CAGD 270 - Level Design
Eportfolio Post 8 4/23/2020
I learned a lot about how to improve my 3D level from the last playtest session and I believe that I did a good job correcting those flaws in the stage. Like with the other playtests, I got several friends to play through my level, being verbal throughout, and conducted an interview afterwards about what they liked and did not like.
From the playtests, I can safely say that my level has been improved and I could tell that my playtesters had a more enjoyable experience. Although the game is better, there is still one major thing that I got from the playtesters that I could improve with my level, and that is the area just before the boss fight.
1. Area Before Boss Fight:
When playing through my level, there are three paths, two open, and one blocked by a door. Players must go through the two open paths to activate switches that then open the final path. This path leads to the final boss fight and the end of the level, but just before the final fight is one more room. This room is a large plane full of spitters, chompers, and acid pools with the boss fight just after it. Although I thought that the large room with many enemies would raise the adrenaline then peak with the boss fight, but in reality, the room of enemies just lead to players getting overwhelmed and frustrated, making the boss fight less impactful as a result. There are simply too many enemies on the plane and not enough room to move around and strategize, and therefore just end up running and swinging until the room is clear. Players could also get overwhelmed enough to just run past everything straight to the boss, which I also want to avoid. I want players to get through everything and end feeling good, not run past everything because they were scared.
The way to fix this is to balance the large room, and that could be done in many ways. I could make the room bigger and allow more space to run around, but with the room already being somewhat big, I'd rather find a different solution. The one that I would prefer to do is to adjust the number and density of enemies, making sure that players aren't overwhelmed when they look at the room or when they begin combat. I can simply change enemy numbers, then playtest, and repeat until I feel that the room is balanced.
Just the fact that I only had one major flaw and no recurring flaws shows that my level has indeed improved, but it's not only the flaws that demonstrates that. After all of the playtests, I found that along with maintaining the previous positives, there were now three more things that the playtesters felt I did right when making the stage. These things were a gradual increase in difficulty, good checkpoint locations, and clear goals.
1. Gradual Difficulty Slope:
With the lack of instructions aside from UI messages, players need to have it easy at first in order to have the opportunity to learn how to play and what to do. The last thing that players should have to deal with is rooms full of enemies and difficult platforming when they hardly even know the controls. With that in mind. Many playtesters told me that they found the level to have a consistently appropriate level of difficulty, whether it be easy fights for the start of the game, or challenging battles at the later stages of the game. The stage allows new players time to learn how to play, but also poses a nice challenge for players who have now grasped the game. This aids in making a fun experience for the players and I like to think that the players had some moments of flow when playing.
2. Good Checkpoint Locations:
Although maybe not the most important aspect of a level, checkpoints are a helpful tool that you can give the players in order to reduce the frustration that follows a death. What some game designers might not consider, however, is the importance of checkpoint locations, be it where on the stage they are, and how far apart checkpoints are from each other. I am happy to say that most playtesters told me that they felt my checkpoint placement was a positive with the level. I tried my best to make sure players wouldn't be set back too far no matter where they died, but I also didn't put checkpoints after every single room, as I feel like that would take away from the feeling of challenge. I simply placed checkpoints after a couple rooms that I felt were somewhat hard to get through so players didn't have to get through them twice. I did put some extra effort in my checkpoints and I'm glad to know that the players noticed and appreciated it.
3. Clear Goals:
One of the problems with my level in the last playtest was my lack of UI, and that led to players getting a little confused about what to do and where to go. After fixing that problem, the new improvements caused UI to change from a negative to a positive about my level. I added several UI messages, such as telling players how to open the final door, that they have reached checkpoints, etc. All of my playtesters, whether they playtested the first version of the level or not, told me that they constantly knew what to do and where to go and players who did play the first version said that the level was vastly improved simply because of the UI. From now on, I will always make sure that my players know what to do and where to go, whether I use UI, tutorials, or menus, anything to inform the player.
Eportfolio Post 7 4/16/2020
The first 3D level that I was tasked with creating went quite well and I feel that I was able to make an enjoyable experience for the players. I had multiple friends play my level, some of which are well versed in gaming lingo so I was able to get a lot of helpful feedback on how to improve.
With it being the first 3D level that I made, it is expected that I have a few problems, and although there were not as many issues with my stage as I expected, there are still a couple things that need fixing. The main problems with my level where the ability to jump passed doors, and lack of UI.
1. Jumping Passed Doors:
The most frequently used object to keep players where I want them is doors. Doors are used many times throughout my level, whether it be blocking off the boss room or just making sure the players don't run past the entire stage. All of the doors in my level are activated by a switch, with all doors requiring one nearby switch and the boss door requiring two separate switches. In order to look neat and organized, I scaled the doors to be the exact width of the walkway leading to it. The problem with this is that Ellen, when jumping, can completely change her direction of movement while midair by simply changing what direction she is facing. This is an issue because players are able to jump off the walkway, passed the door, then quickly change their direction to land on the path that is on the other side of the door. This is an especially bad problem since players are able to use this on the boss door, effectively skipping the majority of the level.
There are multiple solutions to this problem, each with their own positives and negatives. The first solution I could use is to simply scale the door to be much wider than the walkway. Players will instantly see that the door can not be passed and move on, but it will look a little odd having such a huge door on a small walkway. Another solution involves walls next to the door, which serve the same purpose as the last solution, but will allow the door to be of a normal size. The negative about this solution is that I don't have walls anywhere else in my level so it will look somewhat weird having walls there. The last possible solution for the problem would be to add invisible barriers on the sides of the door to block any jumps. This will also allow the door to be of normal size and won't add weird walls. However, this solution could cause some frustration, as players do not like movement being restricted by invisible barriers and players who try to jump passed will hit the invisible wall and fall to their deaths, which they most likely won't see as fair. I am unsure which method to use but I am leaning towards the larger door.
2. Lack of UI:
With there being no tutorial or menu with the game, UI is extremely important to tell the players what to do, where to go, etc. You can use UI to tell players that a door requires switches to open, that a moving platform needs a pressure plate to activate, or just that they have won. Considering how useful UI is, it is easy to see that my lack of it is one of the problems with my level. I did not see it as that big of a problem during the development of the level, but when watching the playtesters, I realized that some of their confusion could easily be fixed with UI, and that there are several places where I can use UI to better clarify goals and rules.
The solution to my lack of UI is as simple as adding more UI. Some of the things I plan to do with UI are telling players that the boss door requires two switches to open, the crystals on the ground are checkpoints, and that players must find the correct switch to open the door in a specific room. These changes will greatly reduce the confusion that players had and make for an overall more enjoyable experience.
Even though making this 3D level brought the most problems during development, I was surprised to see that I only had two major problems with it. When observing and interviewing playtesters during and after playing the level, I found that there were two things that most, if not all, playtesters agreed were a positive aspect of the stage. These positives were the room of switches and the door blocking the boss room.
1. The Switch Room:
This is not a positive with my level design as a whole, but with a particular room, named the switch room. The switch room is nothing more than a medium sized room with a couple enemies, around 20 switches, and a door that is activated by only one of the switches. Players must simply try every switch until they find the right one. I believe that players like this room because it is a nice break for them, a room that allows them to catch their breath. Even though there are some enemies, they are easily defeated and players are free to just bump into switches until they stumble upon the correct one. I can not improve my level by making every room a switch room, but this will help to remind me the importance of letting players take a break from the constant action.
2. The Boss Door:
The other aspect of my level is the way the boss door works. There are three paths in my level, one left, one right, and one down the middle, which is blocked by the boss door. In order to unlock it, players must choose either the right or left path, complete it, hit the switch at the end, then do the same with the other path. I used the counter and two switches to activate the door, but instead of putting the switches in the same room as the door like some level designers might do, I decided to spread them out and have players loop back to the boss door that they saw when they started the level. Players seemed to enjoy having switches around the level that are used to access the final part of the stage and I will definitely keep that in mind while making levels in the future.
As I said before, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I didn't have many problems with my issue, but that does not mean I won't fix the problems that I do have. I will be sure to fix the issues with my level and hope to make the playtester's experience even more enjoyable.
Eportfolio Post 6 4/7/2020
With the second level of my mega man series, I used a lot of what I learned from the first level in order to make sure this map is more polished and enjoyable. I again used family and friends as playtesters, but I was surprised to see that they, too, have learned some about giving feedback. This resulted in me getting better tips on what my level does right and what needs improvement.
Although I learned from the first level, I am still starting fresh with the second level and therefore have different issues that can arise. With this stage, my playtesters gave me three major things that they felt needed fixing in order to improve the quality of the level. These issues were the chance of running out of energy, falling into traps, and respawning enemies.
