In my Level Design I course at UT Dallas, I designed a 2D sidescroller level using the 2DGameKit in Unity.
Name of Level: What Goes Down Must Come Up
Setting: A dark, damp, and quiet cave in which the hero wants to escape and return above ground.
Design Goals
- Feelings to evoke on player: easy going at the beginning, but feeling a sense of challenge as the player progresses. I also want the player to feel accomplished at the end of the level.
- Theme of level: Trapped
- What is special about this level is that the player interacts with two types of crates: normal and acid crates. Acid crates are immune to acid, while normal crates dissolve and re-spawn.
Mechanics: The primary mechanic in this level is to push and stack crates on top of other objects (such as pressure pads, other crates, or acid). Crate stacking is crucial in this level as the level cannot be completed without pushing crates on top of other objects.
As seen above, I designed the level to teach players that pushing crates is crucial in progressing from one area to the next. Pressure pads open doors, but the 2D Game Kit allows the player to interact with pressure pads. I found this freedom problematic for my level, so I designed around this problem by making the ceiling above the pressure pad and the corresponding crate significantly low to where it would be impossible for the player to jump over the crate and skip the mechanic. After the player takes advantage of what it learned and completes the two hardest platforming challenges involving stacking crates and the acid pool, I reward the player for its efforts by ending the level with a simple review of the box-pushing mechanic.
NanoSharkGames 