Dry, Drought Desert
& this time I show off 100% o’ the level.
Not much to say ’bout this level that isn’t already shown in the video. I already showed off this “Adventure Island / Land o’ Capitalism” gimmick in a much earlier post.
Actually, the hardest part ’bout this level, designwise, was balancing the # o’ gems it gives you so that varying rankings o’ success — merely beating the level, being able to reach the diamond, getting the gem score — have a certain ’mount o’ difficulty. I tinkered with adding a gem here & taking ’way a gem there as I practiced this level & found it too hard or too easy to do certain things. This is s’posed to be a 1st-cycle level, so I want it to be easy to beat, but mo’ challenging to get the gem & time challenges. Since you’re able to make it to the goal with barely mo’ than the 1,000 needed to get the gem challenge — but much mo’ than needed to beat the level normally — hopefully I succeeded.
As I show in the video, you don’t need the secret 1,000 gems in that alcove on the wall to beeat the gem challenge. In fact, it’s probably better to not go for it, since if you don’t you’ll probably beat the time challenge in the process, whereas going to get the secret gems takes extra time. You also don’t need it to get the diamond, since that’s easier than getting the gem challenge; I just wanted to use that run as a ’scuse to show off the secret gems. That’s meant simply as a way to reward those who take the risk to explore & make beating the level e’en easier, since it is s’posed to be a 1st-cycle level.
O’erworld
Since I don’t have much to say ’bout the level, maybe I could talk ’bout this, ’stead.
I haven’t programmed anything yet, but I have done some design:
As shown, the map cycles toward the center, cycling through the level themes: city, forest, mines … factory; city, forest mines … factory. I plan so far is that when you beat a level some event happens that allow you to proceed to the next — the most common being some solid tiles turning nonsolid.
There are still a few questions & problems I need to puzzle out. For 1, there’s the need to balance space: as the cycle goes farther in, the amount o’ space shrinks. That requires me to balance the inner cycle so it’s not too crowded gainst the outer cycle so it’s not too open. Already I think I’m having trouble with this since e’en with all the padding space used in the outermost cycle, I don’t think the city, forest, & mines sections go far ’nough. ( Remember, in all the levels in the 1st cycle must encompass the whole o’ the outer ring, since that’s where it transitions to the 2nd cycle. )
I’m still not sure if I want the level layout to be linear level-to-level. It seems ol’ fashioned & o’erly limited; but @ the same time, I do want to have some progression. 1 idea I had was to have “warp zones” in the form o’ secret exits in some levels that create paths farther down into the cycle.