1. Running out of Energy:
With the implementation of weapons in this level, it is likely that problems will arise with them, and that is exactly what happened. Throughout the level, I added obstacles that could only be passed by using one of the new weapons, as to make sure that the players learn how to use them. Even though I did add some energy drops in the level, there were not many, because when I tested the level, I only used a small amount of my energy. This, however, was not the case with some of my playtesters, as a couple of them would either take awhile to get the hang of the weapon or just found themselves wanting to use a new weapon over the original weapon. This would lead to some playtesters running out of energy and having no way of replenishing it. When said players came across the next obstacle, they would then be forced to kill themselves in order to get their energy back. This would somewhat disappoint the players, understandably, as having to do that takes time, and requires that they get through some of the level a second time.
To solve this problem, I simply need to add more energy pickups around the stage. I need to at least add pickups before an obstacle to make sure that players can pass it, no matter what level of energy they are at. Adding more pickups will make sure that players will not need to kill themselves just to get to the end of the level and make the stage a lot better.
2. Falling into Traps:
My level is more vertical than horizontal, having the player traverse upward with some outward paths that lead to a health or energy pickup. This setup worked perfectly well when I played through my level, but when played by others, I found some problems with it. For other players, some assumed that the horizontal paths had a leap of faith that led to the next part of the level. This was not the case and players would land on the ground, now trapped. This would be extremely frustrating because they not only made a mistake, but there was no way to kill themselves and go to the last checkpoint, players had to quit the level altogether and start over. This was obviously a big problem that desperately needed attention.
Luckily for me, this isn't too bad of a fix, as I just need to remove the ground so that players that do take the leap are met with death instead of a trap. Although it might still be a little irritating, it will be much better than having to start the level over. I will also try adding something to try to tell players not to jump off, like a safety net or just a sort of warning sign.
3. Enemies Respawning:
The last problem that my playtesters revealed about my second mega man level is that there are sections where enemies can respawn and overwhelm the players. A lot of my level sections are connected, so that the player can walk seamlessly through the level. This can cause some issues with players moving so that enemies are slightly out of view, then walking back, causing said enemy to spawn a second time. There is a specific case of this at the top of the level where there are 2 enemies, one on each side of the player. If the playtester gets overwhelmed, they may hesitate and walk back and forth, but this results in those enemies spawning again and can double the amount of enemies which will definitely overwhelm the players. This can make the experience a lot less fun, even frustrating, if players have to fight the same enemies multiple times just because they walk too far away.
This fix will be a little trickier, as I will need to adjust the locations of the enemies that cause these issues to make sure that this won't happen as often. I believe that the way to do this is to move the problem enemies closer to the player so there is less of a chance that they will walk too far away.
Even though I have a lot of work on my hands in terms of fixing the problems of this level, there are still things that the playtesters told me were good about my level and that I should be proud of. They gave me two major successes with my level, being the theme representation and the weapon barriers.
1. Theme Representation:
I got praise from every one of my playtesters about how well I represented and achieved the desired theme for my level. The theme for the level was "forest/jungle" and all of the players believed that I did an amazing job accomplishing that. In my level, players walk along the jungle floor, with the jungle background and blocks that match. They will then spend the majority of the level climbing up huge trees, and fighting enemies on the branches of those trees. Players then use a branch to make it to another tree and scale down, then finish the level back at the jungle floor. Everyone agreed that the materials, enemies, and concept all fix the jungle theme perfectly.
2. Weapon Barriers:
The other thing about my level that received praise from players was how I tackled the barriers for new weapons. Although I was able to just use blocks that are only breakable by specific weapons, I felt that that was a boring approach and I wanted to do something a little more creative. The weapons I used were arrow and kick, so I made special obstacles for each one. For the kick, all I did was make a hole that couldn't be passed by jumping, and players would realize that they had to jump up and use the kick to make it across. For the arrow, I realized that you could stand on arrows that were stuck in walls, so I added a four block wall, which can't be jumped over, and players had to realize that they could shoot the wall, then jump on the arrow and make it over. I was happy that I could make more enjoyable barriers to introduce weapons and I was glad that it was very well received by the players.
The troubleshooting of the first level helped make the development of this level a little smoother, but there was still a lot of valuable information that I learned from this stage and the problems that came with it. It also further taught me the importance of playtesting and how there are problems that developers simply can't see themselves.
Eportfolio Post 5 3/24/2020
Throughout the duration of the spring break, I managed to get quite a few playtests in from family and friends, and I believe that since they were less experienced than the CAGD students, they were able to provide me with better data on how to improve my level.
The second version of my level was a big improvement over the first edition and a lot of the problems were fixed, but like with most levels, it still was not perfect, and there were more issues that needed addressing if I wanted my level to be even better. There were two clear problems with my mega man stage, being that there were still some difficult rooms, and that there were some cheap shots in the level.
1. Difficult Rooms:
Although the problems from the first version of my level dealt with room difficulty, and those problems were fixed, my playtesters told me that there were still some difficult rooms. This was mainly due to the amount of enemies and the enemy types, like the pickaxe man. Although this issue went unnoticed in the first playtest session because the playtesters were experienced, having inexperienced players made me realize that this was still a problem. This made the level not seem like an intro level and took the fun out of it for the new players, which is the opposite of what an intro level should do. An intro level needs to teach players while being fun, not sap the fun out of the game and turn new players away.
The solution to this problem is to simply bump down the difficulty on some of the stages that caused the most trouble for the playtesters. I will need to reevaluate what enemies to use, where to put them, and the layout of the stages themselves. This fix will hopefully make my level more accessible for new players and make it seem like an intro level.
2. Cheap Shots:
Although not a problem with the level as a whole, a critique that I got from almost all of my playtesters was that they did not like the cheap shots that enemies got on them. What this refers to is the fact that on some rooms of the level, the first enemy was too close to the start of the room and players would get shot right as they entered. This would not do much damage, but it would add up and, more importantly, it seemed unfair to the players. No player enjoys being hit with almost no time to react and it would severely hurt their level of enjoyment. Even though it might not seem like a big deal, these cheap shots are actually quite a large issue and desperately need attention.
Luckily for me, this large issue has an easy fix, as I just need to go through the level, find out which rooms have cheap shots, and move those enemies back until they don't shoot right when the player enters anymore. This will greatly help my level be more enjoyable, as the frustration of getting unfairly shot really took players out of the immersion and decreased their fun.
These problems, although having easy solutions, will greatly improve the quality of my level when fixed, and lead to players having a lot more fun. As with the other eportfolio posts, I will now look at the good parts of my level and see if they can help me make better levels in the future. Although not as detailed as with CAGD students, my playtesters did give me some feedback on what they liked about my level and the two major things that I got were that my level was fun, and that they liked the "boss fight" of the stage.
1. Fun:
Not the most helpful note about my level, it is still good to know that people do enjoy playing your level. The structure and form of a level doesn't matter much if it simply is not fun to play, so i suppose making sure your level is fun is an important thing to do. Upon further questioning, I deduced that the fun of the level came mostly from the great thematics, and slight challenge of the level. One of the bad things in my level was the difficulty, but in the rooms where the difficulty was balanced, it added to the fun. It seems obvious that you want your level to be fun, but I feel like people can get caught up in the rules and systems and forget that at the end of the day, levels are meant to be fun. I need to remember that most players aren't game design majors and they just want to have a good time, so I need to make sure that I deliver a fun experience for people of any background.
2. "Boss Fight":
One of the most iconic parts of any mega man stage is the final boss fight and even though we were supposed to end the game with the energy elements, I still wanted to give players a taste of boss fights, and I think it paid off. The final room of my level consists of a boss door leading to a flat floor, the energy element, and one Colton enemy (the cowboy). I wanted to add this to play with the western theme, being a kind of final Texas shootout, and although it is super easy, I believe it puts a smile on the players face right before they finish the level. All of the playtesters said they liked it and I added it for that exact reason, not to pose a huge challenge, just for players to smile at and to have a fun last fight. Seeing as it got so much praise, I will hopefully implement things like this in future levels and games that I create.
Even though the playtesters that I had this time were not as familiar with that level should and shouldn't have in them, I was surprised to still receive very valuable information about what I did right and how to improve my levels moving forward. I will take all of these critiques to heart and I hope to use what I have learned while making levels in the future.
Eportfolio Post 4 3/10/2020
Overall, the day of mega man playtesting went pretty well, I learned what was and was not good about my level, and I got plenty of inspiration and knowledge from playing other people's levels.
Although not perfect, there were things about my level that I am proud of and that were praised by playtesters. There were two major things that went right with my level, being theme representation, and the eighth screen.
1. Theme Representation:
Themes are very important when it comes to level design as they make a level more immersive and it can tell a story by itself. The same goes for mega man levels so I really wanted to nail the western theme and I feel I did. Most playtesters commented that my level fit the theme, as all backgrounds, materials, and even enemies were picked considering the theme. The level starts on the surface, will a western mountain background, then goes underground to a mine where you fight miners. Lastly, the level goes back to the surface where you encounter cowboys and more mine workers. The level even ends with a sort of western showdown and I feel that I nailed the western theme.
2. The Eighth Screen:
This may not be as important to the level as a whole, but the eighth screen of my level got so much praise from playtesters that I felt the need to add it here. After traversing the mines and making it back to the surface, the player now fights cowboys. One of these encounters involves four cowboys standing on vertically stacked ledges shooting towards the player. The player must climb a ladder and either kill the cowboys during the ascent, or avoid all of the bullets and climb past the enemies. This was a quick level to design, and I simply thought it was a good idea, but most, if not all playtesters told me that they liked this screen in particular. Even though players had different levels of experience and different opinions on other matters, the one consistency between all of them was that they all enjoyed the eighth screen. I don't want to make more situations like this, as it will make them less impactful, but I will definitely try to take inspiration from it moving forward.
Like I said earlier, there are flaws with my level that I failed to consider during development. Although none being too terrible, flaws are flaws and I wanted to address all of them to make sure that my stage is the best it can be. From playtesting, I found that there are three things in my level that I need to fix: enemy numbers and placements, enemy variety, and amount of platforming.
1. Enemy Numbers and Placements:
It is obvious that one of the most important aspects about a mega man level is the enemies, therefore, it is necessary that enemy numbers and placements are fair and balanced. If too few enemies, the level will be easy and boring, too many, and it will be difficult and frustrating, the level designer must find a good balance to make the level fun, as well as keep that balance consistent throughout the entirety of the stage. This is a flaw for my level because it gets a bit too hard at times and that can take the fun out of it. While it may seem like a well balanced level for experienced players, the level is supposed to be an intro level, easily playable by new players. During the playtest, I saw new players and even some experienced players struggle on some sections of my stage. Although I don't want to make it too easy, me level needs to be easy enough for an intro level.
This will be a simple fix, but it will take a bit of time, as I need to move things around and experiment to see what works and to get my level to a suitable difficulty. I will delete enemies, move enemies around, many things to see what helps and what doesn't. Hopefully with enough personal playtesting I can get my level to a better difficulty.
2. Enemy Variety:
One of the coolest things about the mega man series is the fact that there are so many unique and diverse enemies. Will the huge selection, it seems like a crime not to include as many as possible, but when working with a theme, too many enemy types can dilute your theme and make a level somewhat confusing. I wanted to avoid confusion entirely and only used three different enemies. That, however, is where the problem occurs, as the lack of enemy diversity can be a little dull for the players. When playtesting, I received a few requests to add more types of enemies in my level, as the three enemies in the level get kinda boring by the end.
This seems like a rather easy fix, but I must be careful while fixing the problem. All that needs to be done is for me to find one or two more enemies and add them throughout the level. This is where I need to be careful, however, as I still want to maintain the western theme of the level and adding random characters can compromise that. I will find enemies that I believe still fit the theme and integrate them into my level.
3. Amount of Platforming:
Platforming has always been a big part of mega man levels, as Mega Man games themselves are platformers. Any good mega man level will have great platforming to go along with its theme and combat. When considering this, it is a clear mistake that my level only has one section of real platforming. In the middle of my stage, there are moving platforms that the player must jump to and from to make it across, and while it is a good platforming section, there should be more.
All that needs to be done to fix this problem is for me to add more platforming sections to my level. I do need to keep the difficulty rather low, so I will probably stay away from projectiles while platforming and keep enemy numbers to a minimum during those sections as well. The majority of my level takes place in a mine, so I can use that to make platforming, using rocks or mine shafts.
Completing these fixes will surely help make my stage better, both as an intro level and as a mega man level. I know that there is still more to improve and I look forward to the next playtest to reveal more flaws to fix.
Eportfolio Post 3 2/25/2020
On the final day of playtesting our DnD levels, I, again, had Shawn and Usume as my playtesters, with Shawn playing as a rogue and Usume playing as the warrior.
Like with the last time, I can confirm that the changes I implemented did help the map and the players had a more enjoyable experience because of it. Despite this, however, there were still things to fix in order to make my map better, more so because of the rule changes. As with the other playtests, there were three things about my dungeon that I believe went right. These include basic enemy stats, the size of the map, and the amount of items in the map.
1. Basic Enemy Numbers and Stats:
When people think about the most memorable part of their DnD battles, they will probably tend to focus on the boss fights. Huge boss battles may be very exciting and entertaining as well as the most memorable fights, but creating a good boss fight still shouldn't come before the basic fights. Although not as memorable, basic enemies are a vital part of any campaign, and if done incorrectly, can result in a boring or frustrating time. Considering this, I feel that my balancing of enemy stats and numbers was very good. Throughout the playtest, I noticed that enemies weren't too plentiful, and put up a fight without being tedious or frustrating to fight. Weaker enemies had more armor while stronger enemies were easier to kill. This seemed to keep the players engaged throughout the map which I feel is extremely important.
2. Map Size:
Like with the other playtests, it was recommended that each dungeon take 20 to 30 minutes to complete. This was a problem with my last map and I feel that the changes I made resulted in the level taking a perfect amount of time to play. When played through casually, it takes around 25 minutes. This is better than good, as the time restrictions can be met without players having to rush through the map or take extra time to get to 20 minutes. Even when players take time to explore and decide on moves or attacks, the map still fits the 10 minute gap. This is great for my map and I'm glad that the dungeon's final edition is a perfect size.
3. Amount of Items:
The final thing that I believe went right with my level was the amount of items. With all of the changes brought by the new rules set, items were made a big part of the game, so having a good number of them and having them be balanced is imperative. I wanted to make sure that items were useful so I made simple items like damage increasers just to make sure that players will want the items. I scattered them throughout the dungeon in various locations, and in every pathway to keep from the players picking a path that had no items.
That was all of the things that I feel went right with my map, but there were still things that went wrong with it. This map had two faults, being that the bosses stats were too high and that item uses weren't unique enough.
1. Boss Stats:
Even at the very start of a dungeon, most players know that at some point, most likely the end, they will have to fight a boss. This known fact can create tension and suspense during the level and players will be waiting to stumble into a huge beast. This excitement is very important, but can be for nothing if the boss isn't properly balanced. With all of the differences between the first and second rules sets, I did not know how to balance the enemies. I playtested a little bit and managed to get my basic enemies at a good spot, but I was far off when it came to the final boss. When looking at the changes, I decided to try out some of the new stats and give my final boss 8 attack, 10 defense, and 20 health. This resulted in a horrendous fight consisting of the boss and the warrior standing face to face and taking turns swinging at each other with seemingly no end. The defense of the boss was far too high and it would take a great role from the players and a terrible role from me to do even one damage. I even ended up reducing the boss's health to 10 during the fight but that didn't help, as it still took days for them to kill the boss.
This is, I believe, the most simple fix to a problem that I have had, as I either need to simply reduce the bosses defense, or give the players items that can boost their attack or reduce armor. With this change, the boss fight should reward the players excitement and suspense.
2. Item Usage:
With the new rules, items are some of the most important things in your map, they have endless possibilities and can be used in a number of ways for a number of different situations. With spells now being replaced my items, you need to give players those items at the correct times in order for them to complete the same tasks that they did with their spells and abilities. Considering this, I did not do a good job in using the wide range of items to my advantage and my item usage in general was quite boring. As I mentioned earlier, I added items like damage increasers to help with fights, but those were basically the only items that went to use throughout the map. At the start of the map, players use the crown of escaping to get out of the prison cell, but outside of that, damage ups were the only really useful thing they got out of items. There were other items, but none of them were very useful or exciting. This made the game a little dull and it could have made fighting and looting a lot more exciting and enjoyable.
To solve this, I would need to change out current items for ones that are both useful and fun. The items must be good, but they can't break the game or make it too easy. Some of the items I could try would be a double-edged sword, that does a lot of damage, but you take some of the damage as a result, a rocket launcher that does massive ranged damage, but alerts all nearby enemies and can't be used at close range or else you blow yourself up, and Mario's shoes, that allows players to jump over pits and can be used to stop on enemy heads. I feel that items like these would make fights a lot more fun and it would create more memories for the players.
Even though this is the final iteration of my dungeon, I still plan on improving it in the future and using it with my friends and family in order to better understand balancing and good level design. I believe that I have learned a lot from these exercises and I will be able to use a lot of that I have learned in future level design projects.
Eportfolio Post 2 2/18/2020
On the second day of testing my Dungeons and Dragons map, Shawn and Usume were again my playtesters, with Shawn being a ranger and Usume being a warrior.
I successfully fixed all of the problems with the level that arose after the first playtest, and the players could tell. They, too, believed that my map had improved and that it did a better job at teaching them how to play the game. Although my level had gone through a lot of change and had gotten a lot better, I still knew that there was more to work on.
From the playtest, I found that, like with the first playtest, there were a few things that went right with my map, as well as a few things that didn't go so well. The changes that I made resulted in more things that I feel really worked for my level, these include plentiful decisions, impactful decisions, and a good mix of open and narrow spaces.
