So I found that I really liked the testing area that I produced to, well, test my mechanics. I've decided to evolve it into a small, Metroidvania style hub world which will serve as a basis to teach the player given mechanics in a way that allows them to learn them individually and understand how they work prior to having to use them in conjunction with one another. This will allow for new players to quickly get the ropes so they are able to move on to the main level, which is where the focus is going to be.
The hub world does essentially act as a somewhat linear tutorial stage, where after passing through portals and completing smaller, mechanic specific sections, they will unlock that mechanic and consequently a new part of the stage, eventually leading to the main level.
As for players falling off of the world, instead of having them actually fail I will likely have them teleport back to the last checkpoint they hit.
Expanding on the "checkpoint" system, I am going to make that manual - i.e the player has to light a torch or something at the end of a segment - this is to help break up the game play a little bit, as I intend to include so environment based puzzles also. I believe this will also add to the feeling of progression for the player.
Visuals
I've also found an asset pack that I'm going to be using for at least the bulk of the hub world - Infinity Blade: Grass Lands. It can be found on the Epic Store. As you can see below, I've begun to implement it into the current blockout and am about half way through the basic stuff. I'm aiming for a floating ruins type of aesthetic here, hence the current lack of external geometry and padding around the environment.
Player Affordance
Along with producing this hub world, it was time for me to decide how different mechanics are going to be afforded to the player.
For the wall run, I've opted to let the player know that they can only run across vertical wooden planks that are attached to the wall. This allows me to limit the places that the player is able wall run and thus avoid them abusing the mechanic to get into unintended locations as I found this to be an issue during play testing. This has and will allow me to fine tune the wall running even further throughout the remainder of the level design.
Grappling will be limited, as I don't want it to be something that the player can easily do when falling to save themselves. I have made it so that the Grapple can only connect to tagged actors - However I am currently unsure how I am going to go about visualising it. The red boxes you can see throughout the blockout overview screenshot at the top of this post represent grapple-able points.
Fourth Mechanic - The E-Grid
I've decided on my fourth and final mechanic for the player, although it isn't something that the player inputs. Currently named the E-Grid (or the "edit grid", for lack of a better name, this grid will change the functionality of player mechanics slightly as the player passes through or interacts with it. It looks akin to the "Material Emancipation Grill's" from the portal franchise.
For example, when passing through the grid, the players grapple length will increase for the next shot. Passing through a grid will only affect the next ability once and they must pass through another one to edit their next move.
I am also toying with the idea of having one that has somewhat negative affects, like impeding the distance of a wall run, but this is something I will come back to later in the project as it would make an already ambitious project, with now potentially now 6 mechanics, into one with 9+.
Next post I will be getting a little more technical, as well as also coming back to the "Rule of the Rings" (see my last post for context) to explain better how I intend my mechanics to interact.
Hint: it will probably be long and will probably turn into a picture book of visual scripting.
Thanks for reading!
Trav.
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