This was another assignment on making a Megaman level. This time the requirements were a jungle scene that gave the player multiple weapon abilities to play with. It had to take ten minutes for a new player to test, which made it difficult to find testers as I had already asked all my closest friends, but nonetheless I found new players to test this level.
This level had to be set in a jungle so I had to get creative with the map building pieces I used since MegaMan doesn't have many leaf blocks. I first drew out a diagram to plan my level, I wanted it to have a different pathway rather than the standard "left to right" platformer style. This diagram shows what I meant for the map to play like:
I wanted to explore this snake-like shape for the level. I hoped it would have the players intrigued as they got to explore the cave system underneath the jungle and then the canopy above the jungle floor. We have been learning about immersion lately and while there isn't many ways we can explore this I went back and thought of platformers I used to play when I was a kid. I always enjoyed being able to explore some underground area or go above in the clouds because it felt like I got to explore the universe that much more. This is the main reason I made this decision.
Some new ideas I had for this level included moving platforms and rising elevators, as well as continued use of the spikes and jumping sections. This is mostly because these things are fun for me to make and I like watching the player learn the rules of these obstacles. I also am not the biggest fan of the enemies Megaman Maker has to offer, so I like to make challenges in other ways too.
This next drawing was a quick concept we had to draw up for our level. While it doesn't describe much of the tiles I was able to work with for the level, it does accurately describe the color choices I made. I wanted to illustrate green as leaves and canopy and brown as the jungle floor. This would help the player identify where they were if they were lost. I didn't include a cave in my concept unfortunately, but in the level builder I chose to go with a dark orange for the underground which worked well.
My testers said they enjoyed the layout of my level a lot. They liked the direction the level took and how it spiraled around itself. They didn't have much trouble with the majority of parts, but there was two specific parts that players messed up on constantly. While they were polite, I could tell that they were frustrating parts of the level I overlooked that needed work.
This was the first section players had trouble with. This was likely the worst part of my level. This section can be found at the halfway point underground. It is hard to see in a screenshot, but the player stands on a platform that quickly moves from right to left. The platform approaches a wall with spikes which kills the player every time. The player needs to jump over these spikes and land back on the platform to continue. The main issue with this isn't the difficulty in this task, but the task that I assumed the player would do. Megaman can't move across this top platform quickly enough to meet the moving platform on the other side. Megaman needs to slide on the top platform to gain a speed boost and meet the platform. This was knowledge that the first time players did not have and resulted in me having to tell two of them to slide. This part can easily be fixed by adding a second moving platform that waits for the player on the other side, instead of requiring the player ride the same platform they used before.
This section was also difficult for many players because in order to pass this shell enemy below, they had to jump and use their tornado ability to kill him. It is much easier to do this with a firing ability, but the tornado ability is very weak against these enemies because timing the attack can be very difficult. Long story short, players died here more times than I expected and this shouldn't be too hard of a spot to pass. I can fix this next time by providing either a different ability or having a different enemy defend this platform.
Besides these two slip ups, the players had a fairly easy time progressing through this level and seemed to enjoy any parts that weren't these ones. I would also love to expand on the moving platforms and conveyor belts, as I think I can do some even cooler things with them. The playtime timed out to an average of thirteen minutes, but I think if I make some parts easier I can get closer to a ten minute level for beginners.
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