1. Plentiful Decisions:
At the last playtest, I noticed that my map had a lack of decision making, which made the game less fun and affected the freedom of DnD in a negative way. I knew that this was one of, if not the, most important problem that needed to be fixed, so extra time was put into it, and I can safely say that my level is full of choices and decision making has gone from a problem to a positive about the dungeon. Decisions are riddled throughout the map, and several choices can be made no matter what path you take through the level. Obviously, which path you choose is a decision in itself, so I made sure that there were several points that had two or even three different ways to go, each with different pros and cons in order to keep the gameplay exciting and eventful. Decision making is a large part of why people play Dungeons and Dragons so i'm glad that I have made a map that really highlights that aspect of the game.
2. Impactful Decisions:
As I have said, choices are imperative to a fun DnD experience, but if these decisions have little to no impact on the outcome of the fight or dungeon itself, then it won't feel like you have any choices at all. Considering this, I put in extra effort to make sure that each and every decision the player was able to make had a sizable impact on the experience, and while not every decision will result in a massive change in the game, I do feel that each choice at least bears some importance. A couple of these decisions include sneakily moving past a goblin baby or killing it, which will wake adult goblins resulting in a fight, leaving a captured princess or fighting a boss to save her, getting said princess out of the dungeon or using her as a sacrifice to get passed the next boss, and of course, choosing which path to take, which leads to even more decisions to be made. I strongly feel that having these kinds of decisions make DnD more exciting and eventful and just add uniqueness that you can't find in other games.
3. A Good Mix of Open and Narrow Spaces:
Although this positive isn't as important as the others, I believe that my map's mix of narrow hallways and large, spacious chambers are something that my level does right. Enemies and decisions may carry more weight than how the map looks, but the design of the level itself is still important and can make the game less enjoyable if done incorrectly. Different sizes of rooms and halls are needed in different situations and a good level will use them appropriately. Having a big boss in a small hallway or having every path be huge simply doesn't feel right and it can take the players out of their focus on the game. I made sure that the level has a good mix of huge rooms for enemies and bosses as well as narrow paths and halls for traversing between rooms or for sneaky enemies to hide. Even though it might not seem too vital, I feel that the design of my level is good and that it makes the experience for the player more enjoyable.
After getting the major problems out of the way, I still found that there were some things wrong with my dungeon that needed attention. These problems were that my map was too long and bosses could be cheesed with straight hallways.
1. Map too Long:
This isn't as much of a problem with my map in terms of quality as it is quantity, as our playtesting sessions should be done within 20 or so minutes and that simply is not the case. Even when players go down the main, most direct path, an average game will take around 25 minutes instead of the desired 20. Considering that that is with the main path, if players choose to take alternate paths, which they typically do, the game will take even longer, at around 30 minutes. This may not be such a bad thing, but I want players to have the opportunity to get the full experience, and that involves making it through the entire dungeon while having enough time to do what they want. It won't matter if players can make it through the dungeon if they are constantly being rushed along, as that will just take some of the fun out of it.
This is an obvious and easy fix, as all that needs to be done is I have to shorten the map. While keeping the interesting fights and decisions, I need to make the map smaller and easily finishable within 20 minutes. All the problem requires is for me to sit down and brainstorm how to shorten the map while keeping important content.
2. Cheesing Bosses:
This is another problem that doesn't pertain to the map directly, but is a sort of defect that can make the gameplay less engaging. Leading up to both bosses, there is a long, open hallway that connects to the boss's chamber. The problem with this is that players can see the boss from the hallway and the ranger, mage, and rogue can safely shoot the boss from said hallway, as the bosses are too big to fit into the hallway. Although players might not do this because it isn't fun, other players want to win, and will use cheesy strategies to do so. When the fight is over, however, those players won't feel the same sense of accomplishment and the map itself will be less fun. Some people may blame the player for making the game less fun, but I believe that it is more up to the level designer to make sure that players can't do things like this and ruin their own fun.
Another simple, yet important fix, but there are many possible solutions to the problem. I can grant bosses the ability to squeeze into the hallway, but players might then feel trapped. I can also add a door before the boss room, but players can then just open the door, then return to the safety of the hallway. The only logical solution is to simply add a turn in the hallway just before the chamber so players are forced into the bosses lair and can't cheese the boss.
I can easily see that my map is now far better after the changes from the first playtest were implemented, but there is still more to be done. With each change and improvement made, my level gets better and better, and players have a more enjoyable experience playing my map. I am hoping that these new changes will make my dungeon even better and I can continue to improve.
Eportfolio Post 1 2/11/2020
When testing my Dungeons and Dragons map, I had two players, Shawn, who chose to be a mage, and Usume, a warrior.
During the playtesting of my level, there were several things that went right, as well as a few things that went wrong. Starting with the positives, I had three major aspects of the level that went right, being fighting tutorials, positive exploration space, and providing good scenarios to learn skills and spells.
1. Fighting Tutorials:
One of, if not the, most important things about playing DnD is understanding the attacking and defending mechanics. Since fighting is of such importance, it is essential that players are properly taught how to battle and given the opportunity to understand the mechanics in an easy and forgiving environment. Considering this, I feel that my level does a great job at forcing players to learn how to fight without being stressful or frustrating. To do this, I made a room just beyond the start of the level that contained one low level enemy, a rat. Players are forced to enter this room, as there are no other paths as of yet, and they cannot leave the room until the rat has been killed. This forced combat can be considered a skill gate as the only way to get passed is by figuring out how to fight and using that knowledge to kill the enemy.
2. Positive Exploration Space:
When thinking about how much freedom and openness comes with playing Dungeons and Dragons, it is almost insane to have that freedom confined to a single, narrow path. Multiple paths is a very necessary feature for any DnD level, but if those paths lead nowhere or are simply not worth the time and effort, that is a problem in of itself. Every path, including the main one, needs its own pros and cons while being balanced enough that players won't choose the same one every time. I feel that my map does a good job of providing multiple ways of traversing the level, and makes use of rewards and treasures to get the players in the mindset that exploring that dungeon is a good idea. There are many alternate routes throughout the map, and all of them provide something of worth, whether it be physical rewards, such as treasure, or non physical rewards like being able to skip out on a difficult fight. I feel that each path provides something and that there are no paths that purely aren't worth taking.
3. Learning Skills and Spells:
The last thing that I believe my level does right is that it provides good scenarios for learning about and using spells or skills. It is easy to make a map that doesn't require the use of skills or one that has routes to avoid using skills, but many will agree that a great map is one that does a good job of having players make use of skills and abilities without causing confusion or anger. My level does a good job of this and easily teaches several skills throughout the dungeon. Examples of this include walls that the players must jump or float over, chests and doors that require lock picking, and dark corridors that could be lit up. These scenarios force the players to learn skills and spells without putting them into stressful or boring situations.
On the other side of the spectrum, however, there are a few things about my level that could definitely use improvement. This includes map size, enemy stats, and lack of decision making.
1. Map Size:
As I had never played Dungeons and Dragons prior to the playtesting of levels, there were many aspects of the game that I didn't quite understand, one of which being how large that map should be. The map was big enough for players to have a fun adventure that lasted more than 10 minutes, but that squares and paths themselves were far too small, and even with small avatars, such as a dime, they were still too big for the map's tiny squares. Complications arose from this, such as not knowing exactly what square you are on, difficulty in moving 5 squares for a turn, and moving past another playing in a hallway being awkward.
This issue will have the simplest fix, as all I need to do is scale the map up. The original level was drawn on paper, so I took the liberty of buying a battle mat, so squares are already drawn out at 1 x 1 inches. Using the battle mat will prevent this problem from arising in the future and I feel that it was a good investment into making better maps.
2. Enemy Stats:
Without much knowledge of the game, I just had to try my best when it came to enemy stats. My assumptions weren't too bad, but they definitely were not perfect and needed improvements. Many enemies were too strong and turned what should have been easy fights into difficult ones. As well as that, there were also too many enemies for just two players and that is also in desperate need of adjusting. With this being a tutorial level, it is imperative that everything goes smoothly and that players can easily learn mechanics as well as beat the level, but with the current enemy numbers and stats, that just isn't the case.
Solving this problem will also be pretty easy, as it only requires that I reduce enemy numbers and stats, as well as doing some personal playtesting to make sure that the changes effectively fix the issue.
3. Lack of Decision Making:
The final thing that should be worked on for my DnD map is the pure lack of decision making. There are some decisions in my level, such as which path to take, and whether or not to engage certain enemies, but Dungeons and Dragons is a game based on role playing and freedom so having more player decisions is very important.
The hardest, but still somewhat easy, problem to fix, all that needs to be done is implementing more opportunities and scenarios in which players can make decisions. This just requires some brainstorming for good ideas of things to add to the map that require or allow decisions. Some of these things could include trails or sounds that players can investigate, fights or puzzles that have multiple solutions, or just adding more items that players can acquire and letting them decide how and when to use them.
