07-09-2010, 11:24 PM
Well, I decided to only put gameplay because it's the most solid thing to say. But ok, I'll put level design here, even though some of it will be "yadda yadda new games suck because level design uses 'x' and doesn't use 'y' that older games does".
I imagined each zone having three acts. Each 'act' or level, wouldn't be a plane with deathpits or invisible walls limiting the level, oh no. Each level would be a sphere. Not multiple planets like in Super Mario Galaxy, but just one, really big planet. It's how I came up to avoid invisible walls or having a stage which is surrounded by void or water that if you fall, you die.
Being spherical is not only to avoid that or to be stylistic, but it also plays an important role in level design: Your starting point is in one of the globe's poles, and the end of the level is on the exact opposite pole of yours. You can just go (more or less) straightforward to the end of the level, but then you would only explore 1/8 of it! I'm kinda basing this level design over Sonic CD, which, although straight-forward - letting you beat the level without having to turn back, had a lot of exploration, if you were willing to explore, because if not, you can just beat the level the easy way and go forward. It's more or less like this here - you can just beat the level by going forward, or you can explore it. Exploration is rewarded though - you can collect stuff and unlock things by exploring the levels as much as you can, and you can even find shortcuts to beat your own time.
Not all stages follow this specific idea in the "one trail from a pole to another" way, though. There will be stages that the level design is entirely different (while still following the concept of the start point and the end point of a level being on opposite poles and of different paths of exploration), like for example, a stage of different "levels" of altitude around a smaller globe, and the most "easy" (but longer) way to clear is to go all over through the labirintic bottom level until you get to the other pole, or you can get to higher levels and explore some, while getting a more straightforward way to the other pole.
Needless to say that dashpads/speed boosters are entirely out of question, since i'm basing level and game design heavily on the classics' bases - which are based of momentum.
In a game that rewards you for building up momentum and to keep your speed, a gimmick that instantly gives you speed and that appears everytime in a level does not have place here. "What about horizontal springs? Don't they work the same way that dashpads do?" Nope, it doesn't. Horizontal springs gives you instant speed, too, but in order to use them, it's entirely different than dashpads. Dashpads are just there on the ground, and they reward you speed by just going over them - that is, by just advancing through the level. What is the point of having the hard work of keeping your speed, if there's a dashpad there that will give you - whose already has speed, and someone else that didn't, a speed boost that will equal your speeds? Now imagine this everywhere, there's no work of keeping your speed or trying to unaccelerate, because by just advancing the level you are always rewarded speed.
Horizontal springs are there when you need to go through a structure that requires certain speed to go through, like loopings, but you don't have enough speed, and there's little space so that you can build up yourself. So you have to break, stop, turn back, and then bounce on the spring, which makes you lose a lot of time compared to someone who already has such speed and goes through the looping easily. It's a punishment to the player that couldn't keep a high speed.
Level gimmicks that plays with physics and speed are a huge part of classic Sonic, and they are here. Each level has its own set of level gimmicks and own badniks/enemies. Along with the level design, each Zone will feel entirely different from another because of such great differences they have on these three elements.
Alongside the first two acts, a small third act with a boss, you have small straightforward acts that are more like "missions", like "there's this platforming section that you have to go through with the Speed Sneakers, and also here's this time limit too". They're small challenges, basically, that explores something specific about the gameplay or the level gimmicks.
I imagined each zone having three acts. Each 'act' or level, wouldn't be a plane with deathpits or invisible walls limiting the level, oh no. Each level would be a sphere. Not multiple planets like in Super Mario Galaxy, but just one, really big planet. It's how I came up to avoid invisible walls or having a stage which is surrounded by void or water that if you fall, you die.
Being spherical is not only to avoid that or to be stylistic, but it also plays an important role in level design: Your starting point is in one of the globe's poles, and the end of the level is on the exact opposite pole of yours. You can just go (more or less) straightforward to the end of the level, but then you would only explore 1/8 of it! I'm kinda basing this level design over Sonic CD, which, although straight-forward - letting you beat the level without having to turn back, had a lot of exploration, if you were willing to explore, because if not, you can just beat the level the easy way and go forward. It's more or less like this here - you can just beat the level by going forward, or you can explore it. Exploration is rewarded though - you can collect stuff and unlock things by exploring the levels as much as you can, and you can even find shortcuts to beat your own time.
Not all stages follow this specific idea in the "one trail from a pole to another" way, though. There will be stages that the level design is entirely different (while still following the concept of the start point and the end point of a level being on opposite poles and of different paths of exploration), like for example, a stage of different "levels" of altitude around a smaller globe, and the most "easy" (but longer) way to clear is to go all over through the labirintic bottom level until you get to the other pole, or you can get to higher levels and explore some, while getting a more straightforward way to the other pole.
Needless to say that dashpads/speed boosters are entirely out of question, since i'm basing level and game design heavily on the classics' bases - which are based of momentum.
In a game that rewards you for building up momentum and to keep your speed, a gimmick that instantly gives you speed and that appears everytime in a level does not have place here. "What about horizontal springs? Don't they work the same way that dashpads do?" Nope, it doesn't. Horizontal springs gives you instant speed, too, but in order to use them, it's entirely different than dashpads. Dashpads are just there on the ground, and they reward you speed by just going over them - that is, by just advancing through the level. What is the point of having the hard work of keeping your speed, if there's a dashpad there that will give you - whose already has speed, and someone else that didn't, a speed boost that will equal your speeds? Now imagine this everywhere, there's no work of keeping your speed or trying to unaccelerate, because by just advancing the level you are always rewarded speed.
Horizontal springs are there when you need to go through a structure that requires certain speed to go through, like loopings, but you don't have enough speed, and there's little space so that you can build up yourself. So you have to break, stop, turn back, and then bounce on the spring, which makes you lose a lot of time compared to someone who already has such speed and goes through the looping easily. It's a punishment to the player that couldn't keep a high speed.
Level gimmicks that plays with physics and speed are a huge part of classic Sonic, and they are here. Each level has its own set of level gimmicks and own badniks/enemies. Along with the level design, each Zone will feel entirely different from another because of such great differences they have on these three elements.
Alongside the first two acts, a small third act with a boss, you have small straightforward acts that are more like "missions", like "there's this platforming section that you have to go through with the Speed Sneakers, and also here's this time limit too". They're small challenges, basically, that explores something specific about the gameplay or the level gimmicks.
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