Level Design - Tutorial Level
DUNCAN & THE WISP: TUTORIAL LEVEL DESIGN
Tutorial levels exercise a lot of design skills, so I really wanted to challenge myself and create one that was fun and exciting enough to keep the Player engaged as much as possible. I wanted to pace this tutorial level out in a way that was not intimidating but also not bland or boring to leave the Player uninterested. Finding this balance required a lot of thought toward how and when to hit the Player with events that would keep them engaged, as well as bringing everything they have learned together in one exciting/rewarding finale for them to experience.
Some of the best tutorial levels are the ones you don’t even realize are tutorials. This was my attempt at designing such a level for the Player to experience.
The level was first designed on a piece of paper just to give myself the opportunity to play the level out in my mind first before even opening up the editor. Once this was done, I was able to get a clear idea how I wanted the Player to feel throughout their time in the level. I wanted them to feel curious throughout most of the level, but also not entirely safe. Balancing their curiousty and hesitation against each other, I thought would be an interesting approach in keeping the Player interested, but also challenged with the thought of “Am I going to get through this?”. Maybe this is a hard sell, but it was worth giving a shot.
Rough sketch-up of the Tutorial level’s design, event triggers and pacing.
The tutorial level also required a piece of narrative to help guide/teach the Player the game. I could have had the character just walk around talking/narrating to themselves out loud the entire time, but I personally feel that this is a cheap or lazy way of teaching the Player things. There needed to be something extra here that hides the fact that I’m teaching the Player.
So, in order to better communicate direction/guidance for the Player, I designed a new character named Wisp. This is a character that is freed by the Player after learning first how to interact with objects and is then followed by Wisp throughout the level, learning the context in which the game is taking place—the where, who and what everything is. This introductory prototype of Wisp seemed to resonate well with Players because it took away that thought of “What if I get lost or don’t know what to do?”, the new character Wisp is their comfort to feel that they are not alone.
Player freeing Wisp in their first instructed interaction.
Player discovering their Staff with Wisp to soon learn how to combat enemies.
The tense nature of this event was intentional so that the Player can practice what they have just discovered and retain that information in an exciting scenario of feeling the need to escape the cave in before it’s too late. The falling debris will not harm the player, nor can they die from the cave in itself. I felt that this would be too frustrating/difficult for a player who has just learned how to play the game. Instead, I’ve set triggers throughout the cave in that spawns a few enemies, while also triggering SoundFXs and falling debris to continue ramping up the intensity.
Wisp has some functionality to him though, he emits light in darker areas, will fly toward items of importance and flee the area whenever the Player is attacking enemies (primarily so that he is not in the way). Wisp is primarily the narrative force that drives the plot forward while also giving guidance to the Player so that they are never entirely lost.
After the Player frees Wisp from his prison, the level continues to a room where the Player discovers their staff and learns how to click on enemies to attack and perform combat. Following this area is a shield the Player can obtain to then learn how to heal themselves whenever taking damage. Then finally, the Player reaches near the end of the level at a chasm, which triggers an event of dozens of skeletons being summoned surrounding the Player and Wisp.
This is where the Player then learns how to Dash across gaps, leading to an exciting finale of the cave around them beginning to collapse on top of them. This exciting conclusion allows the Player to apply all of what they’ve learned throughout the level; as enemies continue to spawn around them while the camera shakes and debris falls all around them.
Player surrounded by enemies is introduced to the Dash ability. Introducing this ability in this context communicates to the Player that they can use this ability to not only traverse over gaps, but also evade enemies.
As the level comes to an exciting close, the Player was appreciative of the fun narrative banter between Wisp and the Player, communicating to me that they were hooked in for the adventure. This, in my opinion, was a huge success for me at taking a first pass on a tutorial level and look forward to building off from this to keep the Player hooked as they continue on with their adventure.
One final note toward my design on this level I would like to mention is how I intentionally kept the UI elements hidden, with the exception of the Mini Map. This was intended so as to not front load the Player with too many UI elements at once without any working knowledge toward how they operated.
KEY THINGS I WORKED ON:
Create NPC asset and scripted AI functionality to identify items of importance and evade when Player is attacking enemies
Designed Level layout, blocked out the level and scripted events
Create a Narrative System with smooth animations for dialogue boxes to pop in and out on the screen
Design all events and effects such as the cave-In event, enemy spawn effects, Wisp glow/tail effect, etc.
Edit all soundFXs and music to fit the events and items they were tied to
Design atmospheric effects such as fog, lighting bugs, debris, etc.
Environment art such as set dressing and performed multiple lighting passes to communicate mood/tone