From the playtesting and note taking, it is easy to see that my map has both a good start and foundation, and issues that need addressing. My hope is that implementing these changes and finding more ways to improve my map will make the game more enjoyable and help to push my dungeon to the next level.
I learned a lot about how to improve my 3D level from the last playtest session and I believe that I did a good job correcting those flaws in the stage. Like with the other playtests, I got several friends to play through my level, being verbal throughout, and conducted an interview afterwards about what they liked and did not like.
From the playtests, I can safely say that my level has been improved and I could tell that my playtesters had a more enjoyable experience. Although the game is better, there is still one major thing that I got from the playtesters that I could improve with my level, and that is the area just before the boss fight.
1. Area Before Boss Fight:
When playing through my level, there are three paths, two open, and one blocked by a door. Players must go through the two open paths to activate switches that then open the final path. This path leads to the final boss fight and the end of the level, but just before the final fight is one more room. This room is a large plane full of spitters, chompers, and acid pools with the boss fight just after it. Although I thought that the large room with many enemies would raise the adrenaline then peak with the boss fight, but in reality, the room of enemies just lead to players getting overwhelmed and frustrated, making the boss fight less impactful as a result. There are simply too many enemies on the plane and not enough room to move around and strategize, and therefore just end up running and swinging until the room is clear. Players could also get overwhelmed enough to just run past everything straight to the boss, which I also want to avoid. I want players to get through everything and end feeling good, not run past everything because they were scared.
The way to fix this is to balance the large room, and that could be done in many ways. I could make the room bigger and allow more space to run around, but with the room already being somewhat big, I'd rather find a different solution. The one that I would prefer to do is to adjust the number and density of enemies, making sure that players aren't overwhelmed when they look at the room or when they begin combat. I can simply change enemy numbers, then playtest, and repeat until I feel that the room is balanced.
Just the fact that I only had one major flaw and no recurring flaws shows that my level has indeed improved, but it's not only the flaws that demonstrates that. After all of the playtests, I found that along with maintaining the previous positives, there were now three more things that the playtesters felt I did right when making the stage. These things were a gradual increase in difficulty, good checkpoint locations, and clear goals.
1. Gradual Difficulty Slope:
With the lack of instructions aside from UI messages, players need to have it easy at first in order to have the opportunity to learn how to play and what to do. The last thing that players should have to deal with is rooms full of enemies and difficult platforming when they hardly even know the controls. With that in mind. Many playtesters told me that they found the level to have a consistently appropriate level of difficulty, whether it be easy fights for the start of the game, or challenging battles at the later stages of the game. The stage allows new players time to learn how to play, but also poses a nice challenge for players who have now grasped the game. This aids in making a fun experience for the players and I like to think that the players had some moments of flow when playing.
2. Good Checkpoint Locations:
Although maybe not the most important aspect of a level, checkpoints are a helpful tool that you can give the players in order to reduce the frustration that follows a death. What some game designers might not consider, however, is the importance of checkpoint locations, be it where on the stage they are, and how far apart checkpoints are from each other. I am happy to say that most playtesters told me that they felt my checkpoint placement was a positive with the level. I tried my best to make sure players wouldn't be set back too far no matter where they died, but I also didn't put checkpoints after every single room, as I feel like that would take away from the feeling of challenge. I simply placed checkpoints after a couple rooms that I felt were somewhat hard to get through so players didn't have to get through them twice. I did put some extra effort in my checkpoints and I'm glad to know that the players noticed and appreciated it.
3. Clear Goals:
One of the problems with my level in the last playtest was my lack of UI, and that led to players getting a little confused about what to do and where to go. After fixing that problem, the new improvements caused UI to change from a negative to a positive about my level. I added several UI messages, such as telling players how to open the final door, that they have reached checkpoints, etc. All of my playtesters, whether they playtested the first version of the level or not, told me that they constantly knew what to do and where to go and players who did play the first version said that the level was vastly improved simply because of the UI. From now on, I will always make sure that my players know what to do and where to go, whether I use UI, tutorials, or menus, anything to inform the player.
Eportfolio Post 7 4/16/2020
The first 3D level that I was tasked with creating went quite well and I feel that I was able to make an enjoyable experience for the players. I had multiple friends play my level, some of which are well versed in gaming lingo so I was able to get a lot of helpful feedback on how to improve.
With it being the first 3D level that I made, it is expected that I have a few problems, and although there were not as many issues with my stage as I expected, there are still a couple things that need fixing. The main problems with my level where the ability to jump passed doors, and lack of UI.
1. Jumping Passed Doors:
The most frequently used object to keep players where I want them is doors. Doors are used many times throughout my level, whether it be blocking off the boss room or just making sure the players don't run past the entire stage. All of the doors in my level are activated by a switch, with all doors requiring one nearby switch and the boss door requiring two separate switches. In order to look neat and organized, I scaled the doors to be the exact width of the walkway leading to it. The problem with this is that Ellen, when jumping, can completely change her direction of movement while midair by simply changing what direction she is facing. This is an issue because players are able to jump off the walkway, passed the door, then quickly change their direction to land on the path that is on the other side of the door. This is an especially bad problem since players are able to use this on the boss door, effectively skipping the majority of the level.
There are multiple solutions to this problem, each with their own positives and negatives. The first solution I could use is to simply scale the door to be much wider than the walkway. Players will instantly see that the door can not be passed and move on, but it will look a little odd having such a huge door on a small walkway. Another solution involves walls next to the door, which serve the same purpose as the last solution, but will allow the door to be of a normal size. The negative about this solution is that I don't have walls anywhere else in my level so it will look somewhat weird having walls there. The last possible solution for the problem would be to add invisible barriers on the sides of the door to block any jumps. This will also allow the door to be of normal size and won't add weird walls. However, this solution could cause some frustration, as players do not like movement being restricted by invisible barriers and players who try to jump passed will hit the invisible wall and fall to their deaths, which they most likely won't see as fair. I am unsure which method to use but I am leaning towards the larger door.
2. Lack of UI:
With there being no tutorial or menu with the game, UI is extremely important to tell the players what to do, where to go, etc. You can use UI to tell players that a door requires switches to open, that a moving platform needs a pressure plate to activate, or just that they have won. Considering how useful UI is, it is easy to see that my lack of it is one of the problems with my level. I did not see it as that big of a problem during the development of the level, but when watching the playtesters, I realized that some of their confusion could easily be fixed with UI, and that there are several places where I can use UI to better clarify goals and rules.
The solution to my lack of UI is as simple as adding more UI. Some of the things I plan to do with UI are telling players that the boss door requires two switches to open, the crystals on the ground are checkpoints, and that players must find the correct switch to open the door in a specific room. These changes will greatly reduce the confusion that players had and make for an overall more enjoyable experience.
Even though making this 3D level brought the most problems during development, I was surprised to see that I only had two major problems with it. When observing and interviewing playtesters during and after playing the level, I found that there were two things that most, if not all, playtesters agreed were a positive aspect of the stage. These positives were the room of switches and the door blocking the boss room.
1. The Switch Room:
This is not a positive with my level design as a whole, but with a particular room, named the switch room. The switch room is nothing more than a medium sized room with a couple enemies, around 20 switches, and a door that is activated by only one of the switches. Players must simply try every switch until they find the right one. I believe that players like this room because it is a nice break for them, a room that allows them to catch their breath. Even though there are some enemies, they are easily defeated and players are free to just bump into switches until they stumble upon the correct one. I can not improve my level by making every room a switch room, but this will help to remind me the importance of letting players take a break from the constant action.
2. The Boss Door:
The other aspect of my level is the way the boss door works. There are three paths in my level, one left, one right, and one down the middle, which is blocked by the boss door. In order to unlock it, players must choose either the right or left path, complete it, hit the switch at the end, then do the same with the other path. I used the counter and two switches to activate the door, but instead of putting the switches in the same room as the door like some level designers might do, I decided to spread them out and have players loop back to the boss door that they saw when they started the level. Players seemed to enjoy having switches around the level that are used to access the final part of the stage and I will definitely keep that in mind while making levels in the future.
As I said before, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I didn't have many problems with my issue, but that does not mean I won't fix the problems that I do have. I will be sure to fix the issues with my level and hope to make the playtester's experience even more enjoyable.
Eportfolio Post 6 4/7/2020
With the second level of my mega man series, I used a lot of what I learned from the first level in order to make sure this map is more polished and enjoyable. I again used family and friends as playtesters, but I was surprised to see that they, too, have learned some about giving feedback. This resulted in me getting better tips on what my level does right and what needs improvement.
Although I learned from the first level, I am still starting fresh with the second level and therefore have different issues that can arise. With this stage, my playtesters gave me three major things that they felt needed fixing in order to improve the quality of the level. These issues were the chance of running out of energy, falling into traps, and respawning enemies.
