3D Game 1 (revised)

This is the second version of my 3D game. It's meant to be a Sci-Fi Jungle.

What went right?

With the updated path, it was still obvious where to go. Players did not get lost. There were not that many paths for players to take, since it is an easy tutorial level. Furthermore, because of this, I thought it would be a good idea to reduce the amount of mini-paths to take, so that the player won’t miss anything important.

I added more InfoZones, and also clarified pre-existing ones. For example, now that when the player reaches the final puzzle, it says, “Maybe there are more of these switches somewhere,” instead of reteaching the player how the switches work. This makes more sense for the context, since players might not know some things only activate from multiple switches.

One playtester last time noticed you can skip parts of level by climbing over walls. I added an invisible ceiling, so that now there is no way to jump over the mountain/ walls. No play tester so far has been able to cheat this level.

Enemies no longer go through walls. I didn’t realize that walls need an extra component to make it solid for enemies.

There is a bit more of a challenge now though, and at least a couple more interesting decisions to make. I added more acid platforming, since I noticed players enjoyed that. Now in order to reach the first teleport, you need to activate the moving platform. The moving platform moves over a pool of acid. This is not very challenging for players, but it does make it feel more dangerous.

I expanded on the final puzzle. Originally, there were three switches right next to each other, so all you had to do was walk past them. This was boring. Now, I moved two of the switches. You need to backtrack the acid pool in order to find them. I also made the moving platforms larger and slower, so that it is more fair. Enemies shoot at you, and you need to make sure you time your jumps right. This felt dangerous, but simple at the same time.

What went wrong?

Instead of choosing between fighting enemies and healing versus progressing, I force the player to fight enemies, and make it so the switch to progress is near a health pack. In retrospect, I realize there is only one good decision to make still, because once you play the level for the second time you’ll know that you have to go to the right and press the switch. It would have been a better idea to keep the switch to the left and a health pack to the right.

Figuring out what the teleport locations were were still not obvious for players. There is still not much of an indication that it is a teleport. I added black to the insides of the teleport, so that it looks more like a door. About half of the players knew what it was for, but the others did not really get it still.

How to improve next time?

Add more indicators to the teleporter. For example, adding particle effects to make it look more science fictional.

I would add more tight corners, so that the enemy fights are forced. This would add more risk of dying.

I could make it so that you can teleport both ways. Right now, you can only teleport from one-side, and are stuck.

I would add even more platforming sections over acid.

The level size could increase overall. I have played many other levels, and realized mine is comparatively small.