L. Mendoza

Level Design 1-1

For the primary game software engine I used “I Wanna Maker” to show off the level design and I took inspiration from Mario Bros level 1-1.
The game was created by a team of 2.

Stage Narrative

  1. The player starts the game by walking forward a few steps (jumping around and swinging the sword) and is immediately greeted by an idle Bird. The player will notice an arc of coins that ends on top of the Bird. If they’ve played any sort of Super Mario game, then the player will have the assumption that jumping on the Bird will be like jumping on a Goomba. The player learns to jump and what jumping on Birds do.
  2. The player can either progress through the level by continuing to go right or satiate their curiosity scaling up the platforms. A coin line is present and it is arranged like a wave, which indicates that the player is able to double jump. Double jumping is a mechanic that will relieve the player as they have another opportunity to jump to either cross bigger gaps or prevent mistakes. They will continue to scale the platforms until they see a parachute, which provides the affordance of slowing down the fall speed. This gives the player a sense of excitement as they are gliding down and gathering the shield and the line of coins.
  3. In this little area, the player will now see that the Bird is moving. This warns the player that the Birds from now on are capable of being mobile.
  4. The player should be worried about seeing the menacing looking Killers floating in the air. Mario games would give them the impression that these blocks function like Thwomp and making contact with them in general is a negative interaction. A likely careful player would slowly progress past each Killer as they fall, possibly annoyed if they managed to get killed by one of them. However, they would be enticed by the sparkling buff that is just out of reach, as they wonder how they would get that and what it does.
  5. A wooden box is presented in front of the player, if they bump into it they notice it could be pushed. The player will also come across a tall ledge that cannot be scaled even with double jumping holding the jump button down for the max duration. Either they would use the box to provide extra space for jumping and not hitting the low ceiling or climbing the vines.
    If the player is more of an explorer, they would notice they can navigate to the left and would be able to grab the buff a bit prior. They would feel determined to go through the challenge of jumping on small footholds and possibly be surprised that the Killers would rise up to kill them. The player would feel accomplished getting to the buff, realizing that the buff has made them bigger hence they have more range with their sword attack.
  6. The player comes across bottomless pits, so they will feel the need to be cautious about not falling into them.
  7. However, they will also find the save button, providing a checkpoint that will bring the player much relief. By activating the save, the player will no longer respawn to the beginning when they die.
  8. This is where there’s another instance of branching level design. Either the player can go low traversing the ground or high on the platforms. The presence of the Birds on the ground may make players anxious.
  9. If the player decides to go high, they will encounter the cannon that shoots out Birds onto the bottom platform. Oftentimes the platform would be filled with Birds so that might look very intimidating. There is a push able box that would allow the player to reach the high platform in the sky with held out double jumps. A parachute will be provided for the player to glide down to the next area.
  10. The player is guided by coins to jump unto the moving platform. The platform itself is moving from the right direction at great speed. If the player fails the jump, they are caught by a platform on the bottom that allows them to quickly recover from their predicament without needing to restart the level. The player can either branch to the bottom where they’ll quickly realize it is not the right direction and to the top the actual correct level.
  11. The player reaches the last section of the game and they see that the enemy Birds are running faster than usual and it’s important that they take great care of where they land. The player jumps to the goal and is filled with excitement and curiosity in anticipation of what comes next. However, if the player doesn’t reach the goal as intended they can jump on the vines and jump on the enemy Birds like before so they don’t get killed in the level.