Continued to work on World 3 today. The last time I made this level was back in the summer, I think, so it’s quite rough. It has been very interesting to return to it with fresh eyes and new knowledge about level design.
For example, I use to have this set of stairs that would go down, followed by a flat area, and then a set of stairs going upwards gain. It felt quite weird playing it this time. So what I did was changed the second set of stairs to go down as well, and that made the whole thing feel much better.
I think it’s because it continues the mindset of descending, as opposed to breaking it. Also, you don’t usually see a set of stairs going up again after just going down in real life, so it may just be something ingrained in our psychology.
Anyway, I really love this stuff about level design.
Also been tweaking lighting. The key to making shadows look stronger is not just to
Here are a bunch of pictures of the work-in-progress level:
Also had a idea for a cool easter egg now that I’ve got the in-game console: a text adventure that can only be played via console. I think the only thing kind of close to this is in Call of Duty, where if you find a computer in the environment, you can play Zork on it.
But that’s not quite the same thing. I’m thinking of almost like a meta-narrative type thing. Since pulling up the terminal is already breaking the 4th wall, I could sort of play with that. Maybe have some kind of sentient AI figure correspond with the player?
“You’re a nosy one, aren’t you?”
It would be quite a bit of work to do it well though.
Anyway, having a console definitely opens up a whole world with regards to hiding secrets.
Today’s perfect loop:
