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Godsend
Patchwork Games
A body swapping action combat game.
Level Design
Godsend was created by our team of 7, Patchwork Games, as part of our thesis 'capstone' project in our final year of Sheridan's Honours Bachelor of Game Design program. In the design/pre-production phase of development, I worked with the team to develop a game design that we thought was a unique under explored game mechanic that would challenge each of us in our respective roles. Initially I started sketching out potential environments on graph paper to explore what would be possible for our game's perspective of a 2.5D sidescroller. When the different controllable characters' capabilities and metrics were defined, I started designing different level segments that included environmental puzzles as well as combat challenges that specifically challenged each of the controllable characters. I drew from these segments when designing and testing different levels with players to ensure that the environmental puzzles were clear and communicative as to which character would be needed for each challenge. Through testing and iteration, I developed the final level that not only supported the gameplay but effectively teaches the player what is possible in the environment.
Challenges
The main design challenge for me was about communicating affordances. Godsend is a body swapping game with 4 characters that have different movement and combat capabilities. As the level designer, I wanted to approach the challenge of teaching the player all of these different things through the level design. This was a big challenge for me because our goal was to create a 'vertical slice' of gameplay that would last anywhere from 3-10 minutes and in that window of time, I wanted to teach and challenge the player to use the characters in order to solve environmental and combat challenges. Initially, my approach to this problem was to create a linear level which was an accumulation of the different level segments I designed to challenge different characters. Our alpha level reflected this linear series of challenges where the player is introduced to a character in a gamespace that supports that character's behaviour and capabilities. Through playing as that character, the player could solve the environmental challenge that allowed them to progress to the next area. Although this was successful in teaching players the different controllable characters, we as a team decided that the level would be more interesting and allow for more player agency if it was less linear. This leads to the next design challenge I encountered.
I designed a more sandbox environment where we provide the player with the different 'tools' in the space and see how they use those tools to solve different challenges. Although the open ended environment allowed the player to explore the space however they wanted, the feedback that we received was that players weren't quite sure where they were supposed to go. To approach this challenge, I decided that we could still give the player agency to explore the world if the level began in a linear fashion that branched out. The linear beginning of the level tutorialized the different controllable characters so that the player still was forced to learn the characters capabilities in order to progress further. The branching out of different potential routes in the level also effectively gave the player agency and allowed them to explore the world without getting lost. I also used environmental puzzles in the level where the environment would branch off, allowing players to decide which route to take. The overall level design allowed for the flow of player movement to be funnelled through the entire level no matter which route the player took. Through a ton of testing and iteration, the final level in Godsend resolved all of the design challenges I had encountered and successfully met all of my level design goals. At our final showcase at LevelUp 2018, I manned our booth and didn't have to direct players through the level which reflects the great design.
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