I was surprised at how much players seemed to like my level. They said there was some decent challenge although it only took them around five minutes each to complete. No players had too much trouble beating the level so I worry if I made it too easy. All three playtests reported on enjoying the level though.
What went right was various traps I had set up for them. As the players explored they would find various parts of the maps I purposely set up to trap them. They'd fall for things, for not die completely, and instead just adjust and learn from mistakes. So in my underwater section, two out of the three playtesters were hit by the laser gun on the roof after defeating the squid, which is exactly what I had wanted for them. They quickly memorized the shooting pattern for that laser to get past it, which was fun to watch. They also did not report too much difficulty and a good amount of variety throughout the level, they never felt bored and always felt like something new and interesting was coming up, something I tried hard to make sure of.
I did get some negative findings though during one part of the level, which was in the second building the player had to explore. This building was mostly simple, but one puzzle I underestimated how players would traverse. There was no checkpoint before this part, but luckily it was close towards the beginning of the level. This obstacle included two ways to instantly die as the player, which looking back now, was obviously too high of stakes. This would have been more interesting towards the end of the level rather than the beginning.
I also underestimated player's knowledge of the controls, I thought they would know they could slide over gaps to clear them, but two players jumped and fell in the pit their first time. While jumping works to clear the gap, it is much more difficult. Additionally, after getting the key behind the ceiling spikes, it can be hard to time the slide to get back out. I could have stopped this by adding an extra path straight to the blue door with another blue door, otherwise inaccessible as the player wouldn't have the blue key without going this route. This is what I will do next time to lower the chances of players dying early. I also think these spikes are a great way to make the level more difficult though and have the players spend more time on my level. I think next try, I will add an entire jumping section with many spikes and checkpoints, so that players can learn how to dodge these without worrying about starting over too much.
Another thing that went very well was the first room, while it doesn't seem like much, this level was fun for players to interact with if they were new, and if they weren't new (one out of three of my playtesters), they spent more time here learning about the enemy's attacks. The person who knew this game blew through this room quickly. This room was a great starter as it offers some things to teach if the player needs it, but also doesn't waste their time if they don't. While I don't think this is necessary in every level, I do think it was a cool feature.
Players reported the flow as feeling like they moved from section to section, instead of one fluid level. I don't know if I like this or not, but they didn't say it was a bad thing, so I'm okay with that. The theme for this level was western, and the reason I organized it by room was to create the feel of a western town with a small set of buildings. The final room takes up multiple scenes as well as the boss fight.
The player always knew where to go, as I gave them a simple left to right schemed level, although this did restrict from the players ability to make choices. I don't regret this but I think this can be fun in the future, once I understand this level builder more I want to attempt this. The critical path was very obvious, but it didn't allow from branches and alternate routes to be taken. Challenges were relatively appropriate for the player but I think a new spike section with a new checkpoint would server great to help the player spend more time on the level.
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