CAGD 270 - Mega Man Level v1

CAGD 270 - Mega Man Level v2 - (3/20/23)

• The five players that play tested through my level seemed to really enjoy the new and improved sense of direction that was clearly fresh and updated. What definitely went right with my updated level was the difficulty between the enemies and the player roaming through the area. They liked how it was not that easy to go through the level without dying a few times. What went wrong with my level was that a few players mentioned that the secret key to open the very last door needs to have a redefined path so the player does not skip it and would have the die to actually go back and get the key. Something I would improve is to add in a few more parkour sections because the players really enjoyed the falling platform areas where they would have to jump to reach a checkpoint. Something else I would change would be the animated background. A player mentioned that the animated background may be a bit too distracting while there is also enemies hitting you, it can cause lots of distraction. Another player mentioned that the Picket Man enemy could be a little better placed since a couple of times the player would be stuck on the ladder while getting hit by pickaxes and also possibly other enemies through the walls. It was an issue for players since Picket Man does have a large range and players would be stuck trying to go up a ladder but losing health over time. A player mentioned that it does not feel rewarding just being hit over and over trying to go up a ladder.

Saloon Area going up ladder while being hit by axes

• The challenges were appropriately presented to the players and they were all able to distinguish very quickly what each tile, enemy and health packs would serve towards the gameplay. The  The critical path was very obvious for all the players and much more cleaner compared to the version one concept of this level. The overall flow of the game was very clean and everything went well as far as what players would be stuck on and try to battle through enemies to reach checkpoints and unlock certain doors. The players did like how the enemies were placed to make each area unique and have its share difficulty. I did like how the parkour area was one of the harder tile areas to go through and seeing the players actually make the jumps surprised me and I would have definitely added more of that since players did enjoy it a lot.

Falling Tile Parkour Area

• There were a couple of circulation elements that were used on my level which were mainly ladders and doors to open. It was very obvious where the players were supposed to go to reach the ending of the level except where the last key was to open the last door, the players were able to skip that but not able to jump back up to reach the key to open the door. There would just have to be a new redefined pathway so the players are not able to skip the ladder which reaches a secret room with the key for the last door. Something I could add is probably blocking off that certain area so the players are forced to go up the ladder to the secret room and be able to continue forward down. They will then be able to reach the last door towards a new different pathway, but not losing its overall main critical path. Something I can also add on would make the ending of the level to be a little more challenging so it can build up more playtime and does not make the level feel short if the player is skilled enough to speed run through it.

Reaching the last door to end the level but not being able to go back to reach the key from the secret room.

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CAGD 270 - Mega Man Level v1 - (3/6/23)

• Out of the five people that played my map, what definitely went right was them being able to finish the map successfully. What went right as well, was the enemies pushing them back and fighting back to slow down the player. Another thing that went well was the placement of checkpoints in the map. What I noticed went wrong was that the players were struggling to find a sense of direction and try to find which way they are actually supposed to go. The parkour that the players mentioned was a little too easy and when a player entered an area, they could not go back and would have to keep moving forward. Another thing that went wrong was that the map was too short to complete and much more can definitely be added to the original ending. Something else that went wrong was that some of the enemies were phasing through the walls and I should most likely switch up the enemies so they do not go flying through the walls to another area.

Mega Man Area 1

• Something I would definitely improve with my map is the sense of direction and having the player go solely in one direction and improve the difficulty of the parkour jumps. Possibly adding some falling blocks to use as parkour jumps would be a good idea to add. Another thing I can improve is the placement of enemies since I did have an issue where one of the enemies was going through the walls and I had no control over that. So I can possibly change the enemy or position it a little better. One more thing I could improve on would be to tone down the quicksand and falling blocks at the beginning of the map since the player goes right into those traps once they start the level. The challenges were presented appropriately to the skill level of the players since it was a tutorial level and it was not very hard for the players to go through. The main challenges they had to encounter were mostly gimmicks like quicksand, falling blocks, and breakable objects so they had a sense of what they were going to play with. 

Mega Man end of tutorial level

• The main critical path was semi-obvious for the players that playtested but not exactly to my liking. A couple of players ended up going backward at one point and that should happen on a mega-man level, which needs to be fixed. I currently have two main paths to get to the end of the level which definitely needs to be reworked and have a little bit more of a critical path for the players. The overall flow of the level was pretty fair and went pretty well. The main part that disturbed the flow was the critical path, but for the most part, the enemies translated well towards all parts of the level.

Mega Man ladders movement with enemies

• As far as circulation elements to move around the map the main circulation would be the ladders. There were also lifting platforms where the player would stand on a block and it would lift them until they jump off the block. The ladders would go through each area of the levels, but they would just have to try to avoid the enemies shooting the player. As the designer of the map, it seemed pretty obvious where the players were supposed to go, but after seeing through five people playtesting it, it can definitely be reworked since the main critical path was difficult for the players to find. At one point I had to guide one of the players that they were headed in a backward direction since it was hard to tell which way would be forward progress.

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