PROCESS DEEP-DIVE: Lemon’s Journey
This page is separated into three sections, and each covers my approach to:
Creating the Game Idea
Defining Game Mechanics and Logic behind Puzzles
Designing and Iterating on all the Level Designs to Ensure Difficulty and Learning Curve
Initial Concept and Inspiration
Since this project was part of a university course, I was presented with a specific challenge: select three emotions from the emotion wheel and design a game where gameplay effectively conveys these emotions to the player. Conveying three distinct emotions simultaneously in a gaming experience is a challenging task. Typically, games focus on evoking a single key emotion, enhancing it through gameplay, environment, lighting, and sound design.
However, I found this challenge fascinating because of its direct connection to the player's experience—a fundamental aspect of game design. I believed it was an opportune moment to refine my game design skills and explore the complexities of creating multi-emotional player experiences, so I eagerly accepted the challenge.
One day, while preparing salad sauce and cutting a lemon, a curious thought crossed my mind: 'What if a lemon had emotions? What would make it angry, and what might scare it?' As I glanced at my lemon squeezer, I noticed its shape bore a resemblance to spikes often seen in traditional 2D games when viewed horizontally. These seemingly unrelated elements began to connect uniquely and intriguingly in my mind.
I decided to sit down and develop the early planning of the game concept, establishing four pillars as the foundation:
A game focused on three emotions: Serenity, Rage, and Fear.
Distinct character behaviours under each emotion: Each emotion would dictate the character's actions.
Player immersion in these emotions: Players would experience these emotions alongside the character through gameplay.
Emotion-triggering elements: Specific in-game objects, such as the lemon squeezer, lemon slice, and polluted ground, would evoke emotions in the character (e.g., rage, serenity, and fear).
These pillars laid the groundwork for the game's concept. In the following section, I will delve into the details of game mechanics and how these game mechanics seamlessly fit into the rules and logic of the puzzles.
My lemon squeezer and the spikes in one of my favourite games, Mega Man Powered Up
Game Mechanics and Puzzle Rules
I opted for the 2D puzzle-platformer genre for several compelling reasons. Firstly, puzzle games are renowned for their intricate and demanding design challenges, and I relished the opportunity to explore this genre. I believed that creating a puzzle game would not only stretch my creative abilities but also push the boundaries of player engagement. Secondly, the structure of the university course, spanning three months and providing two playtest opportunities, was ideally suited for developing a puzzle game. The extended timeframe allowed for meticulous level design and the incorporation of valuable player feedback. Given the iterative nature of puzzle design, these playtest opportunities were invaluable in refining the game.
These three points are what I would follow in order to fit the game mechanics into a puzzle game.
Have Few Simple Key Mechanics: Embracing simplicity in mechanics was crucial. By starting with a limited set of mechanics and gradually building complexity, players would be presented with progressively challenging puzzles. These mechanics would serve as the building blocks of the player experience.
Mechanics with Limitations: I designed the mechanics with deliberate limitations. This decision encouraged players to discover how to use them in specific sequences strategically. By introducing constraints, the game promoted creative problem-solving and required players to think critically about their actions.
Clear Goal-Oriented Design: The game adopted a clear goal-oriented approach. Players were presented with a well-defined objective, allowing them to focus on 'how to achieve' rather than 'what to achieve.'
Building upon these principles, here's a breakdown of the game mechanics in my puzzle-platformer:
Player Movement: The player's movement is intentionally simple, controlled by basic WASD and SPACE inputs. Jumping is limited to a single, fixed height. This design ensures that players can quickly grasp movement mechanics, allowing them to focus their attention on solving puzzles without being overwhelmed by complex controls.
Box Mechanic: Boxes are central to introducing complexity in the levels. When the character is in a state of serenity, they can only push the boxes. In a state of rage, they can exclusively smash the boxes. Vertically stacked boxes can be pushed together, but if they will block each other horizontally. This design choice compels players to carefully and strategically manage their character's emotional states as they interact with these critical elements.
Emotion Bar: The emotion bar serves as a vital indicator of the character's emotional state, much like a health bar in other games. It not only reflects the current emotional state but also enables situations where the character may interact with elements that push them toward a different emotional state. This transition occurs when the pointer moves to a different area on the emotion bar.
