Level Showcase
The pyramid is a tutorial level where I was tasked to create a level using modular pieces for block outs and documentation for my training task at Virtuos Kuala Lumpur.
Challenge type: Exploration, Puzzle, Tutorial
Summary of the level:
You play as a treasure hunter where you explore and survive within the pyramid to obtain the final treasure with a puzzle encounter focus gameplay.
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Grappling Hooks- Attach to certain walls for traversal
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Whip - Pull smaller or medium objects to certain direction
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Puzzle Tile/Activator- Open certain doors once on top of the it
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Hold the small puzzle prop- Grab small prop on hand
Features are needed for the level
2D Level Layout
Level Design
Level Design Thought Process:
For the level I have broken the level into a few rooms where each room has each event prepared for the player to experience which are:
1. The Treasure Room
2. Seal Room A
3.Seal Room B
4. Hallway to trap room
5.Trap Room
6. Chamber of Gallery
7.Hallway to treasure toom
The Treasure Room
2D layout of treasure Room and in game level
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Description:
The player notices there is a treasure (fake goal) at the end of the room. The player will walk forward and once activate the trap. The player will feel from the treasure room all the way towards the seal room where the player needs to use the grappling hook feature to stay alive. The system will prompt a button for the player to interact to activate the grappling hook.
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Thought process: Since this level is to serve as a tutorial section of the game and I wanted the player to experience the thrill of an adventure genre, I purposely setup the traps near the fake goal, so the player would understand that traps (fallen tiles) is one of the obstacles and second, the uses of grappling hook as a feature for traversal.
Seal Room A
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Description:
When the player first land on the Seal Room A, the player will see a door that is temporary sealed and there are 3 puzzle hints and 3 puzzle small props in each in their respective position, The player will also notice there are some empty tiles that is blocking the player from moving towards the puzzle props. The system will now teach the player to use the whip to pull the prop towards the player’s hand or tie it and aim towards the direction of where it’s suppose to land. With that information, the player now can based on the puzzle hints and place the puzzle prop on it’s designated position and unlock the door to proceed to the next room
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Puzzle encounter flow for Seal Room A:
Example of the puzzle encounter in-game screenshot:
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Thought process:
The thought process of this room is to show the player that the types of puzzles that they will encounters and it is to also teach player the usage of the feature: "whip", to pull props on to their hand and aim the prop on a certain direction. The puzzle is easy on this room in order for the player to understand the mechanics and puzzle encounters.
Seal Room B
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Description:
When the player procced to Seal Room B, they would notice the previous puzzles pattern from the Seal Room A are the same but there are medium-sized puzzle props which require the usage of whip but the player would need to swing and aim towards it to pull to the direction the player’s desire. Ultimately, the player’s puzzle goal is to move the medium and small puzzle props to their designated activator and all door will be unlocked revealing the traps for the trap door and the correct door to progress. However, everytime a part of the puzzle activator have been correctly placed, the part of the door will be unlocked but some doors might open halfway or stutter to give hints to the player that the door is a trap.
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Puzzle encounter flow for Seal Room B:
Example of the puzzle encounter in-game screenshot:
Player's Hint for trap room and how the the correct puzzle prop position should match with the same wall hint
Small-sized puzzle prop hint, puzzle activator, uncrossable path, and medium-sized prop scatter around the room
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Thought process:
The difficulty has slightly increased with the introduction of medium sized puzzle props where the player learn to pull the props into their designated activator. Not only that, there are traps doors within the rooms to continue to emphasis on the adventure theme the level is going for where players also need to be wary and pay attention to the environment hints the level is providing.
Hallway to Trap Room
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Description:
When player escape from Seal Room B and arrived to Hallway to Trap Room, player will notice an uncrossable path that prevents the player from progressing further. The player now needs to use a grappling hook on a certain attachable pillar to pull himself towards the entrance of the “Trap Room”.
Example of the in-game screenshot:
Player required to use grappling hook to attach to the gray pillar to cross overcome the obstacles.
2. Thought process: The player will remember the usage of grappling hook during the fall from the treasure room towards the seal room A and understand that grappling hook usage is for traversal and currently the level introduce an attachable pillar to let player familiarize on which object can be use for grappling hook for traversal.
