We each made another 3D level from the Unity 3D Lite Kit, and here's how it went. The objective was still to only block out a level, but it was still fun overall. I was challenged in the layout because of how to add stealth into the level.
The playtests overall went alright with only a few issues. Everyone that played it said that it taught the mechanics to give the player a basic understanding of the mechanics of the level, but it wasn't a stealth level. Most people told me that they really liked my introduction to the level itself, and they also liked the first enemy introduction because it was taught right after you broke boxes, like in these examples.
What didn't work, for this playtest is the design of the level when I made this level I honestly didn't think to make side paths and really made my map feel super linear which is bad this time, so it makes a T this time which isn't as bad as a straight line. Really should have thought the right side through more.
My level's dislikes were mainly that it wasn't stealth and that it was very cramped. Players felt that I could have given the enemies more threat to them, also they always spot the player so that was the main complaint about lack of stealth. There was a game breaking bug where if you broke the breakable boxes at the start you could jump on top and jump out of the map.
One improvement I would want to make is about the length, My level has a good left side to teach mechanics, but the right side was rushed and didn't come out the way I wanted it too. I would love to improve the length of the right side and test the player's ability of movement and puzzle solving.
My level has good progression, but not enough material to progress through. Like I made a great tutorial left side of the map but got rushed on the right side. I could have had more puzzle sections to make sure that the player knew the basis of movement and puzzles, I could have had a secret for the player to discover.
I may have put too few enemies throughout the level, they weren't intimidating and they need to be placed more frequently to make the player avoid combat.
When playing through the level, there was a pretty clear critical path that players went on.
My overall flow of this level was with rooms that taught the player something when they progress through them like the first one was jumping, the second one was enemies, the third room moving platforms/switches, etc.
My level was medium length and linear, but I tried to get the basic teaching mechanics in there. This could mean a very boring level, but it depends on how you present these linear levels, and it seemed like others liked it for what it was, even without most of it being stealth.
For every person that played my level, a few of them asked me where to go at one part, because I didn't yell it at them when they pushed a switch, but other than that my playtesters knew exactly where to go.
I then interviewed Sam, one of my playtesters and asked him what I discussed above.
What went right?
The level even though it wasn't really stealthy, did teach the player the fundamentals in a very approachable way.
What went wrong?
I was able to get out of your map, but I chose to continue and play it to the end, lack of stealth elements, and more pathways.
Were the challenges presented appropriately to the skill level of the player?
There was an even distribution of enemies throughout the level, but if the level was longer you could have presented more difficult situations for the player to navigate through rather than fight.
Was it obvious where you were supposed to go?
It was obvious because of the signals throughout the level pointing to where to go next.
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