the length of Platform A can cause some annoyance, because if the player misses the jump from 1 to 2 the may end up on the lower platform, causing them to first jump back up onto Platform A, if can seem like an unnecessary jump, if the platform slightly longer this could be counteracted, as the fall would always result in landing on Platform A
The danger of having to pass the Obstacles of section 1 are still a punishment, but by removing a simple extra jump ,it make the section flow more smoothly.
If the player chooses to collect the Gem than the rhythm sections entire flow is interrupted as they need to get back to Platform A to start again. This doesn’t ruin the stage and by no means suggests that I am a better designer, but as I mentioned it is something to think about and look for in your own designs if you feel a section doesn’t seem ‘right’.
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/2220/pointsp.jpg
This is a great example of intelligent placement of Collectable Items (the point bubbles) and Risk Incentive, as each set of points is a small reward for making a dangerous jump.
If timed correctly this section could be potentially rewarding to a dexterous player, but does not impact people that would rather play it safe.
Jumping from the moving platform at the right time means the player will drop through the points to the Movement Aid, building a multiplier that should last until they reach the Moving Platform, it could then be possible to jump to the next Moving Platform (that is rotating on the wheel in conjunction to the first), then out of the rhythm group to safe ground, maintaining the multiplier the whole way through.
In the stage it doesn’t work too well , as the bounce from the Bounce Pad has a short float at the top and the multiplier is likely lost between the jumps. However two more bubbles could help with this if Holguin86 wanted this to be more achievable as well as making it a clear challenge to the Points driven players.
http://img851.imageshack.us/img851/6...tplacement.jpg
Think Tower Of Whoop chaining, but also a bit redundant at the moment as there is no score uploading.