1. Running out of Energy:
With the implementation of weapons in this level, it is likely that problems will arise with them, and that is exactly what happened. Throughout the level, I added obstacles that could only be passed by using one of the new weapons, as to make sure that the players learn how to use them. Even though I did add some energy drops in the level, there were not many, because when I tested the level, I only used a small amount of my energy. This, however, was not the case with some of my playtesters, as a couple of them would either take awhile to get the hang of the weapon or just found themselves wanting to use a new weapon over the original weapon. This would lead to some playtesters running out of energy and having no way of replenishing it. When said players came across the next obstacle, they would then be forced to kill themselves in order to get their energy back. This would somewhat disappoint the players, understandably, as having to do that takes time, and requires that they get through some of the level a second time.
To solve this problem, I simply need to add more energy pickups around the stage. I need to at least add pickups before an obstacle to make sure that players can pass it, no matter what level of energy they are at. Adding more pickups will make sure that players will not need to kill themselves just to get to the end of the level and make the stage a lot better.
2. Falling into Traps:
My level is more vertical than horizontal, having the player traverse upward with some outward paths that lead to a health or energy pickup. This setup worked perfectly well when I played through my level, but when played by others, I found some problems with it. For other players, some assumed that the horizontal paths had a leap of faith that led to the next part of the level. This was not the case and players would land on the ground, now trapped. This would be extremely frustrating because they not only made a mistake, but there was no way to kill themselves and go to the last checkpoint, players had to quit the level altogether and start over. This was obviously a big problem that desperately needed attention.
Luckily for me, this isn't too bad of a fix, as I just need to remove the ground so that players that do take the leap are met with death instead of a trap. Although it might still be a little irritating, it will be much better than having to start the level over. I will also try adding something to try to tell players not to jump off, like a safety net or just a sort of warning sign.
3. Enemies Respawning:
The last problem that my playtesters revealed about my second mega man level is that there are sections where enemies can respawn and overwhelm the players. A lot of my level sections are connected, so that the player can walk seamlessly through the level. This can cause some issues with players moving so that enemies are slightly out of view, then walking back, causing said enemy to spawn a second time. There is a specific case of this at the top of the level where there are 2 enemies, one on each side of the player. If the playtester gets overwhelmed, they may hesitate and walk back and forth, but this results in those enemies spawning again and can double the amount of enemies which will definitely overwhelm the players. This can make the experience a lot less fun, even frustrating, if players have to fight the same enemies multiple times just because they walk too far away.
This fix will be a little trickier, as I will need to adjust the locations of the enemies that cause these issues to make sure that this won't happen as often. I believe that the way to do this is to move the problem enemies closer to the player so there is less of a chance that they will walk too far away.
Even though I have a lot of work on my hands in terms of fixing the problems of this level, there are still things that the playtesters told me were good about my level and that I should be proud of. They gave me two major successes with my level, being the theme representation and the weapon barriers.
1. Theme Representation:
I got praise from every one of my playtesters about how well I represented and achieved the desired theme for my level. The theme for the level was "forest/jungle" and all of the players believed that I did an amazing job accomplishing that. In my level, players walk along the jungle floor, with the jungle background and blocks that match. They will then spend the majority of the level climbing up huge trees, and fighting enemies on the branches of those trees. Players then use a branch to make it to another tree and scale down, then finish the level back at the jungle floor. Everyone agreed that the materials, enemies, and concept all fix the jungle theme perfectly.
2. Weapon Barriers:
The other thing about my level that received praise from players was how I tackled the barriers for new weapons. Although I was able to just use blocks that are only breakable by specific weapons, I felt that that was a boring approach and I wanted to do something a little more creative. The weapons I used were arrow and kick, so I made special obstacles for each one. For the kick, all I did was make a hole that couldn't be passed by jumping, and players would realize that they had to jump up and use the kick to make it across. For the arrow, I realized that you could stand on arrows that were stuck in walls, so I added a four block wall, which can't be jumped over, and players had to realize that they could shoot the wall, then jump on the arrow and make it over. I was happy that I could make more enjoyable barriers to introduce weapons and I was glad that it was very well received by the players.
The troubleshooting of the first level helped make the development of this level a little smoother, but there was still a lot of valuable information that I learned from this stage and the problems that came with it. It also further taught me the importance of playtesting and how there are problems that developers simply can't see themselves.
Eportfolio Post 5 3/24/2020
Throughout the duration of the spring break, I managed to get quite a few playtests in from family and friends, and I believe that since they were less experienced than the CAGD students, they were able to provide me with better data on how to improve my level.
The second version of my level was a big improvement over the first edition and a lot of the problems were fixed, but like with most levels, it still was not perfect, and there were more issues that needed addressing if I wanted my level to be even better. There were two clear problems with my mega man stage, being that there were still some difficult rooms, and that there were some cheap shots in the level.
1. Difficult Rooms:
Although the problems from the first version of my level dealt with room difficulty, and those problems were fixed, my playtesters told me that there were still some difficult rooms. This was mainly due to the amount of enemies and the enemy types, like the pickaxe man. Although this issue went unnoticed in the first playtest session because the playtesters were experienced, having inexperienced players made me realize that this was still a problem. This made the level not seem like an intro level and took the fun out of it for the new players, which is the opposite of what an intro level should do. An intro level needs to teach players while being fun, not sap the fun out of the game and turn new players away.
The solution to this problem is to simply bump down the difficulty on some of the stages that caused the most trouble for the playtesters. I will need to reevaluate what enemies to use, where to put them, and the layout of the stages themselves. This fix will hopefully make my level more accessible for new players and make it seem like an intro level.
2. Cheap Shots:
Although not a problem with the level as a whole, a critique that I got from almost all of my playtesters was that they did not like the cheap shots that enemies got on them. What this refers to is the fact that on some rooms of the level, the first enemy was too close to the start of the room and players would get shot right as they entered. This would not do much damage, but it would add up and, more importantly, it seemed unfair to the players. No player enjoys being hit with almost no time to react and it would severely hurt their level of enjoyment. Even though it might not seem like a big deal, these cheap shots are actually quite a large issue and desperately need attention.
Luckily for me, this large issue has an easy fix, as I just need to go through the level, find out which rooms have cheap shots, and move those enemies back until they don't shoot right when the player enters anymore. This will greatly help my level be more enjoyable, as the frustration of getting unfairly shot really took players out of the immersion and decreased their fun.
These problems, although having easy solutions, will greatly improve the quality of my level when fixed, and lead to players having a lot more fun. As with the other eportfolio posts, I will now look at the good parts of my level and see if they can help me make better levels in the future. Although not as detailed as with CAGD students, my playtesters did give me some feedback on what they liked about my level and the two major things that I got were that my level was fun, and that they liked the "boss fight" of the stage.
1. Fun:
Not the most helpful note about my level, it is still good to know that people do enjoy playing your level. The structure and form of a level doesn't matter much if it simply is not fun to play, so i suppose making sure your level is fun is an important thing to do. Upon further questioning, I deduced that the fun of the level came mostly from the great thematics, and slight challenge of the level. One of the bad things in my level was the difficulty, but in the rooms where the difficulty was balanced, it added to the fun. It seems obvious that you want your level to be fun, but I feel like people can get caught up in the rules and systems and forget that at the end of the day, levels are meant to be fun. I need to remember that most players aren't game design majors and they just want to have a good time, so I need to make sure that I deliver a fun experience for people of any background.
2. "Boss Fight":
One of the most iconic parts of any mega man stage is the final boss fight and even though we were supposed to end the game with the energy elements, I still wanted to give players a taste of boss fights, and I think it paid off. The final room of my level consists of a boss door leading to a flat floor, the energy element, and one Colton enemy (the cowboy). I wanted to add this to play with the western theme, being a kind of final Texas shootout, and although it is super easy, I believe it puts a smile on the players face right before they finish the level. All of the playtesters said they liked it and I added it for that exact reason, not to pose a huge challenge, just for players to smile at and to have a fun last fight. Seeing as it got so much praise, I will hopefully implement things like this in future levels and games that I create.
Even though the playtesters that I had this time were not as familiar with that level should and shouldn't have in them, I was surprised to still receive very valuable information about what I did right and how to improve my levels moving forward. I will take all of these critiques to heart and I hope to use what I have learned while making levels in the future.
Eportfolio Post 4 3/10/2020
Overall, the day of mega man playtesting went pretty well, I learned what was and was not good about my level, and I got plenty of inspiration and knowledge from playing other people's levels.
Although not perfect, there were things about my level that I am proud of and that were praised by playtesters. There were two major things that went right with my level, being theme representation, and the eighth screen.
1. Theme Representation:
Themes are very important when it comes to level design as they make a level more immersive and it can tell a story by itself. The same goes for mega man levels so I really wanted to nail the western theme and I feel I did. Most playtesters commented that my level fit the theme, as all backgrounds, materials, and even enemies were picked considering the theme. The level starts on the surface, will a western mountain background, then goes underground to a mine where you fight miners. Lastly, the level goes back to the surface where you encounter cowboys and more mine workers. The level even ends with a sort of western showdown and I feel that I nailed the western theme.
