This was the second level we had to make with a Unity level maker kit.
I wanted this level to have more verticality incorporated into it, so to do this I made the floor almost entirely acid. This meant the player had to move upwards and if they fell they died. This level was meant to be a hard difficulty. All the players liked this and said it was unique compared to the other levels they had played.
First the player has to traverse this bridge while being shot at by the projectile enemies. No players had trouble with this part of the level. This was a good intro for what was to come, this level required good control of the character and jumping abilities. This level had some combat in it which seemed to mostly just get in the way. The gamekit that was used for this Unity project isn't very good, especially with combat. It is mostly just annoying for players to engage in combat, so future plans for this level will see enemies removed.
The player is met with many jumps that are 7-8 blocks wide. These jumps are hard and leave little room for error, if you fall, the pit of acid is below to reset you to the beginning of the level. Any switches or enemies killed (progress made) is saved, but the player will have to perform the entire course again to get to where they were at. No checkpoints were used to increase difficulty, but it seemed like that just made the level boring over time, so I will add some new checkpoints in the next version of this level. The enemies on the other side were terrible at fighting the player and easy to kill. Additionally the fighting mechanics when used with movement in this gamekit is janky and feels awful to use, so I think I will remove these enemies and replace them with some other obstacle.
This switch across the way was easy for players to see, but they ended up finding it after engaging the bridge to it. Essentially the players saw the goal after they had already achieved it. This was bad and needs to be adjusted in the next version of the level.
After pressing this next button the players move on upwards to the second floor of the level. This is done with an elevator upwards and a small jumping course.
Many players found this specific part frustrating. It featured many walls sliding back and forth to knock the player off the bridge, as well as some shooting enemies in between them. There was many problems with this area and it needs to be adjusted in the future. Firstly, some walls move too fast to move past. My solution for this was jumping over them, but most players said this was weird and misleading. Why walk through the first few walls if you're meant to jump over the last ones that move too fast? This was a great point and I will likely slow down these walls in the future. I also will increase their heights so that the player can't jump over the walls.
Also, the projectile enemies were annoying to deal with. Once again, the combat in this Unity bundle is terrible and difficult to deal with in a very unfun way. This means I won't be using these enemies in my next version. Additionally, the projectile enemies from earlier in the level can reach up here and help add to the difficulty. While I liked this, this seemed like too much of a challenge to the players.
Finally, this section had moving walls that succeeded the goal. So you could traverse further into these walls further than you were meant to. This was my fault and a complete oversight, this will be adjusted in the future so that the end of the moving wall course will be the area the player needs to be to progress further.
This next section was fine for the players, it just featured a moving platform to the switch they needed to access. It was a little boring, so I have some ideas to make it more interesting in the future.
This switch activates a ramp that moves towards the wall. This ramp goes back and forth, making timing key to make this jump. Most players found this difficult, but I think the amount of difficulty was fine. I think I can move this wall in the way in the future to make the jump more clear and the player's path more obvious.
What also should be noted is the ramp is angled in this direction. This means if the player chooses to stand on it and wait for it to come back around, they will fall off. They will stick on the platform as it moves backwards because the platform will push them, but once it switches directions the player will fall off as there is no surface available to push them the other way. This leads to the player falling straight into the acid floor.
Here is an example of how the starting projectile monsters can hit the player from almost anywhere on the map. This was more a problem than anything and their range should be adjusted because of it.
The rest of the level was more boring than anything. The players had no trouble with it but I think it's a good opportunity for me to add some more obstacles, maybe a final section adding up the players skills they've learning through the level. I think this would add some more minutes to the level, as most players finished the level in 8 minutes, when we are required to have at least 10 minutes of playtime.
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