Hey Movers!
Every week we dive into our process for making Moving Out and this week is no different. Last week we showcased a really unique level - The Chase - but this week we thought we'd jump into the super svelte world of yet another interesting level.
Level names can be a fun opportunity for us and in The Floor Is Guava - see what we did there? - our designers wanted to try something a little different. Unlike in previous levels, you don't really see the full environment right away. Then again, you also don't KNOW that, until you play it. Sneaky, sneaky.
Perhaps in a stroke of genius, we decided we’d hide the item count until the full level is revealed and then BAM! You, the unsuspecting player, see there are a whole lot more items to deliver. You're welcome...
Maybe our designers tricked you, but we didn’t stop there. We also wanted to throw in some other unique elements into the design of the environment. Floating items pepper the scene, and they are definitely interactable. When you land on them - uh-oh, they sink!
Even though the sinking element of the gameplay initially didn’t have a warning, we thought we’d help players out by communicating the sinking mechanism clearly. To do this, we added some visual indicators: warning lights let players know when a platform is going to sink. Now colour is all well and good, but because we didn’t want to rely on a single indicator alone, we dropped some shapes into the mix.
On reflection, this level can be a little tricky, so in the Reduced Danger Mode, we had the ability to slooooow down various elements: the barrel rotates slower and the sinking platforms have a delay so they stick around longer. This makes the level less intimidating and that makes play a whole lot less frantic. Win-win.
Understandably, you probably freaked out when the second half of the level revealed itself. Let us know in the comments below what you thought. Were you shocked? Confused? Excited? We’d love to know!
TeamSMG, Moving Out!