Level Designer & Creative Director

FALL 2021 - FALL 2022

open world - starting area (cut content)

After the unfortunate cutting of the hub world, the game was settled upon having one slightly-bigger level. This level would feature multiple paths and deemed “open world.” The world was split into three chunks and I was given the left hand side to Design. This side contained the starting area of the game.

The goals - starting areas

  • Create a quick and easy tutorial.

  • Create the “Set-up” and “Hook” of the game.

  • Introduce the player to the Pogglewonks.

  • Easy and low risk.

research

When researching for this level, I took a lot of inspiration from the previously cut hub level. For that level I had done research on many hubs & tutorials from the Mario series. Much of that research still applied, as I was working on another early section of the game, and still implementing the game’s tutorial.

A very key difference between the two is that this is no longer an isolated level in the game, but instead connected directly to our open game world. With that in mind, I instead opted to research the early levels and starting areas of 3D Platformer levels.

references

mechanic glossary

  • Fruit that can be picked up and fed to a Pogglewonk. Once a Pogglewonk is fed it will allow the player to jump on its back for a jump boost.

  • Bird-like NPC character

  • An icky substance which is polluting the land of Pogglerock. The player must use their water gun to wash it away.

  • A player activated scan ability which will highlight all pollution in an area.

starting area - initial design

When beginning this task, I was already given a premade starting area which I would have to transform into something much better.

I would need to keep the path the same, however, due to the fact it would be connecting to another designer’s area.

As I previously worked on the hub level, I already had a general idea for what I wanted to do for this starting area. Luckily the goals for both areas are somewhat similar, which allowed me to pull from my previous experience and utilize it in a whole new way.

Pulling from the defunct hub world, I shrunk and reused the plan for teaching players how to jump. A low risk platforming challenge which will easily allow players to retry until they eventually succeed.

Once past the platforming section, I wanted to capture that open feeling. The landscape is similar to that of the hub world, seen in the circular paths. These paths are to give players the sense of exploration and openness I desired.

The player would clean this area and follow the collectibles to the next section.

This version of the starting area got the feel and landscape down, however, there was still much work to be done through iteration. Many of our goals were yet to be met.

Time to iterate

Now that we had our core landscape and the idea behind what this area is shaping towards, after receiving feedback from the team and playtesters, it was time to go for another pass.

starting areas - iterations

The first area to touch up on was immediately after the platforming tutorial. We wanted this to be a big reveal and bring you into the open world. We also needed to once again require players to learn how to clean pollution. I took a page out of the previous hub level’s book and created a pollution wall to not only restrict sightlines, but also act as a tutorial.

Another goal was to have a meaningful first interaction with the Pogglewonks. Our previous version did not accomplish this. To mend this problem, I came up with two solutions.

The first was making use of a new mechanic in the game, which was “Dirty Pogglewonks.” Effectively, the Pogglewonks would have pollution on them, causing them to panic. The player can then clean that pollution. This mechanic being used as the first interaction helps solidify that you are on this planet to help these creatures. This is where we start the player’s attachment towards them.

The second solution doubled as another tutorial. In the game, there is an interaction where you feed the Pogglewonks. This would then allow you to be boosted up to a higher platform. The initial plan was to teach this later on but through playtesting, we realized we needed to do this sooner.

This interaction proves to bring players closer to the Pogglewonks. Playtesters would often let out “Aws” when feeding them. I did find another problem where playtesters wouldn’t understand the Pogglewonk would boost them after being fed. To fix this issue, I implemented a second Pogglewonk which would show the player you can be boosted, by being boosted itself. This solution proved to work flawlessy.

The final issue I would find, is that the hook of the game did not have the impact I had hoped for. I needed something to “Wow” the players.

Through playtesting, players had a very impressive reaction to our scanner mechanic. I realized utilizing that mechanic right after the wall would prove to give us bump in engagement we need.

REFLECTION

The Starting Area proved to be an immense challenge. I had to fit a lot of content into a very small space. At the end of it’s development cycle, this area hit every goal set for it, and exceeded my own expectations. We managed to pull the “Wow” from the players, and get them invested into the Pogglewonks. While also teaching them how to play the game within minutes.

This area was cut in future releases of Pogglewonks over the team’s shift in focus to create a more linear experience in our final semester.