Making a co-op adventure in 8 weeks

Responsibilities

· Level Design

· Set Dressing

· Narrative

· Prototyping

Project specifics

Our brief stated that we need to make a casual co-op game. Initially this project had an 8-week pre-production phase in which another team prototyped the main mechanics. What we started with was a concept of a 2-player co-op game where the players could pick up objects or each other and then throw what they are holding at either an enemy or a pressure plate. The latter would activate the movable pieces which were doors, bridges and elevators). A design problem with this was that all these pieces were fundamentally the same. They were simply stopping the player from progressing further. Having a camera that couldn’t rotate or zoom in and out meant that we had to mindful of how we place the different areas. Not every angle was optimal for the readability. When I was designing the levels, I tried to put a twist to these mechanics by using them for combat as well.

Level 1

Level 1 was designed by 2 people — me and Ruben Spaander. We blocked out and play-tested each area separately. We picked the ones we liked and I made the macro blockout where we placed them based on difficulty and tension.

Since our 2 protagonists are lumberjacks and the whole story revolves around them and their village being attacked by the animals of the forest, the 1st level is set in the mountain towering over the village in the valley. The players start at the top trying to make their way through the enemies. On the way down they get to see the village twice — first it’s very far away and later it’s much closer and clearer.

This was our initial plan for the layout (V stands for the moments that have a view over the town). The final layout changed a bit so parts of the level will better fit the camera’s angle.

Here the composition for the town could have been better. I don’t utilize the rules of thirds well. The two trees on the top right frame the ending of the level.

This progressive disclosure helped narrative since the characters would say different things at each viewpoint and this was important for the pacing as well.

We knew that splitting up the players created exciting fresh moments so we created areas were players were split by fences or a death pit. We combined such areas near the end. They were followed by the last area in which they get back together so they feel strong again before going to level 2 and tackling new challenges.

These are areas 6 & 7 where the players get separated and cooperation becomes a lot more difficult.

We did lots of playtesting and documented it so both me and the other level designer could share the feedback and work on it.

Some of the set dressing is not there to only make the game pretty:

One player needs to drop the pot on the button. Since physics puzzles can be unpredictable I had to put custom collisions at each side of the button so the pot didn’t fall off of it. The set dressing here was placed based on the collisions.

The wooden logs that point to the right are there to guide the players to the alternative path at the top.

I really like to find a new use of assets. I scaled down some assets (rocks, wooden logs and a ladder) to create a barbecue party for this raccoon.

We also discovered that it’s fun to throw you friend to their doom. The level design philosophy was to support this kind of “bully” behavior. There’s plenty of spaces where players can throw each other in pits, water or in the middle of a group of enemies.

Level 2 (WIP)

Level 2 is set in the village that players got to see previously. The macro blockout started with me copying the terrain form level 1 so the scale and shape are the same as what was already seen. The level’s route goes through the whole town and ends at the start so players make a full circle. They go to an old area from a new direction.

Macro (left) & Micro (right) blockouts. The general layout and size of the town stayed the same.

Since Level 2 is set in a valley the terrain is flat. That didn’t mean that the level should be flat as well. There’s a lot of elevation changes.

Players get to play on some rooftops. They need to pass barrels to each other. The rocks are there to make this activity easier since play-testing showed that people weren’t very accurate with the passes.

Some small objects with physics on were placed on the bridge so players push them off in the river when they walk over them. This created a sense of height and danger.

The bridge over the river has some objects with physics on. The players push them around when they walk over it. This creates a sense of height and risk.

Every area has something different about it. On the rooftops players need to be careful with their movement so they don’t fall off. In the “arena” they had to use the bridge as a weapon (activate the bridge so barrels fall down on the enemies under it) and the doors on the cage were now a tool for trapping the big bunny enemy.

(Left) This was added so players would get a good overview of the arena they were about to enter. (Right) This is the overview of the arena.

Level 2 couldn’t be finished on time unfortunately. Hopefully the team agrees to work on the game again so we can publish it. Here you can try Level 1, a hub level and the tutorial level:

Lumberjacked