Parasitic Sprint 4 Blog Post

Parasitic Level Design Post#4

My tasks in Sprint 4 revolved around finishing my first level and starting a new one. The cards assigned to me this sprint are: 

• "As a level designer, I need to add enemies from the project into my scene based off of the annotated map"
• "As a level designer, I need an asset list for the Dead Forest level that shares the asset theme from the meadow level but this time more decayed"
• "As a level designer, I need to annotate a large Dead Forest level that starts with our heros having to maneuver a maze before finding the exit that leads to an arena for a mini boss battle"
• "As a level designer, I need to block out a large Dead Forest level that starts with our heros having to maneuver a maze before finding the exit that leads to an arena for a mini boss battle"
• "As a level designer, I need to populate the Dead Forest level with current assets to get the tone of the level established"
• "As a level designer, I need to create clear boundaries for the player to restrict going off path."
• "As a level designer, I need to playtest my level to check for discrepancies so the level flows smoothly."

 The first two cards I finished for this sprint was the card for the asset list and the annotated map for the new level. I did these two cards first because we were still waiting on some enemies and assets from the programmers and the artists. I got both cards done fairly fast. The asset list was fairly simple since the level's theme was a "dead forest", I mainly just needed different variations of dead trees or leaf-less trees and maybe more foliage. Though we do have several nature assets that I used for my first level and those can be used for this new level as well. The annotated map went through one iteration before it was approved. My first draft of it was too simple and some of the feedback I got about it was that it needed to be more maze-like and I should also add a legend for the different buff tiles. 

Initial Concept of Level

I quickly went back into photoshop to make it more complex and added in a few more tiles. The way this version works is similar to my first level where the player has three paths of varying difficulty where they can travel through. But unlike my previous level, the paths aren't as straightforward and direct and the difficulty varies a lot more. I also did a fog of war version of it to show how it would look like for the player and where the pockets of enemies would be at. 

Final Concept of Level

Fog of War Version

After those two cards, I went back to my first level and finished implementing the remaining enemies as well as adding the buff tile assets around the level and finally, playtesting-playtesting-playtesting. It took roughly 30 minutes to finish the level and around 100 round each time. My level was surprisingly difficult if you play too aggressively. The way the level is designed is that there technically are three pathways with three pockets of enemies each. The three characters the player controls should stick together because defeating one pocket of enemies alone is very difficult especially if those pockets housed any of the harder enemies such as the charger and stalker. It was decided that the charger enemy will be removed from the level.

100 rounds to win

The cards I have left are: 

• "As a level designer, I need to block out a large Dead Forest level that starts with our heros having to maneuver a maze before finding the exit that leads to an arena for a mini boss battle"
• "As a level designer, I need to populate the Dead Forest level with current assets to get the tone of the level established"
• "As a level designer, I need to create clear boundaries for the player to restrict going off path."
• "As a level designer, I need to playtest my level to check for discrepancies so the level flows smoothly."

The card I'm currently working on is blocking out the level. Next, I'll be working on populating the level based on the annotated map. I feel that I'm making steady progress and I hope to finish this new level by the end of the next sprint. So until then, ciao!