Trap Room
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Description:
Once the player reached towards the trap room and head towards the entrance towards the Chamber of Gallery . An event will prompt when the player is near the entrance towards chamber of gallery where a worshipper will kick the player back to the room where the room now have empty tiles. The player hangs on from falling to its death and continue explore the area. The player now will encounter puzzle that required moving small-sized puzzle props (same within Seal Room A) based on the hint provided using whip and usage to grappling hook to traversal around the room since now there are obstacles blocking the player.
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Puzzle encounter flow for Trap Room:
Example of the puzzle encounter in-game screenshot:
Figure puzzle hints for the desired props and the activators
Some places are blocked and required using grappling hook to reach the unreachable path
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Thought process:
The level started to introduce a combination of both puzzle encounter for moving small props based on hints and traversal to help player understand that not only the difficulty have slightly increased but also let player understand that in future levels, there are puzzles involved combination of traversal and puzzle to solve.
Chamber of Gallery
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Description:
Once the player will find that the final big door within the chamber is sealed and this door can only be unlocked once the puzzle within chamber A has been solved. However the 3 out of the 4 treasures within Chamber A is not present and need to find a way to locate all of the three treasures. The player manages to find a hallway that leads the him/her towards the other sub chambers (Chamber B).
Once each of the chamber puzzle have been sealed, each respective chamber B,C & D treasure will be unlocked and player need to grab all 3 treasures and head towards the Chamber A to place those treasure on top of the puzzle activator and to rearrange the sequence of the 4 treasures to complete the picture. Once completed, the final door will be unlocked. The player will now head back towards the treasure room using the stairs in "Hallway of Treasure Room
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Chamber of Gallery Acess Route flow:
Chamber A (Notice missing items and required to head to other chambers) → Chamber B → Chamber D → Chamber C → Chamber A
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Chamber B:
Puzzle encounter flow for Chamber B:
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Chamber D:
Puzzle encounter flow for Chamber D:
Medium-sized puzzle props blocking the player path towards Chamber C as hints to move them away
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Chamber C:
Puzzle encounter flow for Chamber C:
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Chamber A:
Puzzle encounter flow for Chamber A:
Thought Process:
The goal of this room is to signify the final goal of the level, therefore I made the area more traversal areas and have main lobby of it’s own for the chamber very near with some mini chambers doors being sealed off which indicate rewards behind those chambers.Not only that when player reached towards the mini chambers, there are puzzles that the player are already familiarize from the start of the level which are :
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Placed Small sized puzzle props by using whip or hand at the correct puzzle activator
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Medium sized puzzle props by using whip at the correct puzzle activator
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Grappling hook for traversal across missing tiles
The player will be familiarize of the loop of solving one chamber of puzzle in order to grab a treasure from each of the chamber and head towards the initial open chamber A to solve the puzzle. The last puzzle is slight different from the rest to ensure player will experience something new at the end of the level.
Hallway to Treasure Room
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Description:
While the player is on route back to the "Treasure room", the floor will start to crumble once the worshipper reveals himself after the player reaches the middle of "the hallway to treasure room" and starts sinking the depths of the chamber, the player needs to keep running and use the grappling hook or whip to catch on the final pillar and pull himself on to the top floor (the intended route). The objective will be completed once the player has successfully used the grappling hook and attached it to one of the walls
Example of the in-game screenshot:
Player required to use grappling hook to attach to the gray pillar to cross over the finnish line.
2. Thought process: This final event is to let player experience the adventure theme of the level of barely escaping the death of exploring around the pyramid and serve as a climax end of the level to make player remember the thrill of the level after some down time of just puzzle solving at the previous room.
1. Difficulty puzzle increases for a tutorial level
When I was designing this tutorial level for my training, I have to introduce tools for player to overcome the puzzle encounters while ensure the player would not get overloaded on too many variation of the puzzles that can happen in the level. Therefore, I try making the puzzle encounter easy at first and slowly increases the puzzle by using the same concept. However, it can make the player feel that the puzzle is repititive and hard for no reason at the start of the game. Thus, I made it as the player progresses through each door, I would like player to learn the previous puzzles encounter loop by facing it again in the next room but I increase the difficulty by introducing a new feature to overcome certain obstacles and at the same time solve the puzzle encounter
(Example: Player have to use whip to pull a small puzzle prop that is out of reach while player can also use hand if the small puzzle prop is in reachable distance)