Lemon Squeezer: Lemon squeezers are unique elements in the game that can shift the emotion bar toward the red side, influencing the character's emotional state.
Lemon Slice: Conversely, lemon slices can move the emotion bar toward the yellow side. However, they are consumable objects.
The character can push and stack the box in serenity mode. This action allows players to reach higher places, rearrange the boxes in the level and even more.
The character can destroy boxes in rage mode. This action allows players to clear obstacles, change the amount of boxes to their need and even more.
These mechanics have been meticulously designed to work in harmony, allowing for the creation of engaging and challenging puzzles. To illustrate how these mechanics come together, let's explore a specific level as an example, showcasing the core and consistent puzzle logic underpinning the game.
Adhering to my principle of clear, goal-oriented design, players are always presented with a complete view of the level. In the image above, the destination, where the character must reach to progress to the next level, is readily visible. Additionally, checkpoints serve as visual markers, breaking down the level into distinct segments. This immediately guides players in the first step of their journey – identifying the straightforward objective.
Once the goal is clear, players shift their focus to 'how.' The game consistently challenges players with two critical tasks: determining the route to specific areas and devising how to reach those points. For instance, in this level, the potential route that appears to reach the checkpoint is through the purple-light blue-pink areas. However, players quickly realize that the jump height isn't sufficient to leap directly from the purple area to the light blue one. This is where players must strategize using the available boxes throughout the level, leveraging the character's different emotional behaviours.
It's essential to remember that boxes can facilitate the character's ascent to higher ground. Therefore, the current objective becomes finding a way to position a box in the yellow area. With the three boxes on the left unable to be pushed together, given that horizontally adjacent boxes obstruct each other, players must isolate one of them and move it. Notably, there's a nearby lemon squeezer that incites anger and some lemon slices that can restore serenity.
In essence, the game consistently challenges players to decipher the level design, requiring them to identify feasible routes for completion. In more demanding levels, like this one, it further tests players' ability to logically utilize the character's distinct behaviours to rearrange the boxes as needed. For a visual demonstration of how to execute this solution in-game, refer to the accompanying video.
Iterating Level Designs
In this section, I am going to demonstrate and explain all the level designs after countless amounts of changing, and reworking based on my observation during playtests.
As the level designer of this project, my primary responsibility is crafting engaging levels and meticulously controlling the game's difficulty curve. This latter aspect is especially vital in the realm of puzzle games. As underscored in the GMTK video about What Makes a Good Puzzle?
“No puzzle is given to the player in isolation.”
To me, a well-structured difficulty curve not only enhances playability but is also the bedrock of the ongoing conversation between developers and players. It's an expedition of discovery, where players gradually uncover the intricacies, possibilities of game mechanics, and the nuances of level design with each 'Eureka' moment. Consequently, each level and challenge within must serve a purpose, offering players more than just obstacles to overcome.
During the iterative process of level design, I adhere to a golden rule, which I keep at the forefront of my mind:
Introduce Approach Challenge
LEVEL 1:
As the first level of the game, its role is to introduce players to the game's objectives and instruct them on basic controls.
Introduce: In this level, I acquaint the player with the destination, basic movement controls, and jump height. I also introduce the fundamental concept of using boxes to access higher platforms.
Approach: Players are guided to utilize boxes for ascending to higher platforms. This essential usage of boxes is emphasized to instill in players the mindset that boxes are their go-to solution when elevation is needed.
Challenge: This level primarily serves as a learning experience without significant challenges.
LEVEL 2:
Level 2 is designed to acquaint players with the unique behaviours and rules governing multiple boxes. Players learn that they can push vertically stacked boxes, but the same doesn't apply to horizontally stacked ones. This fundamental mechanic adds complexity that will reappear in numerous later levels.
Introduce: In this stage, players are introduced to the rule that multiple boxes can be pushed only when they are vertically stacked.
Approach: Players are guided on how to stack boxes vertically and utilize these stacks to reach higher platforms.
Challenge: This level primarily serves as a learning experience without significant challenges.
When introducing a new game mechanic for the first time, my approach is to make the experience as seamless and natural as possible. For instance, in Level 2, players smoothly and naturally encounter the mechanic of being able to push vertically stacked boxes while being naturally prevented from doing the same with two adjacent boxes. This approach ensures that players grasp the new mechanic without the need for extensive tutorials or explanations.
