Gobblepocalypse

I was the level and narrative designer for this project.

Level Design

Since our game was targeted at speed runners, I had to ensure that every level had two golden paths - one for speed runners and one for the average player. The way I differentiated their playstyles was the type of movements they would use. Since the movement mechanic was sling shotting, speed runners would prefer to launch themselves via curved trajectories while average players would prefer to launch themselves via straight trajectories.

When designing the level, I first started with detailing the environmental hazards that would serve as obstacles for the player. These hazards come in two forms: spikes and the void.

The above image is the golden path for speedrunners who would use curved line slingshots to traverse the map.

The above image is the golden path for the average player who would use straight line slingshots to traverse the map.

Spikes

I first laid out where spikes could exist and ways players could avoid it. Then according to the golden path, I used spikes to push players in a certain direction, guiding their movements to reach the end goal.

The collider on the spikes is also as accurate to the outline of the spikes as possible to ensure players only die when they truly touch the spikes.

The dark red space represents the void in game. The dark red colour was picked as it had the best contrast against all the level background colours and we wanted to keep the colour of the void consistent.

Example of an early level layout sketch.
The void back then would be interspersed between the bottommost platforms but we decided to have the void span the entire bottom of the level to increase the difficult of the game.

The Void

The other hazard is the standard platformer hazard - falling out of the map. When designing the levels, I placed some platforms far down below to catch players who fall and are unable to launch themselves back up, helping to increase the amount of time they have to launch themselves onto a nearby platform.

Normal platforms are orange in colour.

Bouncy platforms were later changed to bright blue due to the Amalgamation boss already being red.

Sticky platforms are a bright green colour.

Disappearing platforms are lighter in colour than their counterparts.

Platform Types

There are four types of platforms in Gobblepocalypse - normal, sticky, bouncy and disappearing.

Normal platforms are the majority of the platforms in each level and provide a space for players to land on before launching themselves again.

Sticky platforms allow the player to stick to them, creating vertical rest points for players.

Bouncy platforms allow the player to bounce off them, getting more height so that they can launch themselves further.

Disappearing platforms can be any of the above types, but have an additional trait of disappearing when The Bar has been depleted.

The image above shows a Bar that is empty.

The image above shows a Bar that is about half filled.

Checkpoints

Checkpoints prevent the player from having to restart the entire level upon death. Thus, the placement of checkpoints have to be along the golden paths of both speed runners and average players. This is why most checkpoints are at the intersection of both golden paths.

In the level sketch, the purple flags are the checkpoints, the yellow line is the golden path for speed runners and the grey line is the golden path for average players.

Collectables

Players have to collect paint buckets, also known as Collectables, to restore The Bar.

When placing Collectables around the level, I made sure that the average player would have more along their path compared to the speed runner as the average player would be spending more time in the level and thus deplete The Bar more often.

Updating level 1 after play testing it.

Testing in the editor the minimum width needed for players to pass through between platforms and/or spikes. This allows for faster creation of the level according to scale.

Level Iterations

When designing levels, I first map out the golden path(s), then fill in the platforms, items before finally putting it into the editor. This allows me to go from macro to micro, ensuring that the level is centered around a particular theme or mechanic. This method also naturally allows me to revisit the level multiple times, giving me more opportunities to revise and adjust the level layout.

Narrative Design

When we first started on this project, we had no narrative direction we were aiming for but had an idea of what game mechanics we wanted in the game. From there, it was up to me to use those mechanics and the art assets to craft a narrative that tied everything together.

Since the artists wanted the characters in the game to be simple shapes, the easiest thing to do was set the game in a world populated by shape people. Since the boss would try to devour the player character, the boss could be on a quest to devour the shape people and the player character needed to rescue them whilst not being eaten themselves. The boss' body would have the imprint of the shapes it has devoured, adding to its menacing factor. This gave rise to its name - The Amalgamation.

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