4/15/2023 - George LeMaster

The Best Mechanics in the world would be wasted without a level to use them in. And so, that turns our attention to the layout of our first level. 

The Ultimate goal of the level is to introduce the player to the game in a way that is both engaging and explanatory, but not over-doing either of these. You want to intrigue the player and keep their sense of emersion, but too little hand holding can make the experience off-putting and hard to get into.

Originally, this image was our primary design for the first level. Nicely paced, introduced the mechanics in a thematic and obvious manner, and even introduced the first enemy type. The issues began when we started designing the second level.

You see, the second level will introduce the player to an enemy that is blind, but has very acute hearing. Our hope for this area and encounter is that the player sneaks around, trying to be as quite as possible, without ever actually engaging the enemy. 

The only issue here is that the player has a gun, and when given a gun, the world tends to seem a lot less scarry. 

And so, a rework is in order, because we couldn't just take the player's gun away; they needed it in the first level. And since melee combat is an option, there's no real way to ensue the amount of ammo a player has when beginning an engagement. 

Our solution? Combine the first two levels into a single, larger level, incorporating elements from the design of both and merging them so that the player is restricted in the way we need them to be, without just stripping them of he mechanics we've taught them.