2. The Eighth Screen:
This may not be as important to the level as a whole, but the eighth screen of my level got so much praise from playtesters that I felt the need to add it here. After traversing the mines and making it back to the surface, the player now fights cowboys. One of these encounters involves four cowboys standing on vertically stacked ledges shooting towards the player. The player must climb a ladder and either kill the cowboys during the ascent, or avoid all of the bullets and climb past the enemies. This was a quick level to design, and I simply thought it was a good idea, but most, if not all playtesters told me that they liked this screen in particular. Even though players had different levels of experience and different opinions on other matters, the one consistency between all of them was that they all enjoyed the eighth screen. I don't want to make more situations like this, as it will make them less impactful, but I will definitely try to take inspiration from it moving forward.
Like I said earlier, there are flaws with my level that I failed to consider during development. Although none being too terrible, flaws are flaws and I wanted to address all of them to make sure that my stage is the best it can be. From playtesting, I found that there are three things in my level that I need to fix: enemy numbers and placements, enemy variety, and amount of platforming.
1. Enemy Numbers and Placements:
It is obvious that one of the most important aspects about a mega man level is the enemies, therefore, it is necessary that enemy numbers and placements are fair and balanced. If too few enemies, the level will be easy and boring, too many, and it will be difficult and frustrating, the level designer must find a good balance to make the level fun, as well as keep that balance consistent throughout the entirety of the stage. This is a flaw for my level because it gets a bit too hard at times and that can take the fun out of it. While it may seem like a well balanced level for experienced players, the level is supposed to be an intro level, easily playable by new players. During the playtest, I saw new players and even some experienced players struggle on some sections of my stage. Although I don't want to make it too easy, me level needs to be easy enough for an intro level.
This will be a simple fix, but it will take a bit of time, as I need to move things around and experiment to see what works and to get my level to a suitable difficulty. I will delete enemies, move enemies around, many things to see what helps and what doesn't. Hopefully with enough personal playtesting I can get my level to a better difficulty.
2. Enemy Variety:
One of the coolest things about the mega man series is the fact that there are so many unique and diverse enemies. Will the huge selection, it seems like a crime not to include as many as possible, but when working with a theme, too many enemy types can dilute your theme and make a level somewhat confusing. I wanted to avoid confusion entirely and only used three different enemies. That, however, is where the problem occurs, as the lack of enemy diversity can be a little dull for the players. When playtesting, I received a few requests to add more types of enemies in my level, as the three enemies in the level get kinda boring by the end.
This seems like a rather easy fix, but I must be careful while fixing the problem. All that needs to be done is for me to find one or two more enemies and add them throughout the level. This is where I need to be careful, however, as I still want to maintain the western theme of the level and adding random characters can compromise that. I will find enemies that I believe still fit the theme and integrate them into my level.
3. Amount of Platforming:
Platforming has always been a big part of mega man levels, as Mega Man games themselves are platformers. Any good mega man level will have great platforming to go along with its theme and combat. When considering this, it is a clear mistake that my level only has one section of real platforming. In the middle of my stage, there are moving platforms that the player must jump to and from to make it across, and while it is a good platforming section, there should be more.
All that needs to be done to fix this problem is for me to add more platforming sections to my level. I do need to keep the difficulty rather low, so I will probably stay away from projectiles while platforming and keep enemy numbers to a minimum during those sections as well. The majority of my level takes place in a mine, so I can use that to make platforming, using rocks or mine shafts.
Completing these fixes will surely help make my stage better, both as an intro level and as a mega man level. I know that there is still more to improve and I look forward to the next playtest to reveal more flaws to fix.
Eportfolio Post 3 2/25/2020
On the final day of playtesting our DnD levels, I, again, had Shawn and Usume as my playtesters, with Shawn playing as a rogue and Usume playing as the warrior.
Like with the last time, I can confirm that the changes I implemented did help the map and the players had a more enjoyable experience because of it. Despite this, however, there were still things to fix in order to make my map better, more so because of the rule changes. As with the other playtests, there were three things about my dungeon that I believe went right. These include basic enemy stats, the size of the map, and the amount of items in the map.
1. Basic Enemy Numbers and Stats:
When people think about the most memorable part of their DnD battles, they will probably tend to focus on the boss fights. Huge boss battles may be very exciting and entertaining as well as the most memorable fights, but creating a good boss fight still shouldn't come before the basic fights. Although not as memorable, basic enemies are a vital part of any campaign, and if done incorrectly, can result in a boring or frustrating time. Considering this, I feel that my balancing of enemy stats and numbers was very good. Throughout the playtest, I noticed that enemies weren't too plentiful, and put up a fight without being tedious or frustrating to fight. Weaker enemies had more armor while stronger enemies were easier to kill. This seemed to keep the players engaged throughout the map which I feel is extremely important.
2. Map Size:
Like with the other playtests, it was recommended that each dungeon take 20 to 30 minutes to complete. This was a problem with my last map and I feel that the changes I made resulted in the level taking a perfect amount of time to play. When played through casually, it takes around 25 minutes. This is better than good, as the time restrictions can be met without players having to rush through the map or take extra time to get to 20 minutes. Even when players take time to explore and decide on moves or attacks, the map still fits the 10 minute gap. This is great for my map and I'm glad that the dungeon's final edition is a perfect size.
3. Amount of Items:
The final thing that I believe went right with my level was the amount of items. With all of the changes brought by the new rules set, items were made a big part of the game, so having a good number of them and having them be balanced is imperative. I wanted to make sure that items were useful so I made simple items like damage increasers just to make sure that players will want the items. I scattered them throughout the dungeon in various locations, and in every pathway to keep from the players picking a path that had no items.
That was all of the things that I feel went right with my map, but there were still things that went wrong with it. This map had two faults, being that the bosses stats were too high and that item uses weren't unique enough.
1. Boss Stats:
Even at the very start of a dungeon, most players know that at some point, most likely the end, they will have to fight a boss. This known fact can create tension and suspense during the level and players will be waiting to stumble into a huge beast. This excitement is very important, but can be for nothing if the boss isn't properly balanced. With all of the differences between the first and second rules sets, I did not know how to balance the enemies. I playtested a little bit and managed to get my basic enemies at a good spot, but I was far off when it came to the final boss. When looking at the changes, I decided to try out some of the new stats and give my final boss 8 attack, 10 defense, and 20 health. This resulted in a horrendous fight consisting of the boss and the warrior standing face to face and taking turns swinging at each other with seemingly no end. The defense of the boss was far too high and it would take a great role from the players and a terrible role from me to do even one damage. I even ended up reducing the boss's health to 10 during the fight but that didn't help, as it still took days for them to kill the boss.
This is, I believe, the most simple fix to a problem that I have had, as I either need to simply reduce the bosses defense, or give the players items that can boost their attack or reduce armor. With this change, the boss fight should reward the players excitement and suspense.
With the new rules, items are some of the most important things in your map, they have endless possibilities and can be used in a number of ways for a number of different situations. With spells now being replaced my items, you need to give players those items at the correct times in order for them to complete the same tasks that they did with their spells and abilities. Considering this, I did not do a good job in using the wide range of items to my advantage and my item usage in general was quite boring. As I mentioned earlier, I added items like damage increasers to help with fights, but those were basically the only items that went to use throughout the map. At the start of the map, players use the crown of escaping to get out of the prison cell, but outside of that, damage ups were the only really useful thing they got out of items. There were other items, but none of them were very useful or exciting. This made the game a little dull and it could have made fighting and looting a lot more exciting and enjoyable.
To solve this, I would need to change out current items for ones that are both useful and fun. The items must be good, but they can't break the game or make it too easy. Some of the items I could try would be a double-edged sword, that does a lot of damage, but you take some of the damage as a result, a rocket launcher that does massive ranged damage, but alerts all nearby enemies and can't be used at close range or else you blow yourself up, and Mario's shoes, that allows players to jump over pits and can be used to stop on enemy heads. I feel that items like these would make fights a lot more fun and it would create more memories for the players.
Eportfolio Post 2 2/18/2020
On the second day of testing my Dungeons and Dragons map, Shawn and Usume were again my playtesters, with Shawn being a ranger and Usume being a warrior.
I successfully fixed all of the problems with the level that arose after the first playtest, and the players could tell. They, too, believed that my map had improved and that it did a better job at teaching them how to play the game. Although my level had gone through a lot of change and had gotten a lot better, I still knew that there was more to work on.
From the playtest, I found that, like with the first playtest, there were a few things that went right with my map, as well as a few things that didn't go so well. The changes that I made resulted in more things that I feel really worked for my level, these include plentiful decisions, impactful decisions, and a good mix of open and narrow spaces.
