Level design. How hard can it be?

This is a tricky topic. And definitely one of the most important aspects of a videogame - especially in a platform game. Naturally, for a game like Out of Line, the level design is definitely an important subject.

The first step, it’s always the hardest one. Basically, the two main questions are: what are the game core mechanics and how are they shown in the level design? After a little brainstorming session with some colleagues, I made (probably) the most important decision for Out of Line level design. The puzzles and the level design should highlight the core mechanic of the game - San’s spear.

For me, creating a puzzle is a process divided in 3 stages. First, finding the mechanic to explore, next, creating rules for that particular mechanic, and finally, establish the consequences of the interactions with that mechanic. If you can do achieve this 3 topics, well… You can make a puzzle (if it’s good or bad, that’s a different subject).

For Out of Line, my early process was to sketch a couple of levels. These very first ones are aimed to produced the game vertical slice, that (hopefully) will highlight the potential of Out of Line puzzles mechanics*.

Above: It might seem like a simple thing, but, drawing a level in millimetric paper is really a good process. Hey, if Nintendo did it, why not do the same? After all, we are just learning from the best.

So far, we are trying our best to give a fun time on San getting through some of the (hopefully) awesome levels in Out of Line!

*you might now be asking, “why not draw the tutorial first?”. Well, its much easier to draw a tutorial, after knowing HOW we are going to explore the game mechanics in further levels.