Hey everyone!
New here? We thought it would be interesting for you to have more in depth texts on different aspects of XEL so we wanted to provide this through all our Devlogs!
This time, we wanted to go more in-depth with our level design philosophy. We hope you guys enjoy it!
Design Philosophy
The level design was very important to us, as it is a staple of any memorable Zelda game.
Therefore, we will also have similar types of dungeon archetypes with our own twist on them.
These archetypes being:
- A gauntlet
- A lock and key/puzzle
- And lastly an exploration dungeon.
Every dungeon will challenge you differently. The first dungeon will be a mixture
between a gauntlet and exploration dungeon, whilst the second one will be a puzzle dungeon
with some horror elements to keep you on your toes. The last dungeon will be one where you will
be tested on your mastery of the game. If you are not ready, this dungeon will gladly let you
know.
The most important thing that we want to prevent is the player becoming bored. It was
important to us that the world felt alive and not simply the meanest to an end. We wanted to make
it so that even if it would be just a walking simulator, it would still be able to have a somewhat enjoyable
experience simply from the level design alone. We didn’t want the player to be in a space that is
only defined by the enemies and the mechanics within it.
Now of course you will have a lot more options at your disposal besides walking. You will have
gadgets by your side that will make exploring a lot more interesting. We wanted to make it so
that the levels are designed in a way that promotes you to use your gadgets. An example of this
would be the webshooter. With this, you can maneuver yourself or boxes in order to reach
otherwise inaccessible locations. This way, we hope to keep the levels interesting and reward
the players who take their time observing their surroundings.
Whilst on the topic of exploring, we also wanted to prevent the player from feeling lost. One way
we prevent this is by having landmarks that the player can orient themselves around. Every time
you go somewhere unique, there should be something to remember.
Now these are more generalized rules for each room within XEL. When thinking about the
individual rooms or even dungeons of XEL, we must know what the purpose of the area is before
we do any form of designing. Therefore, it is important to make a list of design requirements for
every part of the level, and once they are done you go to the drawing board. These requirements
can be anything ranging from:
Are there story elements?
Which enemies are there and how do they behave?
What gadgets are available to the player?
etc.
Once we have everything, we start with some really rough boxes, pretty much a 3d sketch. We
then start playing it and get a grasp for the scope of the level. We don't do any art design up until
the point where the level is done and tested.
We have some other general rules for specific purposes. For example, if combat can occur
within a level, we make sure that there are not too many obstacles in the way that the player can
collide with to prevent frustration. These rooms would also be dressed more aggressively
compared to puzzle levels, where you would have more of an overview of what you are doing.
But other than that we try to stay flexible with rules as we feel that this allows for creativity and
this environment promotes the most innovative ideas. We love to give each room the love and
care it deserves with the limited time we have.
Art Philosophy
The main theme of XEL is that nature is claiming back man made things. So a lot of the levels
would have an organic feel to them. We also wanted the player to experience different
environments so you will not only be exploring XEL in a bright, sunny pasture. We wanted to
have the stereotypical settings such as forest, ice, fire, etc. But adding a twist to it so that it
would fit within the setting of the lore (which I am not allowed to spoil, sorry :C).
One of the main things we wanted to avoid was to be too repetitive, and we wanted to prevent
the player from seeing the same things too many times. However, since we are working on this
project with a deadline in mind we cannot create endless assets as they take a lot of time and
effort to create. Therefore, we have to be smart when deciding if it is worth creating an asset
for levels. The general way we have done so is seeing if the creation of a certain asset would
improve the level because of it. For example, would it make it more unique or if you need one of
the aforementioned landmarks to help guide the player. What we really want to prevent is that
the scenery becomes too repetitive.
Things we learned
One thing we learned is that you really need to know the purpose as well as the puzzle
mechanics of a level, area or dungeon before you even consider making anything for it. What
does game design want from this area? Is there something important for the story? We found
that without direction the levels did not feel inspired and while playtesting, players would not
understand the purpose of the level as frequently.
Another thing we learned is that It's a process that never really ends. We never really want to
close a ticket in terms of when a level is done. So we had to find a way to determine when a level
is done, otherwise the game would never get finished. The solution came in the form of
playtesting. As soon as an inexperienced player gets the idea and is able to navigate the level
without guidance, we can say that we are done.
All in all, we hope that you enjoyed this little in depth look at our thought process for the level
design of XEL.
You still want more?
Check out our recent devlogs and dev diary:
- New XEL Dev Diary: Go Behind the Scenes of our Sci-fi Puzzle-Adventure XEL!
- https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1674640/view/3117049982315558020
- XEL devlog #1: The development of XEL's protagonist Reid:
- https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1674640/view/5167312537217504247
- XEL devlog #2: The 6 Pillars of Gameplay
- https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1674640/view/3119301148804752099
- XEL devlog #3: Gadgets, Concepts, Inspirations - The video-devlog!
- https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1674640/view/3191370791151511942
Additionally, hit the subscribe- and bell-button on Tiny Roar Games' official YouTube channel, to get notified about the latest video uploads for XEL:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcHigwsBDjNhEcv_eusOTXQ
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1674640/XEL/