1. Plentiful Decisions:
At the last playtest, I noticed that my map had a lack of decision making, which made the game less fun and affected the freedom of DnD in a negative way. I knew that this was one of, if not the, most important problem that needed to be fixed, so extra time was put into it, and I can safely say that my level is full of choices and decision making has gone from a problem to a positive about the dungeon. Decisions are riddled throughout the map, and several choices can be made no matter what path you take through the level. Obviously, which path you choose is a decision in itself, so I made sure that there were several points that had two or even three different ways to go, each with different pros and cons in order to keep the gameplay exciting and eventful. Decision making is a large part of why people play Dungeons and Dragons so i'm glad that I have made a map that really highlights that aspect of the game.
2. Impactful Decisions:
As I have said, choices are imperative to a fun DnD experience, but if these decisions have little to no impact on the outcome of the fight or dungeon itself, then it won't feel like you have any choices at all. Considering this, I put in extra effort to make sure that each and every decision the player was able to make had a sizable impact on the experience, and while not every decision will result in a massive change in the game, I do feel that each choice at least bears some importance. A couple of these decisions include sneakily moving past a goblin baby or killing it, which will wake adult goblins resulting in a fight, leaving a captured princess or fighting a boss to save her, getting said princess out of the dungeon or using her as a sacrifice to get passed the next boss, and of course, choosing which path to take, which leads to even more decisions to be made. I strongly feel that having these kinds of decisions make DnD more exciting and eventful and just add uniqueness that you can't find in other games.
3. A Good Mix of Open and Narrow Spaces:
Although this positive isn't as important as the others, I believe that my map's mix of narrow hallways and large, spacious chambers are something that my level does right. Enemies and decisions may carry more weight than how the map looks, but the design of the level itself is still important and can make the game less enjoyable if done incorrectly. Different sizes of rooms and halls are needed in different situations and a good level will use them appropriately. Having a big boss in a small hallway or having every path be huge simply doesn't feel right and it can take the players out of their focus on the game. I made sure that the level has a good mix of huge rooms for enemies and bosses as well as narrow paths and halls for traversing between rooms or for sneaky enemies to hide. Even though it might not seem too vital, I feel that the design of my level is good and that it makes the experience for the player more enjoyable.
After getting the major problems out of the way, I still found that there were some things wrong with my dungeon that needed attention. These problems were that my map was too long and bosses could be cheesed with straight hallways.
1. Map too Long:
This isn't as much of a problem with my map in terms of quality as it is quantity, as our playtesting sessions should be done within 20 or so minutes and that simply is not the case. Even when players go down the main, most direct path, an average game will take around 25 minutes instead of the desired 20. Considering that that is with the main path, if players choose to take alternate paths, which they typically do, the game will take even longer, at around 30 minutes. This may not be such a bad thing, but I want players to have the opportunity to get the full experience, and that involves making it through the entire dungeon while having enough time to do what they want. It won't matter if players can make it through the dungeon if they are constantly being rushed along, as that will just take some of the fun out of it.
This is an obvious and easy fix, as all that needs to be done is I have to shorten the map. While keeping the interesting fights and decisions, I need to make the map smaller and easily finishable within 20 minutes. All the problem requires is for me to sit down and brainstorm how to shorten the map while keeping important content.
2. Cheesing Bosses:
This is another problem that doesn't pertain to the map directly, but is a sort of defect that can make the gameplay less engaging. Leading up to both bosses, there is a long, open hallway that connects to the boss's chamber. The problem with this is that players can see the boss from the hallway and the ranger, mage, and rogue can safely shoot the boss from said hallway, as the bosses are too big to fit into the hallway. Although players might not do this because it isn't fun, other players want to win, and will use cheesy strategies to do so. When the fight is over, however, those players won't feel the same sense of accomplishment and the map itself will be less fun. Some people may blame the player for making the game less fun, but I believe that it is more up to the level designer to make sure that players can't do things like this and ruin their own fun.
Another simple, yet important fix, but there are many possible solutions to the problem. I can grant bosses the ability to squeeze into the hallway, but players might then feel trapped. I can also add a door before the boss room, but players can then just open the door, then return to the safety of the hallway. The only logical solution is to simply add a turn in the hallway just before the chamber so players are forced into the bosses lair and can't cheese the boss.
I can easily see that my map is now far better after the changes from the first playtest were implemented, but there is still more to be done. With each change and improvement made, my level gets better and better, and players have a more enjoyable experience playing my map. I am hoping that these new changes will make my dungeon even better and I can continue to improve.
Eportfolio Post 1 2/11/2020
When testing my Dungeons and Dragons map, I had two players, Shawn, who chose to be a mage, and Usume, a warrior.
During the playtesting of my level, there were several things that went right, as well as a few things that went wrong. Starting with the positives, I had three major aspects of the level that went right, being fighting tutorials, positive exploration space, and providing good scenarios to learn skills and spells.
1. Fighting Tutorials:
One of, if not the, most important things about playing DnD is understanding the attacking and defending mechanics. Since fighting is of such importance, it is essential that players are properly taught how to battle and given the opportunity to understand the mechanics in an easy and forgiving environment. Considering this, I feel that my level does a great job at forcing players to learn how to fight without being stressful or frustrating. To do this, I made a room just beyond the start of the level that contained one low level enemy, a rat. Players are forced to enter this room, as there are no other paths as of yet, and they cannot leave the room until the rat has been killed. This forced combat can be considered a skill gate as the only way to get passed is by figuring out how to fight and using that knowledge to kill the enemy.
2. Positive Exploration Space:
When thinking about how much freedom and openness comes with playing Dungeons and Dragons, it is almost insane to have that freedom confined to a single, narrow path. Multiple paths is a very necessary feature for any DnD level, but if those paths lead nowhere or are simply not worth the time and effort, that is a problem in of itself. Every path, including the main one, needs its own pros and cons while being balanced enough that players won't choose the same one every time. I feel that my map does a good job of providing multiple ways of traversing the level, and makes use of rewards and treasures to get the players in the mindset that exploring that dungeon is a good idea. There are many alternate routes throughout the map, and all of them provide something of worth, whether it be physical rewards, such as treasure, or non physical rewards like being able to skip out on a difficult fight. I feel that each path provides something and that there are no paths that purely aren't worth taking.
3. Learning Skills and Spells:
The last thing that I believe my level does right is that it provides good scenarios for learning about and using spells or skills. It is easy to make a map that doesn't require the use of skills or one that has routes to avoid using skills, but many will agree that a great map is one that does a good job of having players make use of skills and abilities without causing confusion or anger. My level does a good job of this and easily teaches several skills throughout the dungeon. Examples of this include walls that the players must jump or float over, chests and doors that require lock picking, and dark corridors that could be lit up. These scenarios force the players to learn skills and spells without putting them into stressful or boring situations.
On the other side of the spectrum, however, there are a few things about my level that could definitely use improvement. This includes map size, enemy stats, and lack of decision making.
1. Map Size:
As I had never played Dungeons and Dragons prior to the playtesting of levels, there were many aspects of the game that I didn't quite understand, one of which being how large that map should be. The map was big enough for players to have a fun adventure that lasted more than 10 minutes, but that squares and paths themselves were far too small, and even with small avatars, such as a dime, they were still too big for the map's tiny squares. Complications arose from this, such as not knowing exactly what square you are on, difficulty in moving 5 squares for a turn, and moving past another playing in a hallway being awkward.
This issue will have the simplest fix, as all I need to do is scale the map up. The original level was drawn on paper, so I took the liberty of buying a battle mat, so squares are already drawn out at 1 x 1 inches. Using the battle mat will prevent this problem from arising in the future and I feel that it was a good investment into making better maps.
2. Enemy Stats:
Without much knowledge of the game, I just had to try my best when it came to enemy stats. My assumptions weren't too bad, but they definitely were not perfect and needed improvements. Many enemies were too strong and turned what should have been easy fights into difficult ones. As well as that, there were also too many enemies for just two players and that is also in desperate need of adjusting. With this being a tutorial level, it is imperative that everything goes smoothly and that players can easily learn mechanics as well as beat the level, but with the current enemy numbers and stats, that just isn't the case.
Solving this problem will also be pretty easy, as it only requires that I reduce enemy numbers and stats, as well as doing some personal playtesting to make sure that the changes effectively fix the issue.
3. Lack of Decision Making:
The final thing that should be worked on for my DnD map is the pure lack of decision making. There are some decisions in my level, such as which path to take, and whether or not to engage certain enemies, but Dungeons and Dragons is a game based on role playing and freedom so having more player decisions is very important.
The hardest, but still somewhat easy, problem to fix, all that needs to be done is implementing more opportunities and scenarios in which players can make decisions. This just requires some brainstorming for good ideas of things to add to the map that require or allow decisions. Some of these things could include trails or sounds that players can investigate, fights or puzzles that have multiple solutions, or just adding more items that players can acquire and letting them decide how and when to use them.
From the playtesting and note taking, it is easy to see that my map has both a good start and foundation, and issues that need addressing. My hope is that implementing these changes and finding more ways to improve my map will make the game more enjoyable and help to push my dungeon to the next level.
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