LEVEL 3:
Level 3 introduces two essential elements: polluted ground, which players must consistently avoid, and the checkpoint and rewind system. Additionally, it serves as a training ground for jumping and mid-air control, crucial skills to prevent errors at more challenging levels.
Introduce: Players become familiar with polluted blocks, the checkpoint and rewind system, and the ingenious use of boxes to cover polluted areas.
Approach: Players are encouraged to utilize boxes for both elevation and covering the polluted ground, mastering the dual purpose of this versatile mechanic.
Challenge: While Level 3 doesn't present significant challenges, it does serve as an opportunity for players to hone their jumping and mid-air control skills, particularly for those less familiar with 2D platformers. This preparation is invaluable for navigating more demanding levels in the game.
LEVEL 4:
The objective of Level 4 is to consolidate and reinforce the player's grasp of previously acquired knowledge and skills. This level serves as a comprehensive review, encompassing both "using a box to cover polluted ground" and "using a box to reach higher ground." In contrast to earlier levels, where the route to the destination was evident and required minimal contemplation, Level 4 presents a new challenge. It's the first level where players must independently locate an available box far away and push it to its required position for successful completion.
Introduce: No new elements are introduced at this level. It solely reinforces previously acquired mechanics and concepts.
Approach: Players are encouraged to approach the level with a broader perspective, leveraging their accumulated knowledge and skills.
Challenge: The primary challenge in this level revolves around mastering the art of stacking boxes. While this may initially seem straightforward and similar to previous levels, it proves to be a more intricate and demanding task, requiring careful planning and execution.
LEVEL 5:
In Level 5, several new mechanics take center stage, introducing players to the emotion bar, rage mode (which alters box interactions and inverts player inputs), and lemon squeezers. These new elements all converge on one central theme: the ability to destroy boxes.
Introduce: This level serves as the introduction to the emotion bar, rage mode, and the role of lemon squeezers in the game.
Approach: Players are encouraged to grasp the potential of rage mode as a tool for breaking boxes, thereby creating new pathways or reducing the number of stacked boxes. This introduction adds fresh problem-solving tools to the player's pocket.
Challenge: While Level 5 doesn't present significant overall challenges, the inverted movement control during rage mode can be tricky for a minority of players, as indicated by playtest feedback.
LEVEL 6:
In Level 6, the last new game element, the lemon slice, is introduced. This level also completes the introduction to the full function of the emotion bar. It allows players to experience the advantages of switching between different emotions within the same level. This level marks the conclusion of the linear phase, encapsulating all the fundamental techniques involving boxes, such as pushing, stacking, and protecting against polluted ground in serenity mode, as well as breaking them in rage mode.
Introduce: Level 6 introduces players to the utility of the lemon slice.
Approach: Players are guided to employ the lemon slice to transition back to serenity mode after experiencing rage. Additionally, they will learn to increase the serenity value to absorb damage from lemon squeezers without transitioning into a rage.
Challenge: This level maintains a relatively low level of overall challenge, as its primary purpose is to reinforce previously acquired skills and understanding of game mechanics.
Indeed, the first six levels predominantly serve as tutorials rather than posing significant challenges. The puzzles within these levels are intentionally linear and straightforward. As outlined in the puzzle logic discussed in Part 2, these early levels provide clear and easily navigated pathways, eliminating the need for players to decipher intricate level designs independently.
The deliberate linearity is intended to establish a solid foundation and train players in the game's fundamental mechanics. It ensures that players are well-prepared to tackle more concealed and complex level designs in the upcoming stages, where they will encounter more significant challenges.
LEVEL 7:
Level 7 represents a notable departure from the preceding linear levels. Here, players must employ an element of puzzle-solving and rearrange the boxes to determine their own route, moving away from the linear progression previously presented. A key aspect of this level lies in the red area in the picture, where players encounter the need to reverse the direction of box pushing. This seemingly simple concept may pose a challenge, as player observations during playtests have indicated.
The level also encourages players to decipher the intricacies of the level design and determine the required emotional state for overcoming specific obstacles. For instance, the blue area features two adjacent boxes, prompting players to discern the need for box isolation and subsequently figure out how to activate rage mode to achieve this.
Introduce: Level 7 introduces players to the concept of box isolation and non-linear level design, signifying a shift away from linear progression.
