Developer Introspective

One of my first task while working on Chrono Dungeons was to design and create our tutorial. I was excited for this because tutorials, or the first level, serves not only as the introduction to your game, but helps players understand how the game you made works. So I drew up a few layouts and landed on one I thought was solid (Photo 1).

Far from perfect, I realized that what you have on paper may not work in game. A few problems had to be addressed. To start the level is extremely short and claustrophobic. There is not much room to move around and enemies could dog pile you pretty quickly despite the level being easy (Photo 2). In a bullet hell game like this the level design needs to have a balance between giving the player space to play while also keeping the room compact enough to make your enemies stand out. In some cases the design should focus on the enemy and not the player. 

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Speaking of the Time Gem, as said it allows the players to slow down time to help them deal with sticky situations. In photo 2, you can see a small green dot and that is out Time Gem the player will pick up to gain the power to slow down time. And as you can see (Photo 3), having the item that gives you your main ability shouldn't just be at the end of the room not even dedicated to it. I realized it needed a room of its own that felt like it belong in there. You have to introduce your main mechanic in a way that the player will remember and level design plays a huge part in that. This room wouldn't be fully realized till our final release (Release 3). 

So now the time gem got its own room! (Photo 1) To start, I wanted to make sure our time stop ability was shown to be important through its location in the level, and the enemy placements. This was vital because many play testers at the time either completely forgot they could stop time and others didn't even realize they picked up the gem. I knew this was my fault because the level design and overall design of the level didn't present the mechanic correctly.

In my personal opinion, a great tutorial level doesn't tell you how to play, instead I want the player to explore their new abilities through the level and face challenges that are designed to not only teach the player, but help them understand the importance of their new mechanic through challenges that are difficult but easy to overcome. Sadly the level design did not do that correctly. ​​