Spacing and Pacing

This week we had a pretty big change in terms of level design. Instead of giving the players all of their abilities inside the first room, we spread them out over the level.

We made this change to spread out the progression o powers that the player gets over the entire level, instead of focusing it at the beginning. Formerly, the player would get all of their powers, then go off and explore the level to find all the keys they needed to get through the main door and clear the level. This caused a sense of one big collection quest. By spreading the powers out, we spread out that sense of getting more powerful throughout the entire level, adding to the exploration and combat. Different areas are blocked off until the player gets the right abilities to overcome them, creating smaller "locked" pathways that the player wonders what's down until they get the ability to reach it.

Overall, this slight change really changed how the level flowed. Now the player has more time to learn each ability, and actively seeks each new power out in order to open up the level more.