Designing levels

Hi there, "Out of Liners"!
Last time, we talked about a new rope mechanic and showed some photos from the team!
This caused an avalanche* of letters from the fans begging us to stop trying to be funny and stop showing our faces. Most of them said they wanted to see more about game development and less about what our desks look like.
Well, THEN. OK, "FANS"! We will stop trying to be funny and act more serious from now on. Except for that one fan that asked for more photos of Genebra, but also asked for them to be sent in private? Argh. Just no, ok? NO.
*two

So, this week we decided to focus more on level designing and less on team photos. Specifically more about level design.

A game is nothing without proper game design and level design, and to get there things must be tried, tested and constantly changed. A good designer knows when to listen to feedback and implement it back in the game. That's why it's so very important to not take your own ideas and designs too personal. Clinging to a concept or idea because "it's yours" without listening to what your team is saying can actually ruin a design or even an entire game. Of course it's also important to know how to take an opinion and use it wisely.
As an example, and because we don't want to spoil the game, let's focus on a key area from the Vertical Slice that we showed last year at Lisboa Games Week 2018.

Out of Line at Lisbon Games Week 2018

This section is right at the beginning of the current Vertical Slice*
There are three jumps that the player needs to make. Also, each hole has rocks passing through them.
It shows to the player that he can just jump over each hole, by timing his jumps just right. But if the player is smart and learned the initial lessons well, he will use the spear to create an extra platform so its easier to jump. Ultimately, if the player is really smart, he will figure out quickly he can just clog the top pipes with the spear so that they stop spiting rocks.

*A Vertical Slice is a completed section of the game that shows how the game will look when it's finished. It normally also includes all final game mechanics.

Original drawing that includes the first version of the jumps and rocks section

When we showed the Vertical Slice at Lisboa Games Week 2018, we noticed a slight problem. The 2D platforms, even though they are 2D, they are drawn as if they had perspective. This caused a problem for people timing their jumps. Almost everyone thought they could walk much further than what they actually could, which meant they would always fall before hitting the jump button. The way the art was drawn actually induced player error so we had to fix it.

Changing the art made no sense. Every other puzzle, gameplay section and overall design looked good, played well and nobody complained, but getting the right amount of physical area for people to jump was tricky. Too little and San would usually fall to his death, too much and San would appear to float on air.

Jump section with rocks falling

The decision was simple, we would allow a bit of "coyote time" for all platforms. "Coyote time" is the notion that, in a platformer game, if you jump a little bit too late, the jump still works. This is particularly evident in endless runner type games. Canabalt achieves this by having the player's hitbox actually 8 to 10 pixels behind the visible sprite.
Implementing it was not hard and it was just a matter of testing how much "coytote time" we would allow San to have. In the end San has 80 milliseconds where he can still make a successful jump.

Coyote time. Notice where the shadow disappears

This is one way to safely jump across

A smarter way is just to straight clog up the pipes

Thanks for everyone for following our dev-adventures.
Remeber to check our Twitter and feel free to send us some messages, except for the person that asked for Genebra's photos, please stop.
Bye-bye, French fry!