Approach: Players are encouraged to employ the technique of reverse box pushing, realizing that in this game, the direction of pushing plays a pivotal role, as there are no "pulling" options.
Challenge: The primary challenge in this level revolves around the need for players to independently identify the optimal route to the destination.
LEVEL 8:
This level takes the concept of reverse thinking to a new level, presenting players with an even more intricate challenge. The red area in the picture builds upon the reverse box-pushing technique introduced in Level 7 and is a new way to isolate a box: if two vertically stacked boxes are pushed, and the bottom one is obstructed, players can isolate the top one. This mechanic forms the foundation for Level 8's challenges. Another notable feature of this level design is the placement of polluted ground, which subtly foreshadows the positioning of the box.
Introduce: a new way to isolate a box:
Approach: Players are encouraged to continue employing reverse box-pushing techniques as they navigate this level.
Challenge: Level 8 significantly raises the bar for player problem-solving, pushing them to think in innovative ways to isolate boxes while maintaining the reverse-thinking mindset cultivated in previous levels.
LEVEL 9:
Level 9 is strategically designed to provide players with a much-needed "break." Drawing inspiration from feedback on the r/puzzle Reddit community, it becomes evident that puzzle gamers appreciate having occasional easier levels interspersed between more challenging ones. These "breaks" not only boost player confidence but also provide a brief respite from intense problem-solving, allowing the tension to ease.
In Level 9, familiar tricks and techniques from previous levels are employed in a more straightforward and evident manner. Players who apply their knowledge and understanding of map element reuse and reverse box pushing will find this level relatively uncomplicated.
Introduce: Level 9 doesn't introduce any new mechanics or elements, allowing players to focus on applying what they've learned in previous levels.
Approach: Players are encouraged to combine and utilize the skills they've developed over the course of their journey through previous levels.
Challenge: The primary challenge in Level 9 revolves around identifying the optimal route to the destination and making wise use of map elements.
LEVEL 10:
Level 10 stands as the penultimate challenge in the game, demanding players apply all their accumulated knowledge and understanding within a fresh context. This level also adds a novel experience by starting the player in a rage mood. Amidst a complex level design that necessitates contemplation of potential routes, Level 10 unveils a new trick - utilizing boxes to bridge gaps.
Introduce: No new mechanics or elements are introduced at this level.
Approach: Success in Level 10 requires a comprehensive grasp of stacking, pushing, and isolating boxes, bringing together various game mechanics.
Challenge: A test of both puzzle-solving and precise movement control. Players must possess a profound understanding of all game mechanics, coupled with the recognition that boxes can be employed to bridge gaps.
LEVEL 11:
Level 11, the final and most formidable challenge in the game, serves as the ultimate test for all players. It compels players to think one step ahead, meticulously analyzing the level design and weighing each move with care. This level unites and amplifies all the tricks and techniques introduced in previous levels. Additionally, players must exhibit precise emotional control, as a single misstep on the lemon squeezer can lead to failure. Undeniably, Level 11 is demanding for all, but witnessing some players successfully conquer it is truly gratifying. Their ability to navigate this level signifies a profound understanding of all game mechanics and signifies the completion of Lemon's Journey.
Introduce: Level 11 refrains from introducing any new mechanics or elements, challenging players with the amalgamation of previously encountered tricks and techniques.
Approach: Players must deploy all their accumulated skills and insights to conquer this level.
Challenge: The primary challenge in Level 11 is the mastery of identifying the optimal route and executing it flawlessly.
Abiding by the "introduce, approach, challenge" guideline has been instrumental in shaping the direction of these levels. Even though this version of 11 levels has been redesigned, improved, and changed many times. It's important to note that perfecting puzzle game design takes years, and the work our team has accomplished in just three months is far from flawless. However, this project has been a tremendous learning experience, providing valuable insights into game design and level creation. I've gained a better understanding of how to elicit valuable feedback from playtests and address real issues.
For instance, in the initial playtest, there was no checkpoint system. In the second playtest, I introduced a save and load feature that allowed players to save their progress at any time manually. However, this system proved problematic, as many players forgot to utilize it, resulting in frustrating replay experiences. In response, the third version replaced the save and load buttons with actual checkpoints and related changes in level design, greatly enhancing player engagement and overall enjoyment of the game.